• by Paul Gough , July 14, 2003

Arbitron wants to close a loop between media and the ka-ching of the cash register. And it hopes that the evolving Portable People Meter will do just that.

Since early last year, Arbitron has tested the PPM in and around Philadelphia, with a 1,500-member panel and 90 media outlets in the market, including 49 radio stations, 11 broadcast TV stations and 30 cable-television channels. While it continues to test the system and analyze the data, the company is currently finding new ways to use the PPM. Its latest: Building a national marketing panel that takes the PPM and fits it into a system that Arbitron says will link media exposure to consumer behavior, store traffic and product purchases.

Arbitron's plans for a national marketing panel will not only include the radio and television usage tracked by PPM but also information from newspaper and magazine readership, the scanning of purchased products and perhaps out-of-home media viewership not tracked by the PPM.

"In effect, it will capture the consumer's entire media day," said Joan FitzGerald, director of new product development at Arbitron.

FitzGerald said that most media research takes the traditional approach, measuring in chunks like 18-49, 25-54 and so on. The national marketing panel using PPM attempts to bridge the gap between traditional demographics and the advertisers' customers. FitzGerald said there's a direct link to media exposure and product purchases.

"It's the key to advertising effectiveness and improving an advertiser's return on investment," she said.

The marketing panel trial involves asking respondents to scan product purchases, integrating third-party databases with panel information and using the PPM technology in the retail-store environment. The retail stores would employ the same inaudible code that enables the pager-sized PPM device to pick up and register radio or TV signals, using it to record signals from the in-store audio or video impressions. FitzGerald said. Retailers will be able to track when customers entered their stores, how long they stayed, and how frequently they visited. This, along with other data, would link media exposure to store traffic and product purchases.

"Our customers can understand how their heavy purchasers use media, how their light purchasers use media, and how they would ... advertise better to those light purchasers to drive more sales," FitzGerald said.

For a planner or buyer, this kind of data could measure exactly how many GRPs it takes to drive a customer to the store and help them determine how to allocate or reallocate a media spend.

"It's really a new way to look at media information," said FitzGerald.

Thom Mocarsky, vice president of communications at Arbitron, said that media strategies might be changed by the use of PPM in this and other ways.

"The scope of services that we're going to provide will evolve as our customers ask us to apply the portable people meter in new and different ways," Mocarsky said. "The answers that we are going to provide about media audiences will depend on the questions that our customers want the PPM to ask about the American consumers."