US Ad Bodies Measure 'Consumer Engagement'

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) are working to develop an industry-wide measurement of how well consumers engage with adverts.

The research initiative - endorsed by Procter & Gamble, Ford and Masterfoods - is known as MI4 (Measurement Initiative: Advertisers, Agencies, Media and Researchers). It will unveil the results of its research on consumer engagement in September, before going on to promote a workable metric, to be used alongside existing measures of exposure and frequency.

The new measure is seen as particularly important as increasing numbers of consumers use digital TV recorders, which help them skip ads. According to Barbara Bacci-Mirque, Senior VP at ANA: 'In the face of media fragmentation and consumer control over how they receive advertising messages, new forms of advertising are needed, and new metrics are necessary to reflect the impact of non-traditional messages.'

Bob Barocci, President of the ARF, believes the initiative will bring about 'a new method of measurement that reflects the complexity of today's consumer-empowered media consumption'.

The ARF is online at www.thearf.org , the AAAA at www.aaaa.org and the ANA at www.ana.net .

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