• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 3, 2005

A potentially revolutionary media and marketing research system took a step closer to reality Monday when Arbitron and VNU announced plans to deploy a pilot test of their so-called Project Apollo system in 6,250 households by year-end 2005. The pilot, which will reach a sample of 14,500 individuals in those households, is designed to demonstrate to marketers what kind of return they can expect to receive in terms of improved marketing insights from the pricey new measurement system.

Plans for a pilot, first reported by MediaDailyNews (March 25), are a response to marketers who asked to see a sample of what Apollo could deliver before committing high, seven-figure fees to support the rollout of a national sample. The system, which combines Arbitron's portable people meters with VNU's ACNielsen scanner system, originally envisions a sample of 30,000 households and 70,000 people, with costs estimated to be well in excess of $100 million.

While the system--which could measure the ads consumers are exposed to and their effect on product sales--has piqued the interest of marketers, only one, Procter & Gamble Co., has committed to support a rollout to date.

"Through the pilot panel, marketers will be able to see that the behavioral-based marketing targets Project Apollo can devise would be substantially different, and yield better decisions than what they are using today," said Steve Morris, president-CEO of Arbitron in a statement released by the companies on Monday. In a separate statement, Arbitron advised shareholders that deployment of the pilot would cause Arbitron to have relatively flat earnings for full-year 2005.

The pilot test announcement was made jointly by Morris and Susan Whiting, president-CEO of VNU's Nielsen Media Research unit, and executive vice president of VNU's Media Measurement & Information Group. Interestingly, VNU's Nielsen unit has so far been loath to move forward on a separate joint venture option to launch an audience measurement service utilizing Arbitron's portable people meters.