MediaBuyerPlanner: Wal-Mart will begin providing sales data to third-party firms, to help them measure the effectiveness of in-store marketing, via a new initiative with Proctor & Gamble.
The initiative, Prism, uses infrared sensors placed throughout stores to measure consumer exposure to product displays, banners, digital signage, in-store radio and TV networks, shelf talkers, and more, writes Brandweek. The initiative is being led by Nielsen In-Store.
The sensors will be put into 150 retail outfits beyond Wal-Mart, including convenience and grocery stores, in time for the project’s launch in 2008.
A pilot effort ran for two weeks last year. It achieved a 76 percent accuracy rate in its predictions of consumer behavior. Further refinement increased that accuracy rate to 85 percent. Wal-Mart contributed information from 1,000 stores to the study, ten times the number of stores that had previously released data.
Related stories:
- MBP Overview: In-Store Advertising, Updated 2/21/07
- VNU Developing In-Store Measurement Service
- Product Sampling Most Influential In-Store Media
- Nielsen: In-Store Ads Sway 68 Percent of Consumers
