WFA Media Charter
What's required from Media research
- 'Media research' includes the whole corpus of information (as well as the systems to access and process it) needed to plan media, to monitor the actual execution, and assess the appropriateness of plans. This includes all audience measurement systems such as press circulation audits, TV/Radio 'meters', diaries, and all other procedures or methodologies.
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Advertisers need all media owners to provide :
- evidence of the physical performance of their media (such as independently-audited circulation data, subscriber data, broadcast footprints, cable or DSL distribution, etc.)
- appropriate data on the audience(s) they reach (see also research management) analyzed at the required level of detail, by all relevant criteria, such as socio-demographic, psychographic, behavioural, contextual, etc.
- Advertisers need timely access to such accurate, consistent and objective media research data, including respondent level data, that match their information requirements.
- Advertisers must be able to use their own, or their agencies', systems and tools to analyze such data. Advertisers have the right to know which methods of data analysis are in use. The objectivity of such methods should be approved and be subject to the same criteria as the data itself.
- Advertisers expect all geographies and markets to have these practices for all forms of marketing communication media.
- Advertisers need data to measure, assess and project:
- the performance of each individual media vehicle
- the effectiveness and contribution of each medium, and in combination, within multi-media campaigns
- Advertisers need data which both describes media consumption and enables them better to understand the perceptions and reactions of their target consumers.
- Advertisers need accurate media research data:
- as a base for their decisions regarding selection of individual media vehicles and in combination, investment levels and placement criteria
- to check actual delivery against media purchased (i.e. to verify correct implementation of media plans)
- to analyse competitive strategies, delivery and expenditure
- to analyse and better understand media strategies in their marketplaces
- to help evaluate return on investment in marketing communications.
Advertisers support the establishment of, and the compliance to, global guidelines for media audience measurement, like the Global Guidelines for Television Audience Measurement (GGTAM), those for Radio Audience Measurement and GGOODAM (Outdoor), along with the principles being laid out. Specifically, advertisers support Global Guidelines requirements for:
- the establishment of an international consensus on the research methods to be used to deliver the most valid, reliable and independent audience and circulation estimates for all forms of commercial communication, equally accessible to all interested parties
- the identification and use of good professional practices for the design and operational procedures of audience and circulation measurement, and the independent monitoring of their implementation
- discouragement of activity that falls short of best practices and proven standards
- guidelines and standards that will enable all users of the respective medium to access and compare data across countries and territories on a comparable basis
- interim acceptance of different practices - but only in cases where conclusive evidence of the superiority of one particular approach is not yet available or proven.
- continuous stimulation of improved methodologies for the capture and reporting of audiences, circulations or site visits
Advertisers also support the 10 principles of the GGTAM (Global Guidelines for Television Audience Measurement), as they can be extended to the Audience Measurement of all other Media.
Advertisers support initiatives which attempt to link media stimuli and subsequent purchasing behaviour, such as single source panels. Advertisers consider such data necessary to understand the effectiveness of their marketing communication activities with the media.
The WFA has produced and published a detailed document: 'Blueprint for Consumer-Centric Holistic Measurement' which outlines advertisers vision for the future of audience measurement with a view to encouraging such initiatives.
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