Arbitron and VNU Announce Apollo Pilot

Arbitron Inc. and VNU have agreed to deploy a pilot panel of c.14,500 participants in 6,250 households by the end of this year, as a demonstration of the 'Project Apollo' national service collecting multimedia and purchase information from US consumers.

Panel participants will be incentivised to voluntarily carry Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM), while additional survey instruments would collect information about their exposure to other media such as newspapers, magazines and circulars. This would be used alongside data on panellists' preference and purchases for a wide range of services and products, collected from, via ACNielsen's HomeScan technology.

The pilot will be designed to show advertisers how 'Project Apollo' will improve understanding of the link between multiple media advertising exposure and consumer purchases, and how it should improve their analysis of ROI. The companies say it should also enable advertisers to estimate the top line revenue growth possible from the Project.

Arbitron President and CEO Steve Morris says the pilot will 'provide advertisers what they have been asking our two companies for: a means to magnify the effectiveness of their marketing efforts as well as a way to quantify the improved return on investment that Project Apollo can make possible. Through the pilot panel, marketers will be able to see that the behavioral-based marketing targets Project Apollo can devise would be substantially different and yield better decisions than what they are using today'.

Both Arbitron and VNU have emphasized that this service will be separate, distinct and designed very differently from any service for TV and radio ratings. The companies are online at www.vnu.com and www.arbitron.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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