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Nielsen and Arbitron Push for Apollo Completion
Partners Arbitron and The Nielsen Company have formed a company to oversee the completion of 'Project Apollo', the single-source, national research service based on the former's Portable People Meter system and the latter's Homescan technology.
The service was officially launched a year ago, and is designed to provide advertisers with a better understanding of the connection between consumers' multimedia exposure, lifestyle, and actual product purchases. Data is gathered from a pilot panel of more than 11,000 US consumers living in 5,400 Houston, New York and Philadelphia addresses, equipped with product scanning technology. Los Angeles is the next target for rollout.
The project already has buy-in from household brand names such as Kraft, Pepsico, Pfizer, P&G, Unilever, SC Johnson and Wal-Mart. Speaking at last week's BBM Canada conference, Joan FitzGerald – who leads the sales and development efforts for the Arbitron side of Project Apollo – reported planned expansion in 2008, saying the service: 'will soon give marketers a richness of information that just isn't currently available.' Fitzgerald predicts that the panel size will double or triple as part of the planned expansion.
This week's agreement covers the completion of development and testing of the service and the expansion of the pilot panel to a full national service if test results meet expectations.
According to Susan Whiting, Executive Vice President of The Nielsen Company and Chairman / CEO of Nielsen Media Research: 'Project Apollo has been well received by the seven charter advertisers who are helping us develop the service. Together, our companies and our charter supporters in the advertising industry will work to make it the most advanced marketing research service of its kind.'
Project Apollo has a separate web site at www.project-apollo.com .
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