This is the real bottom line of the personal people meter, and the future of radio. (It was also announced on TV last night the Neilson would soon start reporting the audience size/demo for the commercials in a program, rather than for the program itself.) Your show will be only as good as the results from the ads that run in it. How many tubes of prep-h did you sell today. I have seen the future -- and it's ugly.

(copied from today's R&R)
Wal-Mart Signs On to Project Apollo
Oct. 26, 2006
By Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

SOURCE: Mediaweek.com


Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, has signed a subscription agreement for the pilot panel of Project Apollo, the national marketing service being developed through a cooperative effort of Arbitron and VNU, the companies announced Wednesday (Oct. 25). Wal-Mart joins six other blue-chip advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Pfizer, Unilever, Kraft, and SC Johnson.

Project Apollo combines Arbitron’s portable people meter system and ACNielsen’s Homescan technology to provide advertisers with measures of multi-media exposure and consumer purchasing behavior from a common sample of consumers. In January, the two companies deployed a pilot panel of 11,000 participants in 5,000 households, which will run through mid-2007.

In addition to participating in the pilot, Wal-Mart will also join the other six advertisers as a member of the Project Apollo Steering Committee, who, along with their advertising agencies, are advising Arbitron and VNU on the design of the Project Apollo service. In total, the seven advertisers on the Committee spend more than $6.8 billion in advertising across measured media.

“We are looking to Project Apollo as an innovative research service that will help us understand how multiple touchpoints of our media strategies work, including traditional vehicles and obviously our own store communication touchpoints,” said Ramon Portilla, director of communication insights for Wal-Mart, which spend $600 million annually on measured media.

VNU is the parent company of Radio & Records.

So if Project Apollo is successful, will they then go to Mars?

Ms. Danner....(Joan of Arc)..would you mind dropping me a line at danm356@yahoo.com? (Ladvenue)

Wow, this is a sea change for sure. Maybe there is an upside?

This means being in place should drive some killer ADS as the investment can be more directly tied to a return! I'm kidding, but maybe the program will just become the AD!

Project Apollo was initiated in 2004. It has been scaled down considerably from the initial vision due to budget. One proposed joint venture between Nielsen and Arbitron involving follow up usage of the ppm technology was never consummated. It also appears that their "touchpoints" do not include internet considerations except for video and audio streams.

(compiled from net sources)

This probably won't stop people from arguing the effectivness of ratings though. Consider that this devise can measure what you were tuned to, but not whether you were paying attention to the damn ad! You could have been taking a leak, or making a sandwich, etc. Also, this may bring back the "time check brought to you by" style of mixing banners with content more.

Bring back?

Man, on TV and on radio to a slightly lesser degree, those things are everywhere.

I know what you mean, and I should have been clearer. There are lots of sponsorship "mentions", yes. I meant we might see more focus on live ads being read during content, or a banner sponsor of a show that's in the title (As in Mutual of Omaha, etc). Those are the things we don't see much today.

('yer Bob Co. top of the mornin' post, brought to you by Bob Co.)

KNRK has added some of those things. I think the ADS are recorded still, but some are voiced by station staff as of late.

Like those. Less distracting. Almost never tune away from them.