Pilot Panel Of The Arbitron/Vnu Single-Source National Research Service.

Arbitron Inc. and VNU announced that Unilever United States – which spends approximately 600 million dollars for advertising on measured media – has signed a subscription agreement to the pilot panel of ‘Project Apollo,’ the single-source, national research service based on Arbitron’s Portable People Meter (PPMSM) system and ACNielsen’s HomeScan technology.

Unilever is one of six advertisers and who, along with their advertising agencies, are members of the Project Apollo Steering Committee, a select group of marketers who have signed or are in the process of signing agreements for the Project Apollo pilot panel data. In the aggregate, these six advertisers spend more than $6.2 billion for advertising on measured media
“Maximizing the value of our investments is critical to Unilever, and we anticipate that Project Apollo will help us better understand the complex dynamics of consumer behavior,” said Noreen Simmons, director/Strategic Media Planning, Unilever U.S. “We believe a deeper understanding of how our consumers are impacted by our media and marketing activities will enable us to build more effective communication plans.”

Arbitron and VNU announced in May 2005 that they would deploy a pilot panel of more than 6,000 households as a demonstration of the ‘Project Apollo’ national marketing research service which would collect multi-media and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.

The pilot panel will be designed to show advertisers how ‘Project Apollo’ would enable a better understanding of the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behavior. The pilot panel will be designed to give advertisers the ability to estimate and quantify the top line revenue growth that could be achieved using Project Apollo. The pilot will also showcase the enhanced ability of the ‘single-source’ marketing research service to measure the return on investment for marketing efforts.

The pilot panel for the national marketing research service will consist of approximately 14,500 participants in 6,250 households, providing, for the first time, multi-media exposure and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.
These individuals will be given incentives to voluntarily carry Arbitron’s Portable People Meter, a small, cell phone-sized device that collects the volunteers’ exposure to electronic media sources: broadcast television networks, cable networks, and network radio as well as audio-based commercials broadcast on these outlets and on additional media. Consumer exposure to other media such as newspapers, magazines and circulars would also be collected through additional survey instruments.
Data on consumer preference and purchases for a wide range of services and products would also be collected from panelists, via ACNielsen’s Homescan technology, which tracks packaged goods purchases and by means of additional surveys, both conventional and electronic. Data would be collected in aggregate form to provide a holistic understanding of participants’ media interactions and their resulting shopping and purchase behavior.