Walmart is withdrawing from the consortium of retailers, packaged-goods manufacturers and agencies supporting the PRISM in-store media measurement service, the Nielsen Co. disclosed Tuesday.Our take:
Nielsen said it will continue work on PRISM (an acronym for Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric), which is expected to introduce a complete metric in 2009. However, the departure of its largest founding member is a setback for the project, one of several high-profile initiatives working in parallel to create new metrics for out-of-home
While there is a healthy amount of speculation on the net about why Walmart has decided not to continue with the PRISM program, the theories generally fall into one of three main categories:
1. Per the party line, Walmart had to suspend its internal policies about data sharing to participate, and said suspension was deemed not worth it.
2. Walmart's participation was initiated by now-ousted marketing honcho Julie Roehm, and Walmart execs wanted to remove every last trace of her influence.
3. Walmart no longer needs Nielsen's help now that they have their own internal measurement system from DS-IQ up and running.
WireSpring believes that all three of these are perfectly viable options, but our money is on #3 for the win.
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