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PROJECT HISTORY - RADIO-TV-PRINT MIAMI PILOT RADIO The "SMART SHOPPER REPORT" using data from the "CONSUMER COMPUTER PRICEWATCH SYSTEM" provided WINZ-AM radio to provide a four-time daily consumer feature to identify retail items at better than normal price levels. The adjacent sponsorships were kept apart from the report content. The "CONSUMER COMPUTER CAR" concept provided exposure for the remote data gathering and highlighted retails with particularly low prices and allowed WINZ-AM radio to create additional remote income revenue.. TV The SMART SHOPPER REPORT allowed WCIX-TV to generate local and regional retail sales revenues by providing the "SHOPATUNITY LOGO" to identify retail items at better than normal price levels using the CONSUMER COMPUTER pricewatch analysis. PRINT The CONSUMER COMPUTER REPORT allowed The Miami Herald to provide well-priced menu plans and a daily column to identify consumer products designed to provid "More Bang for the Buck". These were the basis for the creation of US Government-funded programs under various names including "BETTER BUYER", "SMART SHOPPER", "MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK", "SHOPATUNITY", and others. US GOVERNMENT FUNDING THROUGH COMMUNITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION COMMUNITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION "THE SMART SHOPPER CONCEPT WAS FOUND BY THE US GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT FUNDED IT TO SAVE SHOPPERS AN AVERAGE OF 28.34% AGAINST UNAIDED PURCHASE DECISION MAKING"- Robert Landsman, Director, Community Services Administration. "IT WAS DESIGNATED AS ONE OF FIVE PROJECTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE WHEN TURNED OVER TO HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES"-Marshall Boorman, Project Coordinator, CSA. CONGRESSIONAL SPONSORSHIP CONGRESSMAN CLAUDE PEPPER (D) SPONSORED HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE BILL 5902 TO FUND CREATION OF A NETWORK IN 70 MAJOR US CITIES TO COLLECT AND DISPENSE REPORTS TO LOW INCOME AND SENIOR ADULT CONSUMERS FOOD STAMP and LOW INCOME RECIPIENTS DATA COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION FOR THE "CONSUMER COMPUTER REPORT" WAS DEVELOPED BY THE FLORIDA FARMWORKERS COUNCIL AT FOOD STAMP DISTRIBUTION LOCATIONS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES. CABLE TELEVISION DAILY SEGMENT FORMATS WERE DEVELOPED FOR CABLE OPERATORS LOCAL ORIGINATION CHANNELS. PROGRAMMING CONTENT WAS TRANSMITTED TO ON SITE UNITS USING THE NEW APPLE COMPUTER.. GOOD MORNING AMERICA SEGMENT THE "SMART SHOPPER REPORT" WAS FIRST FEATURED NATIONALLY IN A GOOD MORNING AMERICA SEGMENT. LOS ANGELES TIMES FRONT PAGE THE "CONSUMER COMPUTER REPORT WAS A FRONT PAGE, ABOVE THE FOLD LEAD ARTICLE WITH A PICTURE OF A CONSUMER USING THE REPORT AS A BUYING AID IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. PM MAGAZINE FEATURE THE "SMART SHOPPER REPORT" WAS FIRST COVERED ON PM MAGAZINE AND THEN AS A CONSUMER FEATURE SEGMENT. BLOCK GRANT PROGRAMS THE NECESSARY TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE LOCAL DATA COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION WAS PROVIDED TO CITIES FUNDED UNDER FEDERAL BLOCK GRANTS. NATIONAL COMPUTER PROCESSING ESTABLISHED COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION, THE GOVERNMENT'S DATA PROCESSING PROVIDER, ESTABLISHES A CENTRALIZED PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR "CONSUMER COMPUTER" REMOTE DATA STORAGE AND PROCESSING. MAINFRAME AND REMOTE UNITS MAJOR EQUIPMENT PROVIDERS MAKE FREE-STANDING PROCESSING UNITS AVAILABLE WITH BUILT-IN "CONSUMER COMPUTER" CODING FOR 28,600 CONSUMER ITEMS. TOURIST KIOSK SYSTEM TRIBUNE MEDIA KIOSK SYSTEM ADDS "SMART SHOPPER REPORT" TO TOURIST VIDEO GUIDE SYSTEM. REPORTS ON 30 KEY ITEM CATEGORIES DELIVERED FROM CARD VENDOR DEVICE. INTERNET REPORT FORMAT INTRODUCTION THE INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTERIZED LINK BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS LED TO THE CREATION OF A COMPUTER TRANSMITTED "SMART SHOPPER REPORT" TO SCHOOL LIBRARIES. MEDIA DISTRIBUTION POSTING OF REPORT CONTENT FOR INDIVIDUAL CITIES WAS DEVELOPED WITH PARTICIPATING RADIO AND TELEVISION STATIONS AND CABLE OPERATORS.
