Nielsen Readies Next-Gen Wearable Metering Tech

Nielsen today announced that starting in September, it will begin placing approximately 3,000 new Portable People Meter (PPM) Wearables in a subset of its nearly 60,000 active PPM panelists. The company said deployment of PPM wearable devices and technologies is part of Nielsen’s “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 is currently used to underpin audio, local TV and national audience measurement. It is used to measure both in-home and out of home tuning for audio and local TV and out-of-home tuning for Nielsen’s national TV estimates. The next-gen wearable PPM metering will serve as foundational support for Nielsen ONE, a cross-media solution that will deliver a single, deduplicated metric for total media consumption across TV, Digital and Audio.

PPM Wearables feature an updated design that is smaller and more aligned with current wearable technology trends. The new PPM Wearable comes in a variety of ways to wear including wristbands, clips and pendants, which are more appealing among demographics that typically have lower compliance. In addition, Nielsen said, a new companion app will help improve communication, encourage participation and enable data transmission when the device is outside the home. The companion app will also allow Nielsen to add new features and capabilities and adapt more seamlessly to new data and technology trends.

“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,”  said Mainak Mazumdar, Nielsen’s chief research and data officer. “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 said it plans to share top line findings in the second quarter of 2022 of this subset of panelists phase, with the full rollout of PPM Wearables in new panel households planned for the second half of 2022. PPM Wearables have been through a series of rigorous tests and, the company said, “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.