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Kroger to play encoded in-store audio at Houston Stores for retail trial

AUGUST 25, 2005 -- Beginning in September, 100 Houston-area stores of Kroger, the Cincinnati-based supermarket retailer, will use embedded audio programming from In-Store Broadcasting Network, which already provides an in-store music service and broadcast advertising network for Kroger in Houston.
The audio programming will be embedded with unique Arbitron Portable People Meter identification codes that track in-store media exposure. These codes are inaudible and can only be detected by a Portable People Meter. When an Arbitron Portable People Meter survey participant enters one of these retail outlets, the meter will detect the codes and report that the individual has been exposed to its in-store audio programming.
“By adding PPM (Portable People Meter) codes to Kroger’s in-store audio in Houston, we’ll be able to demonstrate how the PPM can gauge the store traffic that advertising generates,” said Pierre Bouvard, president, Portable People Meters, Arbitron Inc., in a statement. “We would be able to measure the retail visits as easily as we measure the audience that is exposed to the stations that carry the advertising for the retailer. This will enable PPM to provide powerful measures of return on investment and accountability by correlating local media exposure with retail store traffic.”
The Portable People Meter system uses a passive audience measurement device--about the size of a cell phone--to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based electronic media. Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPM device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment. Previously, Arbitron announced that Best Buy, Gap, Gallery Furniture, National CineMedia and Old Navy are also participating in the Houston PPM demonstration.