Nielsen, Arbitron Form LLC for Project Apollo

Arbitron and The Nielsen Company announced today that they have signed an agreement to form a jointly owned limited liability company that will govern completion of the development and testing phase of the Project Apollo marketing research service.The company will also plan the expansion of the pilot panel to a full national service if the test results meet expectations and generate marketplace support, according to Arbitron.
The proposed Project Apollo service would use Arbitron’s Portable People Meter system, ACNielsen Homescan technology and other technologies to provide advertisers with a better understanding of the connection between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behavior.

The 11,000 panel members in 5,000 households are being given incentives to carry the PPM, a small, cell phone-sized device that collects the volunteers’ exposure to electronic media sources and the commercials broadcast on them: broadcast television networks, cable networks, and network radio.

Consumer exposure to other media such as newspapers, magazines and circulars is being collected through additional survey instruments. Data on consumer preference and purchases for a wide range of services and products is also being collected, via ACNielsen’s Homescan technology - which tracks packaged goods purchased - and by means of additional surveys.

Seven advertisers are members of the Project Apollo Steering Committee, a group of marketers who have signed agreements for the Project Apollo pilot panel data.

The pilot panel is intended to help advertisers understand the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behavior, and to measure the return on investment for marketing efforts.