“This collaboration focuses on the needs of brand marketers and highlights the importance of cross-platform comparison,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO, ANA.  “For the first time in the history of Internet advertising, business leaders and functional experts from leading marketers, publishers and agencies have come together to jointly develop a plan for improving digital media measurement.”

To identify priorities, develop measurement solutions and build industry consensus, Making Measurement Make Sense has assembled a group of 40 thought-leaders and decision-makers to actively contribute to the initiative.  In addition to the three founding associations, the NAA (Newspaper Association of America) and OPA (Online Publishers Association) are also participating in the initiative.

Making Measurement Make Sense has three primary objectives:

-    Define transparent, standardized and consistent metrics and measurement systems to simplify the planning, buying and selling of digital media in a cross-platform world

-    Drive industry consensus around the solutions

-    Establish a measurement governance model to support ongoing standards development, ensure compliance and manage change in a rapidly evolving media climate

The initiative’s leaders have agreed on five Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement.  These principles are the product of extensive fact-finding and due diligence regarding current measurement offerings and their application to the business of transacting and evaluating advertising effectiveness.  The five principles are built upon the input and consensus garnered from workshops with teams of functional experts and business leaders representing companies across the ecosystem.

Principle #1 – Move to a “viewable impressions” standard and count real exposures online.

Today we count “served impressions” as recorded by ad servers.  Often, ad units are not in a viewable space to the end-user or fail to fully load on the screen – potentially resulting in substantial over-counting of impressions. Viewable exposures are increasingly the norm across other media and better address the needs of brand marketers.

Principle #2 – Online advertising must migrate to a currency based on audience impressions, not gross ad impressions.

Brand marketers target specific audiences.  Marketers need to understand the quality and number of exposures against their targets – and the respective reach and frequency of such exposures.  The existing digital currency makes this extremely difficult.  Moreover, the practice of selling ad impressions makes cross-media comparisons extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Principle #3 – Because all ad units are not created equal, we must create a transparent classification system.

Unlike traditional media, which have a limited number of inventory types (e.g., 30-sec spot, full-page back cover), digital has a myriad of units. A transparent classification system will:

-    Reduce complexity from a creative standpoint
-    Simplify the comparison of ad units across websites
-    Enhance the ability to track how different types of ad inventory drive different outcomes
-    Facilitate planning and evaluation across media

Making Measurement Make Sense advocates a transparent classification system, adhered to by all publishers. Such a system will enable marketers to identify and spotlight the best offerings for brand building, and for other marketing objectives.

Principle #4 – Determine interactivity “metrics that matter” for brand marketers, so that marketers can better evaluate online’s contribution to brand building.

Currently, the industry is awash in digital interaction metrics. However, these metrics are not necessarily relevant for brand marketers.  Aside from click-throughs, there are few standards for enabling reliable comparison across sites.  The industry must identify and define the specific metrics most valuable to brand marketers and define and implement reliable standards for existing metrics.

Principle #5 – Digital media measurement must become increasingly comparable and integrated with other media.

Measurement solutions must facilitate cross media platform planning, buying and evaluating of marketing and media.  This is a substantial issue that hampers analysis and decision making throughout the ecosystem.

According to Bill Koenigsberg, president, CEO and founder of Horizon Media and Chairman of the 4A’s Media Policy Committee, “In addressing measurement issues, these principles will provide a consistent standard of currency across the digital platform.  This will allow the media community to navigate the digital technology landscape in a more reliable manner.”

“Now that industry leaders have defined Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement, the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative is refining and vetting concrete means of advancing these measurement principles,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP Industry Services, IAB.  “The process of developing recommended solutions and communicating a detailed implementation plan is expected to be completed this summer.”

In addition to bringing together the marketers, agencies and publishers to determine measurement solutions, Making Measurement Make Sense is engaging the measurement and research community.  This initiative will build on existing measurement efforts to further the goals of better, streamlined, high quality measurement that reduces supply chain friction.  As such, other industry organizations, including the Media Rating Council (MRC) and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) are being consulted.  To gauge the feasibility of potential solutions and to encourage innovation, there has been outreach to the leading measurement vendors.

About the ANA
Founded in 1910, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) leads the marketing community by providing its members with insights, collaboration, and advocacy. ANA’s membership includes 400 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively spend over $250 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote, and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit www.ana.net, follow us on Twitter, join us on Facebook, or visit our YouTube channel.

About the IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

About the 4A’s
The 4A’s is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. Its membership comprises virtually all of the large, multinational agencies and hundreds of small and mid-sized agencies from across the country. The 1,200 member agency offices served by the 4A’s employ 65,000 people; offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association founded in 1917 helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesperson with government, media, and the public sector. For more information, visit www.aaaa.org, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or download the 4A’s iOS app in the iTunes Store.

