Arbitron and VNU Sign up with Wal-Mart for Project Apollo

The USA's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores yesterday signed a subscription agreement for the pilot panel of 'Project Apollo,' the single-source, national research service based on Arbitron's Portable People Meter system and ACNielsen's Homescan technology.

The retailer will also join the Project Apollo Steering Committee, a group of seven advertisers who, with their advertising agencies, are advising Arbitron and VNU on the design of the Project Apollo service. These companies are also gaining early insights into the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behaviour.

“We are looking to Project Apollo as an innovative research service that will help us understand how multiple touchpoints of our media strategies work, including traditional vehicles and obviously our own store communication touchpoints,” says Ramon Portilla, Director of Communication Insights, Wal-Mart Stores. “We want to tap into Project Apollo's ability to help us reach consumers with more relevant messages through the ROI optimization of our unique touchpoints, to ultimately improve shopping experiences and sales results.”

Linda Dupree, executive vice president, Portable People Meter New Product Development, Arbitron added “Thanks to Wal-Mart's participation on the Steering Committee, we expect we will be better able to develop Project Apollo into an even more valuable and robust single-source research service.”

Arbitron and VNU have deployed a pilot panel of more than 5,000 households as a demonstration of the 'Project Apollo' national marketing research service, which will collect multi-media and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.

The pilot panel is designed to show advertisers how 'Project Apollo' will allow a better understanding of the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behaviour. The pilot panel for the national marketing research service consists of approximately 11,000+ participants in 5,000 households, providing, for the first time, multi-media exposure and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.

The companies can be found online at www.arbitron.com and www.nielsenmedia.com

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

• ACNielsen US
• All news