Single-source data (also single source) is the measurement of TV and/or other

mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informatio ...

's marketing exposure and purchase behavior, over time for the same individual or

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

. This measurement is gauged through the collection of data components supplied by one or more parties overlapped through a single, integrated system of data collection. How these data are stored is known as a single-source database. In TV advertising measurement, single-source data is used to explore an individual's loyalty and buying behavior in relation to advertising exposure within different windows of time, e.g., year, quarter, month, and week. In this sense, single-source data is a compilation of (1) home-scanned sales records and/or loyalty card purchases from retail or grocery stores and other commercial operations, (2) TV tune-in data from cable set-top boxes or people meters (pushbutton or passive) or household tuning meters, and (3) Household demographic information. The value of single-source data lies in the fact that it is highly disaggregate across individuals and within time. Single-source data reveals differences among households’ exposure to a brand's ads and their purchases of those brands within advertising fluctuations.

Companies

"Project Apollo" was designed to be a single source, national market research service based on Nielsen's Home Scan technology for measuring consumer purchase behavior, combined with Arbitron's

Portable People Meter The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, was a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable t ...

system, measuring

electronic media Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not requir ...

exposure. In January 2006, The Nielsen Company and Arbitron Inc. completed the deployment of a national pilot panel of more than 11,000 persons in 5,000 households. Seven advertisers ( P&G,