AAM and BPA Merger
AAM and BPA Merger
An Alliance for the Benefit of Members
Tom Drouillard, CEO and Managing Director, Alliance for Audited Media, March 23, 2023
The Alliance for Audited Media and BPA Worldwide have recently merged to continue to drive increased trust and assurance across media channels.
The merger received overwhelming support from the AAM and BPA boards and memberships, the Alliance for Audited Media and BPA Worldwide have merged to become the largest not-for-profit media auditing organization in the world.
As we start a new journey as one organization, I wanted to give some background on how we came together and set the stage for what’s to come.
AAM and BPA have always been unique entities in the media industry – independent not-for-profit organizations, governed by boards including advertisers, agencies and publishers, focused on bringing trust to media transactions through audits and data distribution.
Together we are stronger. Between our organizations, we have more than two centuries of media auditing experience and 2,000 clients. We have a diverse client base across business, magazine and news media, with growing digital audit and certification services. We recognize that audits are critical to addressing the many issues the media industry faces. In fact, demand for increased digital advertising assurance was a driving force in the merger. By coming together, we can work with the industry as one auditing organization at this critical time when media and advertising are challenged with serious issues related to media quality, brand safety, privacy and sustainability.
Combining our complementary expertise and capabilities allows us to bring independent assurance across more channels — websites, newsletters, events, print, out-of-home, podcasts and ad tech — and across growing compliance areas such as advertising, editorial, privacy and sustainability.
This is the beginning of our combined organization. While we plan to make improvements over time, the experience of AAM and BPA clients will not change in the short term. As we work to bring our organizations together over the next few months, we promise to:
- Maintain our high level of service at a low cost as a not-for-profit organization.
- Streamline media buying and selling through a single data destination.
- Develop a suite of assurance services that raises the level of trust and transparency.
We appreciate the trust our members place in us as the industry authority for assurance services that increase media transparency and accountability. We are dedicated to differentiating high quality media outlets and service providers and are focused on helping buyers choose quality and maximize return on their media investments. We look forward to this journey as one organization with our clients, our employees, our board of directors and our industry.
IFABC announces Executive Board at 30th General Assembly
IFABC announces Executive Board at 30th General Assembly
Board members and the Presidency are voted for by delegates
representing IFABC members.
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) has elected its President and Executive Board at the 30th IFABC General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria in September 2022. This marked the first time in four years that members of the IFABC were able to meet in person at a General Assembly to share ideas, news and developments from around the world.
An important part of the 3-day event is the election of the Board and its President to steer the group into the future.
The 2022-24 members of the Executive Board are:
- Alexandra Beier-Cizek - OEAK, Austria
- Arina Ureche - BRAT, Romania
- Hormuzd Masani - ABC, India (IFABC Honorary Treasurer)
- Jean Paul Dietsch - ACPM, France
- Kai Kuhlmann - IVW, Germany
- Manuel Sala - OJD, Spain
- Pedro Silva - IVC, Brazil
- Simon Redlich - ABC, UK (IFABC President)
- Tom Drouillard - AAM, USA (IFABC Secretary)
Simon Redlich, Chief Executive of ABC UK, was re-elected as President for a second term, with Tom Drouillard, CEO of the U.S.-based Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) and Hormuzd Masani, Secretary Genreal of ABC India, also re-elected as the group’s Secretary and Honorary Treasurer respectively.
Simon commented, “I’m honoured to be re-elected as President of the IFABC for a second term. Over the last two years, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with my fellow members on a number of initiatives to advance auditing and media measurement. It’s clear that by pooling our learnings and expertise we’re able to find solutions more rapidly, which is essential in any fast-paced industry. I look forward to another two years of collaboration, as we focus on a new agenda to further advance transparency and accountability in media on a global scale."
IFABC is a global federation of audit bureaux committed to exchanging ideas and solutions to better support independently verified media data.
Tom said, “I am honored to be reelected to serve a third term as secretary for the IFABC. The IFABC is a great forum for collaboration and the exchange of ideas to help elevate trust and transparency in media, across platforms and around the world.”
