Name That Tune

The Kroger Co. (Cincinnati) announced it will introduce encoded audio at 100 Houston stores next month, joining an Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) trial that will measure customers’ exposure to in-store audio and video messaging.

Arbitron Inc. (New York) had previously announced that Best Buy, Gap, Gallery Furniture, National CineMedia and Old Navy would also be participating in the Houston PPM demonstration.

Beginning in September, the test stores will use audio programming embedded with PPM identification codes supplied by Arbitron. When an Arbitron PPM survey participant enters one of these retail outlets, the Portable People Meter will detect the codes and report that the individual has been exposed to its in-store audio programming.

The Arbitron Portable People Meter system uses a passive audience measurement device — about the size of a small 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 or interact with other forms of media and entertainment. The PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM is equipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day.

“By adding PPM 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 PPM president Pierre Bouvard. “Without asking the a PPM survey participant to do anything additional, we will 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.”

In-Store Broadcasting Network (Salt Lake City), a provider of in-store music service and broadcast-advertising network for delivery within supermarkets and drugstores, will supply the nation’s largest retail grocery chain with the encoded in-store music.

According to Scarborough Research, Kroger stores are visited by at least 51 percent of the adult population in Houston over the course of a typical week.