I-COM worldmeasurementnews

WFA survey demonstrates spread of consumer-centric holistic measurement

The WFA (World Federation of Advertisers) writes: The WFA today made public the results of a global audit of existing consumer-centric, holistic measurement initiatives. The audit, the first of its kind, was designed to provide an overview of global progress in this area. It follows the high profile termination of Project Apollo in the US.

Results show that 9 (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, UK and US) of the world's seventeen biggest advertising markets now have an initiative in place. Of the remaining 8 countries, 6 said they felt that the ‘time was right' to begin their own initiative.

The results have fed into a new website (www.wfablueprint.org), designed to help encourage new initiatives get started around the world. The beta site re-states what advertisers want from audience measurement as outlined in the WFA's Blueprint for Consumer-Centric Measurement. It will support advertisers' goals with case studies from existing projects and ‘starter packs' developed for markets looking to launch their own initiatives.Said Ian Gallois, Global Media Director, Wrigley and Chairman of the WFA's Media Committee, "The challenges now being faced by advertisers make the WFA Blueprint even more valid today than it was three years ago. The progress being made across the globe is a positive sign for the whole industry. This website will be critical to tracking where we are and driving further projects."

Said Stephan Loerke, Managing Director of the WFA "This work represents the beginning of a collaborative industry effort to tackle this challenge that affects us all: Media owners, agencies, advertisers, market researchers and consumers alike. Contributing to this global living knowledge-base will help new projects get off the ground and help improve the approaches of established initiatives."

Arbitron, Nielsen Scrap Apollo Project

AdAge.com writes Arbitron and Nielsen Co. have pulled the plug on Apollo, one of the most ambitious, expensive and heavily hyped market-research programs in history.

Apollo aimed to determine once and for all how exposure to a wide variety of media and marketing tactics influence purchases by tracking consumers' combined media and purchasing habits in a single-source database.

In and out of home
The effort used Arbitron's Portable People Meters to track a wide variety of media exposure in and out of home among member's of Nielsen's household panel, who scanned all of their purchases. But although the service attracted seven major package-goods backers -- most notably charter client Procter & Gamble Co. -- Apollo was unable to win sufficient client commitments to foot the substantial cost of a national rollout.

Arbitron and Nielsen sank more than $45 million combined into the program in the form of losses and upfront investments, based on financial disclosures by the publicly held Arbitron, which owned half the joint venture. That includes what Arbitron Chairman-CEO Steven Morris said on a conference call Feb. 14 would be a $4 million charge for his company's share of the costs to shut the program down.

P&G, the client at whose urging Apollo was initiated, was believed to have fronted another $20 million to launch it in 2005, according to one person familiar with Apollo. A P&G spokesman called that number "way high," but declined to specify the contribution.

"We respect the decision," the P&G spokesman said, "but we're disappointed Project Apollo will be discontinued, and we remain committed to finding new methods to help us make effective and efficient consumer-centered media decisions. We had seen encouraging benefits from Apollo during our involvement, but we were still in the process of making our final decision."