NEW YORK – Interactive sales teams with category and relationship expertise, services that provide solutions to marketer challenges and better measurement are just some of the organizational and systemic challenges that inhibit online ad growth revealed in “Building Brands Online,” a study released by Bain & Company, the global business consulting firm, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The results were presented in New York at a meeting comprised of senior marketing, advertising and media industry executives.

Key findings of the study “Building Brands Online” include:

Online ad formats and creative have not evolved to meet marketers’ needs
Media companies lack category expertise when they sell to brand marketers and engage with them too late in the media planning process
Marketers want integrated campaigns instead of platform-specific media programs
While marketers see high value in online advertising and believe that it could be effective at all stages of the purchase funnel, current industry practices inhibit greater investment of brand ad dollars
Marketers express needs for differentiated services for their brands and believe that media companies and agencies have to meet those differentiated needs for online advertising to grow.
“The study provides a wealth of insights into how brand marketers perceive online media and what the marketers would like to see media companies do for them. The findings led us to develop an interactive advertising action plan for the industry as a whole, but more importantly, so that the sellers of online media can be more effective at garnering their share of brand advertising dollars,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Industry Services, IAB.

“Unmet marketer needs create a major opportunity for media companies to collaborate directly with marketers,” said John Frelinghuysen, a partner in Bain & Company’s media practice and lead author of the study. “But few media companies currently have the capability to fill the gaps in online sales and service.”

The path forward for media companies consists of six steps based on the needs expressed by marketers:

Create segmented offerings to meet the separate needs of advertisers who are focused on building brands and those who are looking for direct response
Make brand-focused marketers a priority by building a sales force of category experts who respond directly to those marketers’ specific needs
Develop a full range of solutions with more engaging options and formats, including social networks, video and other rich media
Offer deeper service and support customized to vertical industries, to help advertisers plan, create and measure the brand impact of online ads
Optimize the ways that ad inventories are sold, with a range of approaches from full-service to self-service to partnership with ad networks and resellers
Enhance organizational effectiveness by setting the right priorities, clarifying internal roles and accountability and investing in sales staff skills and incentives
“Ultimately, marketers are looking for media companies to offer a true triple-play service model from direct response to awareness to high impact brand engagement,” said Frelinghuysen. “This model is the key to staving off continued price erosion of online inventory.”

The IAB acknowledges the following member companies, whose financial support enabled this important research:

24/7 RealMedia
AOL
Everyday Health
Meredith Corporation
MTV Networks
NBC Universal
ValueClick Media
Yahoo!
About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

About Bain & Company, Inc.

Bain & Company, a leading global business consulting firm, serves clients on issues of strategy, operations, technology, organization and mergers and acquisitions. The firm was founded in 1973 on the principle that Bain consultants must measure their success by their clients’ financial results. Bain clients have outperformed the stock market 4 to 1. With 41 offices in 27 countries, Bain has worked with over 4,150 major multinational, private equity and other corporations across every economic sector. For more information visit: www.bain.com.

NEW YORK – KickApps (www.kickapps.com), the industry’s leading on-demand social media, video player and widget platform, today announced that it has made it extremely easy for web publishers to add video advertising into their editorial and user-generated videos using the KickApps Widget & Video Player Studio. With drag-and-drop ease, it is now possible to add translucent overlay, interstititial, pre- and post-roll video, and other new video advertising formats to all KickApps powered video players. As part of this new feature, KickApps supports out-of-the-box integration from Google AdSense for Video, Scanscout, Adap.tv, and 24/7 Real Media. Support for DoubleClick’s DART and others will follow shortly.

Online video has emerged as one of the most engaging applications on the web today and advertising budgets are following suit. Recent research conducted by Bain & Company in coordination with the Interactive Advertising Bureau finds that video advertising is garnering an average CPM of $43, with demand for video inventory outstripping supply.

KickApps customers that have bought out the advertising inventory from their KickApps powered social media and video websites will be able to access these new advertising features. Integrating video ads is a simple three-step process:

1) Create a custom video player using the KickApps Widgets and Video Player Studio

2) Select from a list of modules of ad networks or pre- and post-roll

3) Provide the ad network’s publisher ID number or the URL of a Flash video file

“As social media and online video become a greater part of every web publisher’s website, technical and business complexity should be replaced with efficiency and a easy path to revenue generation,” said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. “We’ve applied this principle throughout the KickApps Platform, making it incredibly easy to create compelling social media and video experiences, and now making it easier than ever for web publishers to monetize video on their websites. With the enhancements we’ve made over the last few months to the Platform and the KickApps Widget & Video Player Studio, every web publisher and designer is just a few clicks away from being a social media rockstar.”

