'Project Apollo' Demise Blamed On Lack Of Financial Support: Arbitron

"Project Apollo's" demise came principally from advertisers' unwillingness to continue paying for it rather than any dissatisfaction with its progress, Arbitron's top executive said Tuesday.

The venture's failure this week was a blow to the company, which invested $25 million in it over the last two-and-a-half years. Arbitron was developing the would-be force in ROI measurement--which held the potential to determine how exposure to media influences purchase behavior--along with Nielsen. (Arbitron said the setback will not affect its PPM rollout schedule for radio ratings.)

Seven advertisers served on the venture's steering committee. Arbitron CEO Steve Morris said not enough marketers from the full client base "were willing at this time to make the big, long-term financial commitment that we required to support a national expansion." He declined to comment on specific marketers' feelings. Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble and Kraft were reported to be among the participants.

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"Clearly there were people who were disappointed in our decision to stop this, but they understand that we needed a certain critical mass of support--and that critical mass wasn't there," Morris said.

Speaking to investors the day after "Apollo's" demise was announced, Morris said quality was not an issue, as the venture generated some "extraordinary" preliminary research papers and other insight. Instead, he indicated that some companies did not have all the resources for research they would like.

"Everybody would agree we're on the right track here, it's just that price/value curve--how much information, how usable, how readily monetized would it be. (That was an issue) for a company that would be facing a multimillion-dollar investment in this research," he said. "Could these dollars substitute for some other dollars? I think, generally, the feeling on that was 'no, they couldn't.'

"(It) was going to be incremental on top of other research dollars that (companies) were already spending, so it became this question of price/value. I don't think anybody would say the value was zero. Everybody would say there was value there."

Publicly traded Arbitron, along with Nielsen, had been developing a pilot since 2005. The end-goal was billed as a "single-source media and marketing research service." It was to take advantage of Nielsen technology that measures purchase behavior, and Arbitron's Portable People Meter that gauges electronic media exposure. A January 2006 test included more than 11,000 people and 5,000 homes.

Morris said Arbitron will still pursue the development of measurement systems in the vein of "Apollo." "We intend to continue investing money to further develop our opportunities, although in the near-term at lower levels than what we've been spending on 'Apollo,'" he said.

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