Media-Related 2011 Recap

In 2011, the 4A’s developed programs and acted on the membership’s behalf in a variety of areas and on various issues. We also released and distributed numerous bulletins and books to our members.

The following are highlights of some of our activities:

Industry Initiatives

  • Vendor Non-Discrimination Policy: Nancy Hill announced that the 4A’s Media Policy Committee, chaired by Bill Koenigsberg of Horizon Media, developed standardized best practices for non-discrimination policies and procedures. They recommended that in developing a vendor non-discrimination policy, agencies should evaluate the firm’s service offering and vendor selection practices prior to developing their agency’s vendor non-discrimination agency procedures. The 4A’s also recommends that: (1) agency vendor nondiscrimination policy and employee training initiatives re-enforce non-discrimination statutory requirements and (2) that agencies involve legal counsel in the design and implementation of any vendor non-discrimination policy (October).
  • 4A’s Advisory Regarding New FCC Requirement of Stations: This spring the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission alerted commercial television and radio broadcasters to an important new requirement. Stations now need to certify that their advertising sales contracts contain nondiscrimination clauses, and that they do not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. Subsequently, a number of broadcasters are seeking to obtain signed certifications from agencies as part of the broadcasters’ presentation to the FCC. This bulletin provides advice to agencies about this situation (Bulletin #7296; April).
  • Local Hispanic TV Audience Measurement: In July, the Local Video/Audio and Media Measurement Committees sent a letter to Nielsen, expressing concern about how accurately local Hispanic audiences would be measured in the NSI-H service because many sample sizes were smaller than in the discontinued NHSI service. Nancy Larkin, Horizon Media, chairs the Local Video/Audio Committee; Debbie Solomon, Mindshare, chairs the Media Measurement Committee.
  • Best Practices Guidelines for National Television Media Auditing: The fourth in the series of media auditing books, the publication was drafted by PHD’s Harry Keeshan, co-chair of the 4A’s National TV/Radio Committee (Bulletin #7300; May).
  • Hybrid Measurement: The Media Measurement Committee sent a letter to Nielsen, asking them about their efforts to validate their new hybrid measurement for online (September).
  • Out-of-Home Guidelines for Buying Digital/Shared Space Units: In July, the 4A’s Out-of-Home Media Committee issued a bulletin about when static units are converted to digital or shared space units and proposed guidelines for working with vendors (Bulletin #7316; July). The committee is chaired by MediaVest’s Norm Chait.
  • Ad Verification Guidelines: The IAB developed these guidelines and reviewed them with the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee during a conference call. Subsequently, those members provided input on them (September).
  • Mobile Couponing: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) drafted mobile couponing guidelines, which the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee, chaired by David Cohen of UM, commented upon (January).
  • Lead Generation Addendum for co-Registration and Email to Internet Terms & Conditions: The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) proposed this addendum to the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee, whose members supplied input on them (August).
  • Set-Top Box Measurement Guidelines: In October, the Media Rating Council presented their proposed Guidelines for set-top box data collection, accumulation and processing to the 4A’s Media Measurement, Digital Marketing, National TV/Radio and Local Video/Audio Committees for their comment.

Educational Publications and Events

  • 2012 Outlook/Media Inflation Rates: Havas’ MPG and Media Contacts prepared this bulletin estimating cost increases for several media (Bulletin #7332; October).
  • Discount to Digital Place-based Advertising Association (DPAA) Event: Members were extended a deep discount to register for the DPAA’s Annual Digital Media Summit (September).
  • Webinars:
    • iMonitor presented its app measurement service to the 4A’s Media Measurement, Print Media and Mid-Sized Agency Media Directors Committee (April).
    • Representatives from Accordant Media, a media optimization company, discussed with the Mid-Sized Agency Media Directors Committee how they help agencies and marketers succeed in audience targeting and exchange-traded media (April).
    • DoubleVerify, an online ad verification company, educated members of the Mid-Sized Agency Media Directors Committee about how they can help their agencies comply with the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Online Behavioral Advertising program (June).
    • Anthony Torrieri of the Media Rating Council updated members of the Mid-Sized Agency Directors Committee about recent auditing activities (August).
    • Bluefin, which measures viewers’ engagement with TV shows via their social media comments, presented to the Mid-Sized Agency Media Directors, Media Measurement and Digital Marketing Committees (December).
  • Information Exchanges: 4A’s media committees often conduct exchanges of information when they seek fellow experts’ advice. Responses remain confidential, but all participants share in the learning. The 4A’s has posted on its Web site exchanges conducted over the past two years on a variety of subjects, including television post-analysis, software, online planning and buying, and many more.
  • The 4A’s Media Committees met approximately 70 times in 2011; all meeting minutes are posted in the Communities section of our Web site.
  • Transformation LA 2012 will be held in March 26-28 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. We hope to see you there!

The above reflects some of the many media-related activities of the 4A’s. Please feel free to contact either me (212-850-0741, [email protected]) or Claire Franks (212-850-0740, [email protected]) with questions or issues that you encounter.