IFABC is a global federation of bureaux representing 24 countries. It provides a forum for these organisations to come together, share knowledge and develop collaborative solutions that support trust in media.
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About the IFABC
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) is a voluntary federation of industry-sponsored organisations that have been established in nations throughout the world. IFABC members have a common commitment to the accurate and transparent reporting of comparable print and digital media performance data. Its aim is to work with national and international organisations in any way that constructively supports the work of its members. The Federation seeks to encourage and facilitate the exchange of experience and best practice between member organisations, and is committed to working towards a greater standardisation and uniformity in the reporting of circulations and other data. For more information, visit ifabc.org.
Japan Joint Industry Committee for Digital Advertising Quality & Qualify (JICDAQ) May 2021
Japan Joint Industry Committee for Digital Advertising Quality & Qualify (JICDAQ) was established for the purpose of third-party certification of the quality of digital advertisement.
JICDAQ sets the business process standards for “Brand Safety ensuring the quality of the ad place” and “Exclusion of Invalid traffic (including Ad fraud)”. And certify companies who operate business complying to the standards.
Japan Audit Bureau of Circulations have been designated as a validation vender which check companies meet the standards JICDAQ set. In other countries, ensuring the quality of digital advertisement is addressed actively. Other ABCs in the world play important roles with validation job. We dispatched our staff to the ABC UK who has been at the forefront of this kind of work for more than a decade. And the staff took training about validation job. We will update our validation job keeping communicate with the UK ABC and the other ABCs in the world.
We will inform new information on this site.
Japan Joint Industry Committee for Digital Advertising Quality & Qualify (JICDAQ)
Japan Joint Industry Committee for Digital Advertising Quality & Qualify (JICDAQ) was established for the purpose of third-party certification of the quality of digital advertisement.
JICDAQ sets the business process standards for “Brand Safety ensuring the quality of the ad place” and “Exclusion of Invalid traffic (including Ad fraud)”. And certify companies who operate business complying to the standards.
Japan Audit Bureau of Circulations have been designated as a validation vender which check companies meet the standards JICDAQ set. In other countries, ensuring the quality of digital advertisement is addressed actively. Other ABCs in the world play important roles with validation job. We dispatched our staff to the ABC UK who has been at the forefront of this kind of work for more than a decade. And the staff took training about validation job. We will update our validation job keeping communicate with the UK ABC and the other ABCs in the world.
We will inform new information on this site.
Eusebio Serrano, In memoriam
On February 28, former Managing Director at OJD Spain, Eusebio Serrano, passed away.
Eusebio was a reference person for OJD Spain for more than 30 years. He started his professional career in 1965, at the beginning of our office's activity, auditing print media and was appointed Managing Director in 1996, a position he held when he retired in 2013.
His knowledge and experience in press circulation and auditing services was recognized at many conferences and seminars where he was invited as speaker. In 1997, he promoted the launch of OJDinteractive, the company's online services brand. He was also involved in the Verified Free Distribution (PGD in Spanish) service that started in 2002. The challenges of the digital age expanded the portfolio of services and his impulse made the digitization of the company operations happen.
He was elected president of the IFABC for two terms (2002-2004 and 2008-2010) and OJD Spain successfully hosted the General Assemblies of Seville (1998) and Madrid (2012), when he was the CEO.
He attended most of the meetings organized by the IFABC and also served as a member of the Executive Committee and President of the Ibero-American Group.
We will always remember his charm and remarkable personality.
Rest in Peace.
NEW EXECUTIVE BOARD AND PRESIDENT ELECTED AT 29TH IFABC GENERAL ASSEMBLY
A new Executive Board and President have been appointed to serve for the next two year term at the 29th International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) General Assembly, held by video conference on Friday 9th October.
Executive Board members and the President are voted for by delegates representing the 27 IFABC member countries.
