CASRO and ESOMAR Team Up for Online Standard

MR associations CASRO and ESOMAR are to join forces to develop and implement a standard promoting consistency and transparency in the online sampling process.

The standard will focus on four areas: respondent authenticity; survey engagement; within-survey and cross-survey de-duplication; and participation frequency, and will be audited and certified via independent certification bodies.

ESOMAR DG Finn Raben says the initiative 'will establish a systematic, transparent and verifiable process that will benefit the members of both associations and the industry at large', while CASRO Chair Susan Schwartz McDonald says it should not 'stifle creativity in reaching these outcomes or unnecessarily restrict the methods used to achieve them'. The standard will also reflect the industry's commitment to research respondents, assuring them that 'we will respect their time and value their participation', according to ESOMAR President, Dieter Korczak.

A Task Force set up to draft the standard will be led by Chair, Peter Milla (Peter Milla Consulting), and will include Reg Baker (Market Strategies International), Duane Berlin (Lev & Berlin), Simon Chadwick (Cambiar), and Mike Cooke (GfK representing ESOMAR). Review and comments are invited from panel and sampling companies, full service agencies and clients.

The standard will be aligned with the associations' own ICC/ESOMAR Code and CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics, and the Task Force will consider other industry standards, such as ISO 20252 and ISO 26362. CASRO's CIRQ could also serve as a verifying body for the new standard. A draft standard for public comment is expected later this year.

'ESOMAR and CASRO have a long and productive history of working together on standards, guidelines, and government affairs' according to CASRO President Diane Bowers, 'so I am confident that we will be able to meet our deadline.' Previous collaborations have covered guidelines for mobile research, online research and social media research; and the industry's response to concerns on web tracking and online privacy.

Web sites: www.esomar.org and www.casro.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.