It’s a step that many have been asking Nielsen about for years.
Starting next month, the nation’s dominant source of audience measurement and data analytics for broadcast media stations will begin placing a limited number of Portable People Meter (PPM) “Wearables” in a subset of its roughly 60,000 active panelists.
In a prepared release distributed Thursday morning (8/5), Nielsen confirmed that approximately 3,000 new PPM Wearables will be deployed.
Nielsen, which was slammed this week by Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav for having antiquated technology, calls the rollout part of its continued efforts “to modernize its panels and improve the panelist experience, drive broader adoption among existing and new panelists and increase engagement among more challenging demographics.”
The PPM has been used for several years to provide Nielsen and, prior to that, Arbitron, audience measurement of Audio, Local TV and National TV. The PPM is also used to measure both in-home and out of home consumption of Audio and local TV.
Over the years, questions regarding the cumbersome nature of the PPM device have been brought up. It is only now that Nielsen has actively responded.
The next-gen wearable PPM metering products, Nielsen says, will serve as “foundational support” for Nielsen ONE, its cross-media offering that delivers “a single, deduplicated metric for total media consumption across TV, Digital and Audio.’
What’s the panelist to expect from the Nielsen modernization effort?
“PPM Wearables feature an updated design that is smaller and more aligned with current wearable technology trends,” the company says.
The new PPM wearables include wristbands, clips and pendants, “which are more appealing among demographics that typically have lower compliance.”
In addition, Nielsen says a new companion app is in the works. This, Nielsen believes, “will help improve communication, encourage participation and enable data transmission when the device is outside the home.”
The companion app also allows Nielsen to add new features and capabilities and, in its words, “adapt more seamlessly to new data and technology trends.”
Mainak Mazumdar, Nielsen’s Chief Research and Data Officer, commented, “By modernizing our panels, we are not only improving the overall panelist experience and increasing engagement, but also ensuring our measurement is durable and can adapt to evolving technology changes. This is another example of how Nielsen is continuing to innovate in our march towards Nielsen ONE in order to create a better media future for the entire industry.”
Nielsen plans to share topline findings in the second quarter of 2022 of this subset of panelists phase, with a full rollout of PPM Wearables in new panel households in the works for 12 months from now.
It reflects Nielsen’s desire to place much care into the rollout of PPM Wearables, reducing potential misuse or fraud while maintaining the integrity of its data.
Nielsen says the Wearables have been through a series of “rigorous tests” and the system has performed very well in each phase.
These tests included lab, focus groups, and dual-carry testing that measure how the wearables detect codes versus the current PPM among the same panelists.
