Who’s Watching Out For The Newspaper Advertiser?January 26, 2010
Media Management Inc. Notes Lack of Participation in New ABC Insert Verification Service; Independent Auditor Urges Advertisers To Insist Upon Insert Audits
As the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) hosts its 92nd annual conference this week in Las Vegas, media watchdog Media Management Inc.(MMI), an independent media auditor for the advertising industry participating in the conference, is asking “who’s watching out for the advertiser?” and is urging newspaper advertisers to be proactive in protecting their investments in insert buys. Noting that the newspaper industry has shown minimal interest in teaming up with the ABC to participate in its regulatory Insert Verification Service (IVS), which reviews the accuracy of newspapers’ insert practices, MMI urges ABC-member newspapers to get on board with IVS and help reinforce credibility among its advertisers who shell out an outstanding 8.7 billion free-standing inserts (FSI) annually.
Of the 1,200 plus major newspapers in the U.S., only 52 have signed on for IVS. The low participation levels point to the newspapers’ lack of interest in measuring their own effectiveness. MMI notes that the lack of interest from many newspapers, combined with the ABC’s recent change to a more relaxed variance standard of 15 percent (percent of error in third party delivery before the errors must be reported to the advertiser) for third party home delivery, reinforces the importance of independent media auditing services.
“The delivery of millions of FSI’s by newspapers is not a flawless process,” stated Thomas Bridge, president of MMI. “There’s room for error at many levels, including spoilage, circulation inaccuracies, delivery variances, rate misapplication and billing discrepancies. Independent media auditing is a way to safeguard local print advertisers and find those errors and regain restitution for the client, especially in the case when newspapers haven’t already taken the initiative to participate in their own industry’s watchdog program.”
MMI encourages advertisers to find out if their newspapers are IVS participants and inquire with the papers as to their means for ensuring accuracy of insert deliveries if they’re not enrolled. Further, given the random and periodic nature of the IVS process, independent auditing can offer an effective way to assess the quality of performance they’re receiving for FSI delivery. Independent media auditing across the full spectrum of an advertisers media mix can generate significant media savings, generally $11 for every $1 spent on the audit, in the form of rate reconciliations, application of all applicable discounts and rebates, discrepancy resolution, under delivery restitution and improved performance benchmarking. Auditing tools and resources allow a probe of all aspects of the media investment cycle necessary to insure that an advertiser receives full value for their media investment.
“The ABC’s IVS program is a positive step for the newspaper industry. Increasing publisher participation is an excellent way for the industry to build confidence within the advertiser community. At the end of the day, we simply want to validate the performance of our local print investment in a manner that is comparable to the criteria being applied to the balance of our media mix.” Craig Sinclair, Vice President of Advertising, Walgreen Co.
Bridge points out that the ABC created the insert verification service to help demonstrate the newspapers’ ability to effectively deliver inserts to designated target audiences, not to identify their wrongdoing or diminish their credibility. “The newspaper industry should see this as a positive step in maintaining interest, confidence and participation in print advertising by their advertisers. Enrollment in IVS is voluntary but any reputable newspaper should want to provide a means for accountability and reporting,” adds Bridge.
The Insert Verification Service reports on the overall proficiency rate and percentage of inserts reaching their intended targets. The report also identifies error rate, detailed information about the field test and other ABC observations. The report has a shelf-life of two years but audits can be done more frequently upon request by the publishers.
For more information regarding the Audit Bureau of Circulation Insert-Verification Service, visit www.accessabc.org. Inquiries regarding media auditing services can be directed to Thomas Bridge of Media Management Inc. at (636) 812-0140.
