Wal-Mart Stores has signed on to Project Apollo to study its own in-store media network and its $600 million in traditional advertising.
The retail giant joins Project Apollo—a collaboration between research firms Arbitron, Inc. and ACNielsen, with seven major advertisers—to tap its pilot panel of 5,000 U.S. households measuring the impact of advertising on sales.
Last week, Wal-Mart signed a subscription agreement for the panel service that combines Arbitron’s Portable People Meters and ACNielsen’s Homescan tools to track the correlation between a consumer’s exposure to ads and purchases.
Wal-Mart will track its in-store marketing outlets, as well as its $600 million in measured ad spending.
“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 Wal-Mart’s Director of Communication Insights Ramon Portilla in a statement. “We want to tap into Project Apollo¹s ability to help us reach consumers with more relevant messages through the ROI optimization of our unique touchpoints, to ultimately improve shopping experiences and sales results.”
Wal-Mart also could use the data to sell its in-store network to manufacturers.
“We are interested in seeing how the Apollo Project can help advertisers better understand the impact of in-store media as we continue to push the boundaries of this emerging medium with our new network for 2007,” said Wal-Mart Director of Internal Media Networks Mike Hiatt in a statement.
The fledgling measurement service tracks panel members’ media consumption across multiple channels and their purchases to measure the impact of marketing messages on sales. Panel members carry one of Arbitron’s Portable People Meters, a cell phone-sized device that collects information on the panelist’s exposure to TV, cable, radio and audible online ads. (Surveys add data on newspaper, magazine and circular ads.) Panelists use ACNielsen Homescan scanners to record all CPG purchases, then submit additional purchase data via survey.
As part of its subscription, Wal-Mart joins the Project Apollo Steering Committee, whose members include Kraft, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and Unilever.
Separately, Wal-Mart is one of four retailers (and six manufacturers, led by P&G) on board for a national test of PRISM (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric), a measurement system that compares in-store media to traditional advertising. The goal is to show the reach of in-store vehicles in terms that media planners can understand (November PROMO 2006). PRISM’s planned first-quarter 2007 test includes P&G, 3M Co., Coca-Cola Co., Walt Disney Co., Kellogg Co. and Miller Brewing Co. as well as Albertsons, Kroger, Walgreens and Wal-Mart, and was organized by The In-Store Marketing Institute. A spring 2006 test in 10 stores set the methodology.
The group needs to sign a research firm (to handle the data, and make the system commercially viable) before the next test can begin. Plans call for a four- to six-month test in geographically diverse stores; the service should launch shortly thereafter, positioned as a new industry standard that suits most retail formats and product categories.
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