Nielsen Prepares for Next-Gen PPM Roll Out

From September, Nielsen will begin placing approximately 3,000 newly designed Portable People Meter (PPM) wearable audience measurement devices with a subset of its nearly 60,000 active PPM panelists, as part of plans to modernize its panels and improve panelist experience.

Originally developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations, TV and cable TV stations, the PPM is worn like a pager and detects hidden audio tones within a station or network's audio stream, logging each time it finds a signal. The new wearables feature an updated, smaller design and offers a choice of wristbands, clips and pendants. In addition, a new companion app has been developed to help improve communication, encourage participation and enable data transmission when the device is outside the home.

The devices have been through a series of tests including lab, focus groups and dual-carry testing that measure how the wearables detect codes versus the current PPM among the same panelists.
Top line findings from the subset of panelists will be shared in Q2 2022, with the full rollout of PPM wearables in new panel households planned for the second half of 2022.

Mainak Mazumdar, Nielsen's Chief Research and Data Officer, says the launch is part of Nielsen's efforts to drive broader adoption among existing and new panelists, and increase engagement among 'more challenging' demographics. He adds that the 'next-gen' wearable PPM metering will serve as foundational support for Nielsen ONE, a cross-media solution designed to deliver a single, deduplicated metric for total media consumption across TV, digital and audio.

Web site: www.nielsen.com .