About KickApps

KickApps provides on-demand social media, online video and widget applications that enable web publishers and marketers to grow, engage and monetize online audiences. Its SaaS platform includes social networking, user-generated content, programmable video players, drag-and-drop widget building, WidgeADs™ and other applications that are tightly integrated with robust media moderation, member management and reporting. The KickApps Platform seamlessly integrates with any website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, feeds, Widgets and APIs (REST and SOAP). Customers include: SOAPnet, CW Television, Guinness World Records, Scripps Network Interactive, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites. For more information, visit www.kickapps.com and www.kickdeveloper.com.

CHICAGO – The American Marketing Association announces the return of Mplanet, an industry-leading event for the world’s most influential marketing leaders and academics to share new ideas, innovations and proven strategies in today’s challenging marketing environment. The American Marketing Association, the largest marketing association in North America for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide, will host the conference in partnership with The Wharton School and Bain & Company.

“This techno-driven, borderless world has created many new challenges and consumers are becoming resistant to traditional marketing,” said Dennis Dunlap, Chief Executive Officer of the American Marketing Association. “From rapidly changing computing and communication platforms to a weakening economy, today’s marketing leaders need fresh insights to improve performance and to drive results within their organizations.”

To help marketers navigate the magnitude and pace of change in this new environment, Mplanet 2009 will explore four core themes:

* Brand Building in a Digital World
* Connecting with Empowered Customers
* Marketing Mix in a Fragmented World
* Global Marketing on a Borderless Planet

Speakers from the World’s Best Brands

The marketing event will feature executive leaders from today’s most respected brands. Top CEOs, CMOs and other marketing executives and luminaries will share innovative practices and actionable takeaways in three different types of “podium-free” sessions:

* Perspectives – Trends, knowledge and experiences from C- level leaders and luminaries.
* Forums – Strategic-oriented dialogue on niche topics from leading marketing minds.
* Spotlights – Tools, techniques and takeaways from subject matter experts.

Headlining the marketing event are two keynote speakers. Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO of Xerox will share her insights and vast experience on one of the most pressing issues that marketers face today: “Getting Heard in a Sea of Information.” Mulcahy was recently named the first female CEO of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine.

RK Krishna Kumar, Chairman of Tata Coffee and Vice Chairman of Tata Tea and Indian Hotels of Tata Sons Ltd, will also share his expertise in a keynote address on “Brands Without Borders: The New Marketing Imperative.” In his role helping to protect and promote the Tata brand in India and across the globe, Kumar will provide an international perspective on lessons learned working across product lines, borders and customer segments.

Mplanet attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from today’s best marketing minds. Other highlight speakers include:

* Mary Dillon, EVP & Global CMO, McDonald’s
* John Hayes, CMO, American Express
* Stephen Quinn, EVP and CMO, Wal-Mart
* Michael Fasulo, CMO, Sony
* Cammie Dunaway, EVP Sales and Marketing, Nintendo
* Jon Iwata, SVP Marketing & Communications, IBM
* Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO, Hewlett-Packard
* Mark Addicks, SVP and CMO, General Mills
* Julie Fasone-Holder, SVP, Chief Marketing Sales and Reputation Officer, Dow Chemical

“The decision to bring back Mplanet was based entirely on the response we received from the first event. Eighty-two percent of our attendees said they would recommend Mplanet,” said Dennis Dunlap, Chief Executive Officer of the American Marketing Association. “From our keynote speakers to the conference content and our strategic partners, Mplanet 2009 will deliver on American Marketing Association’s commitment to remain a marketing advocate, thought leader and resource for marketing professionals.”

Registration

To register for Mplanet, please visit www.mplanet2009.com or by phone at 800-AMA-1150.

About the American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association is the largest marketing association in North America. It is a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. It is also the source that marketers turn to every day to deepen their marketing expertise, elevate their careers, and, ultimately, achieve better results. American Marketing Association members are connected to a network of experienced marketers nearly 25,000 strong.

American Marketing Association offers highly acclaimed Training Series, professional conferences and Hot Topic events focused on the immediate needs of marketers, as well as trends shaping the future. American Marketing Association’s website, MarketingPower.com, is the everyday connection to marketing information, articles, case studies, best practices and a robust job board. Additionally, the American Marketing Association is the source for the field’s top magazines and journals, including Marketing News.

For more information, visit our website at www.marketingpower.com.