ANA TV Advertising Committee Announces Support for Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings to Drive Media Accountability | About the ANA | ANA

ANA TV Advertising Committee Announces Support for Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings to Drive Media Accountability

The ANA Television Advertising Committee released a position paper today supporting the industry's growing movement toward television commercial ratings.

Today's marketing executives are pressured to justify and evaluate their media investments in meaningful and precise ways and this development helps achieve that by providing marketers with a deeper understanding of program and commercial viewership.

Andrew Jung, Senior Director, Advertising & Media Services at Kellogg Company, will be presenting the TV Advertising Committee's recommendation that the industry make ratings of individual commercial units available, not just average ratings of all commercials within a program, at the March 20, 2007 ANA TV Forum. The Committee believes the need for accountability is especially great in television advertising, where $70 billion is spent annually on commercial time.

"The ANA strongly encourages the U.S. industry-advertisers, the media, agencies, and research companies-to work collaboratively to make brand-specific commercial ratings a reality," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. "Brand-specific commercial ratings will not only help marketers make better decisions, they are an invaluable tool for overall campaign management and accountability."

Currently commercial ratings are based on program ratings. With this method, a commercial receives the same rating as the program within which it appears. Although the industry is moving toward providing advertisers with average commercial minute ratings, based on the average of all commercials within a program, marketers require more granular data. They need ratings that can answer the question, "How many people actually had the opportunity to see my spot?"

Brand-specific commercial ratings answers this question as well as supports other marketing needs, including:

  • Serving as a copy testing tool to identify the stronger and weaker executions within a commercial, enabling advertisers to pull (or fix) weaker spots and heavy up on stronger ones.
  • Functioning as an indicator for commercial wear out.
  • Providing a better understanding of impact differences related to such factors as pod position, length of creative, and national versus local placement.
  • Establishing the value of in-program and in-game features and sponsorships.
  • Helping marketers understand how DVR usage habits impact all of the above.

The position paper is available to members of the media for review. To receive a copy of the report and / or arrange an interview with any of the following: Bill Duggan, Executive Vice President, ANA, Mark Kaline, Global Media Manager, Ford Motor Company and incoming chair of the ANA Television Advertising Committee or Andrew Jung, Senior Director, Advertising & Media Services at Kellogg Company, please contact Rachael Adler at 212.455.8037 or Lesley Weiner at 212.455.8079.