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Apollo Pilot Extended
Arbitron and Nielsen are to extend the pilot period for their joint venture Project Apollo into the first quarter of 2008, to allow more time to demonstrate its benefits and to develop data delivery procedures. It was previously scheduled to complete this year.
First announced more than three years ago and officially launched in early 2006, Apollo aims to enable a better understanding of the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping / purchase behavior; and to provide a superior measure of ROI. The national pilot panel includes more than 11,000 persons in 5,000 households and results go to seven charter supporters whose annual spend for advertising on measured media tops $6.8 billion. The seven are Kraft, Pepsi, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson, Unilever and Wal-Mart.
By extending the pilot, the partners will gain time for more tests of the PPM system's commercial detection capabilities and of recent multimedia enhancements. Improved data delivery systems will also be trialled.
Earlier this week, the partners announced they had reached agreement with four major US radio industry firms, to add audience data for commercials broadcast on their network and syndicated programs to the project (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7416.htm ).
The companies' home pages are at www.arbitron.com and www.nielsen.com.
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