The digital revolution has ushered in an unprecedented era of measurability, letting firms test and track consumers' reactions and engagement with new media devices. This has lead to audience
measurement becoming a very competitive sector these days, as many companies seek to measure the connection between media exposure and consumer behavior. One new company called Integrated Media
Measurement Inc. has started measuring what consumers listen to and see via cell phone. The start-up implements software that helps phones take samples of nearby sounds that are identified by
comparing them against a database. Using this technology, IMMI tracks consumers' exposure to CDs, DVDs, video games, sporting events and portable media devices. The start-up plans to answer several
unanswered audience measurement questions, including: How often are TV shows watched outside the home? Which songs prompt listeners to change radio stations? Which movie trailers get viewers to go to
the theater? The firm hopes advertisers will be able to use the information to understand whether their promotions are working in more depth. But there's plenty of competition, especially from
Arbitron, part of the old guard of audience measurement, along with VNU's Nielsen Media Research. Arbitron gives consumers a tiny special-purpose gadget called the portable People Meter which attempts
to measure how consumers engage with different media. It argues that audio sampling doesn't work because it's full of inaccuracies. IMMI's phone samples monitor usage continuously, reporting back to
the company every 30 seconds. The firm is backed by $14 million in venture capital funding and has a client list that includes Disney unit ESPN.
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