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PPMs - The New Fashion Trend?
VNU/AC Nielsen and Arbitron -- the 2 largest ratings services in the world -- are partnering up on a new ratings product called "Apollo". Its goal? To begin measuring total exectronic media exposure in real time. Not just radio or TV. Any electronic media where ads are sold. Moving billboards, bus sign boards. All with the still-developing "personal people meter" - a wearable device sample recruits keep with them at all times to measure beyond the traditional ratings from locations (by memory) such as at home, at work and in the car.
Memory won't matter because the digital device will pick up the electronic code it "hears" for you (within a reasonable listening area around the wearer).
Here is why it is a big deal: First, ratings no longer will be driven by top-of-mind recall (where the most "active" brand station is "remembered" for listening usage and written down in a diary -- mostly days after the fact of the actual listening time). Secondly, it will also capture "background" listening/viewing that goes beyond what a person actually chooses to consume in electronic media. It will also measure what is being "forced" -- part of the 7,500 advertising messages a day every day that bombard us.
By the Fall, the Apollo project expects to have more than 14,000 people wearing their devices, measuring electronic media usage. In a way, they are the new, the real, pop culture trendsetters. Because the Apollo project is going to pull the advertising/ratings world (finally) into the 21st century. And completely change the way advertising consumption has been measured and sold. Which makes both media buyers and media sellers just a little bit nervous...
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, May 03, 2005,