The new 2020-22 members of the Executive Board are:
- Alexandra Beier-Cizek - OEAK, Austria
- Arina Ureche - BRAT, Romania
- Hormuzd Masani - ABC, India (IFABC Honorary Treasurer & President of Asia Pacific Regional Group)
- Jean Paul Dietsch - ACPM, France (President of the European Regional Group)
- Kai Kuhlmann - IVW, Germany
- Manuel Sala - OJD, Spain
- Pedro Silva - IVC, Brazil (President of the Iberoamerican Regional Group)
- Simon Redlich - ABC, UK (IFABC President)
- Tom Drouillard - AAM, USA (IFABC Secretary)
Simon Redlich, Chief Executive at ABC UK, was elected to be the new President.
Simon commented, “I’m delighted and honoured to lead IFABC for the next two year term. As one of the founder members of this federation, ABC UK has always valued the opportunities it delivers to advance best practice and innovation in auditing and media measurement on a global scale. I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Pedro Silva for his tremendous service to IFABC as President over the last six years. I will do my best to live up to the high standard he has set.”
IFABC is a global federation of member bureaux. It provides a forum for these organisations to come together, share knowledge and develop collaborative solutions that support trust and transparency in media. A recent initiative was the launch of the Global Certified Media list, giving buyers access to nearly 15,000 audited media properties.
This was the first year the General Assembly was held by video conference due to the current global health restrictions.
To find out more about IFABC, please visit www.ifabc.org
ENDS
About the IFABC
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) is a voluntary federation of industry-sponsored organizations throughout the world that are united by their work within the media industry. IFABC members have a common commitment to the accurate and transparent reporting of comparable data used for the evaluation of media channels. This commitment to accountability and transparency involves services of independent third-party audit and certification of the various data sets used within media ad trading. The work of the member bodies spans many channels including print, digital, events, OOH, TV, Influencer Marketing and continues to expand as the media industry evolves and changes. The Federation seeks to encourage and facilitate the ongoing exchange of experience and best practice between member organizations. For more information, visit ifabc.org.
Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AIMCO) Releases Industry’s first Influencer Marketing Code of Practice
SYDNEY, 1 JULY 2020: The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AIMCO) has today released the industry’s first set of working practices to support brands, agencies and creators. AIMCO was established in late 2019 to drive trust, accountability and transparency in the growing sector of Australian influencer marketing.
Download the Influencer Marketing Code of Practice here.
Influencer marketing continues to grow both globally and locally, driving brand awareness and advocacy, as well as reaching new audiences. It is one of the marketing channels that did not experience a significant decline in activity even in the COVID-19 shutdown period when marketing spend in many channels experienced sharp reductions. However, the industry recognises that for this channel to mature into a position of greater trust and continued growth, transparency is pivotal. The World Federation of Advertisers states that: “Spend will rise where influencers meet critical standards on transparency, credibility and quality of followers” Source: World Federation of Advertisers
AANA CEO, John Broome commented: “Advertisers are keen to support responsible social influencer marketing. This new code of conduct will help build trust in online advertising through transparency and disclosure. It’s an important step forward for the industry.”
The Influencer Marketing Code of Practice is AIMCO’s first major initiative and has been developed collaboratively with input from more than 50 companies including founding member companies that represent all sides of the influencer marketplace. AIMCO membership includes industry sell and buy side, measurement and also legal representation.
The Code clearly articulates the areas of responsibility and proposed requirements for all involved in the influencer marketing ecosystem. The Code spans influencer vetting, advertising disclosure, and contractual considerations including content rights usage and reporting metrics.
The Influencer Marketing Code of Practice has been specifically designed for Australia, but with global considerations, to extend confidence in influencer marketing by establishing a common language and providing clear guidance. The Influencer Marketing Code of Practice will evolve as the influencer marketing landscape continues to develop.
The AIMCO Guiding Council, comprised of 17 organisations from within the founding members of AIMCO, have elected Detch Singh, Founder & CEO, Hypetap to serve as inaugural Chair with Patrick Whitnall, Head of Content and Sport, Publicis Media and Karan White, Business Director, Pod Legal as Deputies.
