WFA survey demonstrates spread of consumer-centric holistic measurement

Brussels, 09^th June 2008:

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) today made public the results of a global audit of existing consumer-centric, holistic measurement initiatives. The audit, the first of its kind, was designed to provide an overview of global progress in this area. It follows the high profile termination of Project Apollo in the US.

Results show that 9 (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, UK and US) of the world’s seventeen biggest advertising markets now have an initiative in place. Of the remaining 8 countries, 6 (Netherlands, Spain, India, Belgium and Norway) said they felt that the ‘time was right’ to begin their own initiative.

The results have fed into a new website (www.wfablueprint.org), designed to help encourage new initiatives get started around the world. The beta site re-states what advertisers want from audience measurement as outlined in the WFA’s Blueprint for Consumer-Centric Measurement. It will support advertisers’ goals with case studies from existing projects and ‘starter packs’ developed for markets looking to launch their own initiatives.

Said Ian Gallois, Global Media Director, Wrigley and Chairman of the WFA’s Media Committee, “The challenges now being faced by advertisers make the WFA Blueprint even more valid today than it was three years ago. The progress being made across the globe is a positive sign for the whole industry. This website will be critical to tracking where we are and driving further projects.”

Said Stephan Loerke, Managing Director of the WFA “This work represents the beginning of a collaborative industry effort to tackle this challenge that affects us all: Media owners, agencies, advertisers, market researchers and consumers alike. Contributing to this global living knowledge-base will help new projects get off the ground and help improve the approaches of established initiatives.”

For enquiries, please contact: Rob Dreblow at r.dreblow@wfanet.org: +32 (0)2 502 57 40  
Note for Editors:

The WFA Blueprint was written by the WFA’s Media Committee in September 2005. It sought to outline advertisers’ vision for the future of audience measurement. The vision was the development of additional audience measurement that was both ‘consumer-centric’ and ‘holistic’ (i.e. multi-media and beyond just exposure to media). More at www.wfablueprint.org 

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is the voice of advertisers worldwide representing 90% of global marketing communications expenditures, through a unique, global network: 57 national advertiser associations on five continents as well as direct multi-national corporate members. Through the network, WFA represents more than 10,000 businesses operating in a broad spectrum of sectors at national, regional and global levels. WFA has a dual mission: to champion responsible commercial communications and to facilitate a media environment, which stimulates maximum effectiveness of ad spend. More at www.wfanet.org