The Anti Drug Vital Information and Communications Exchange (A.D.V.I.C.E.) is a Public Non Profit Technical Assistance Entity the acts as a "linkage" between Public and Private Sector organizations in the development of projects for the Public good. The Florida Institute of Video Education (F.I.V.E.) is a Technical Assistance Entity (T.A.) that provides technical support for project for the Public good. Funded by the US Government, A.D.V.I.C.E. created the Consumer Computer Price watch System as part of the Smart Shopper , More Bang for the Buck Program, and the Better Buyer Programs administered by the Community Services Administration (C.S.A.). The Consumer Computer was identified as one of five projects of national importance by the C.S.A. and was the subject of House of Representatives Bill 5902 to provide Consumer Computer access and distribution in 70 major U.S. cities. The original configuration, developed in cooperation with Computer Sciences Corporation, (C.S.A.) the Government's prime computer provider, made it possible to input information collected in individual cities and process it centrally. The data collection was from print, television, radio, and cable advertising, information provided by distributors, their representatives, and by retailers. Field collection of pricing is collected by the Consumer Computer Car, a vehicle containing data storage and input capability. The Consumer Computer Car also is an awareness vehicle which visits major retail locations and malls to distribute informational materials. Appearance in the Reports is not linked to the retailer or any informational resource. The computer identifies data based upon current price promoted versus last ime at a specific retailer or last time in the data base from any retailer. The state of computer development at the time of the initial funding cycle required a building full of computers to handle the processing. Under an agreement with Apple Computer, a modified input unit was created to collect local site data and transfer it to the main processing system. Working with today's computer capability, the Consumer Computer system has been redesigned to allow for processing in individual cities while allowing for sharing of data to identify trends. This enables a low-cost individual city capability while linking the massive processing power of the system to enable off-line storage of item and price information. This off-line capability makes it possible to utilize volunteers and those without specific training or skills to identify local promotional prices and secure data on chain-wide promotions, while making it possible to avoid contamination of the data base since the local inputs are not mixed with the general data until verification of the pricing is made by more capable data analysis personnel. Typically, in the original configuration, five prime data reporting cities were linked into a statewide local area network (LAN) and other state LAN's, while operating freely, may also compare information to identify chain-wide trends. The current updated structure uses proprietary software to "mirror" the central processor's ability to handle large quantities of data.
The basic configuration of both centralized and satellite data bases contains file headings for approximately 28,600 food and non food item identities with additional data headings for a wide range of typical fresh, frozen, packaged, and bulk items carried in food sales outlets. From the collected data in an individual city location, the standard data base for that city is matched against the input items in a temporary data base. That data base is compared to data for specific stores, specific items, and specific price levels for items. Reports containing specific information about a store's items at that time, about that item's availability in a range of stores in that city, and the current price level of that item compared to previous time periods are then made available. Access to that availability can be through subscription to receive a daily report by e-mail, by access to an Internet web site, or delivery to print, radio, TV, and cable media.
The Florida Institute of Video Education was the original developer of the distributive aspects of the programming. Using typical commercial video production techniques, F.I.V.E. utilized the data base access to create scipting for radio, cable, and television programming. The design of various delivery systems was in conjunction with well known media outlets. The report data was also captured for use in preparing scripts for aired reports made available through the Radio and Television News Directors Association and the National Association of Broadcasters members which are supplied as a feature to participating media. Additional distribution methods used in the past included direct distribution to low income, disadvantaged, or English Second Language groups, public library availability at computer terminals, interactive availability to cable subscribers through Knight-Ridder, availability at information kiosk locations through Video Guide, a project of the Chicago Tribune's Tribune Media Services, and printout delivery at food stamp and congregate feeding locations. Radio feature distribution in various formats ranging from 2.5 minutes to half-hour in length was developed for WINZ-All News Radio, with call-in segments in other pgorams, and TV feature distribution included in nightly news programming for WCIX-TV , in addition to columns distributed trough newspapers have also been utilized to harness the distributive media's audience. Both as a means of collecting data and as a promotional activity for participating media, the Consumer Computer Car has been used to visit high-traffic locations. The computer housed in the Consumer Computer Car vehicle allowed for presentation of data on TV screens fed by the computer and for operating a printer unit which enabled the hand-out of data reports related to that specific location. When utilized in a mall location, such as at Dadeland Mall, Miami's largest mall, this activity was typically linked to placement of notices upon items selected denoting their "better-than-normal" price level.
THE ORLANDO PROGRAMMING PROFILE The current state of the video production art form enables production in digital format utilizing so called "green screen" or "chroma key" backgrounds. This allows for simulation of both studio and remote backgrounds in minimal space. Using the data base selections, the "reporter" is able to deliver informative content which aides the audience in making "wise" buying selections. DISTRIBUTION Viewers of Bright House Networks will be able to view Shopatunity Report segments four time daily, seven days each week ad to access specific Shopatunity Internet web sites containing video reports and general data during second quarter 2007. Posting of the Orlando reports will also be available on the Internet at Revver.com. E.S.L. SPECIALTY PROGRAMMING Specialty programming in Spanish and Mandarin will also be made available as part of a study of buying habits for those in English Second Language groups
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