AIMCO Chair, Detch Singh, Founder & CEO Hypetap commented: "It has been incredible to see the enthusiasm with which the industry has come together for this initiative. Influencer marketing is now widely recognised as a powerful channel, but we have lacked a common language or voice as an industry. AIMCO will be working hard to execute an agenda of strengthening confidence in the category for marketers, creators and the general public."
The AIMCO Guiding Council will move forward to establish industry working groups to address continued areas of focus. AIMCO invites additional companies to join it’s members to participate in the working groups to improve the industry for all.
AIMCO members include: Allegiant Media/Tagger Media, Apex Sports Marketing, CHE Proximity,
Co-maker, Day Management, DVM Law, Hello Social, Hyland, Hypetap, JOOC’D, MediaCom, OMD Create, PHD Media, Pod Legal, Publicis Media, Q-83, Reprise Digital, Social Law Co, Social Soup,
The Lifestyle Suite, TotallyAwesome, TRIBE, Vamp, Wavemaker, We Are Social and WOM Network/Mouths of Mums.
The Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA) have launched AIMCO and have partnered with the industry to develop the Australian Influencer Marketing Code of Practice. The immediate intent is to focus on the significant adoption of these best practices and further developments will include widespread education and Industry training, continuous improvement and the implementation of accountability frameworks.
ENDS
For further information about AIMCO and how to get on board to improve the industry for all please contact: Josanne Ryan or Heather Craven at AMAA.
T: 02 9954 9800 or AIMCO@auditedmedia.org.au.
For media enquiries and interview requests please contact:
Sophie Muir at Maven PR
T: 0413 590 265 or sophie@mavenpr.agency
Vale Jerry Wright
It is with great sadness that we share the news with IFABC members of the passing of our valued colleague, and previous IFABC Executive Board Member and President, Mr Jerry Wright on Saturday June 6, 2020.
Jerry was the CEO of ABC UK for over 7 years where he propelled an auditing approach that responded to the industry’s shift towards digital publishing.
Jerry was the Global President of IFABC for four years. He was elected President on Octoer 13th, 2010 at the 24th IFABC General Assembly in Seoul, Korea and re-elected on October 25th 2012 at the 25th IFABC GA in Madrid, Spain before stepping down on November 6th 2014 at the 26th GA in rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was instrumental in moving the IFABC forward to a broader remit, embracing digital and other platforms. He fostered the organisation’s evolution and name change from focused on print circulation to be The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification.
Jerry Wright’s legacy remains with us, he is duly remembered, and his loss mourned by the IFABC fraternity.
General Assembly Update
Dear Members,
The IFABC constitution requires the GA to happen in 2020. There are important matters to decide, including the election of the next Executive Board, approvals, appointments and resolutions.
Given the current global health restrictions in place, it has been decided to proceed with a virtual General Assembly to be executed at the same timing as originally planned.
The Executive Board have agreed to hold a virtual General Assembly on Friday, 9th October 2020 at 12 noon UK time either through Google meet or through Zoom video conferencing. Designated format to be confirmed at a later date.
We apologize in advance for the odd hours that some of you may have to endure to participate. In order for this arrangement to work we will need to be concise so that we execute the assembly in less than two hours.
We want to ensure participation and voting for all members. We will keep you updated as plans are confirmed.
Various documentation required for the General Assembly will be provided as required.
The new Executive Board will reschedule an in-person General Assembly when the global situation permits in Vienna, Austria. Current best estimate of timing is the second quarter of 2021, but this may change.
As we have more details, we will keep you informed, but feel free to reach out to any of us at the Executive Board with questions or suggestions.
We wish you all good health and that we all can quickly overcome the current challenges.
IFABC EB
IFABC 29th General Assembly Announced
The IFABC's 29th General Assembly will be held in Vienna, Austria from October 6-9, 2020 at the Le Meridien, Vienna, hosted by Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle, Austria.
All members are invited to attend the Assembly which will bring together media industry specialists from across the world. It has never been more important for us to connect with our partner organisations to gain insight into how others are navigating the disruptions to the publishing industry, the changes in their markets and how services are evolving.
Visit the official website to learn more about the venue, events and agenda for this event.