International Federation of
Audit Bureaux of Circulations
IFABC – Newsletter May/June 2014
Dear IFABC Friends,
1. President’s Introduction.
It is already nearly halfway through 2014, so I thought it would be timely to produce a second
newsletter updating you all on our IFABC activities and plans, which will culminate together in our
Global Assembly meeting in early November in Rio. In order to help as many of you to attend as
possible in these difficult financial times, we have set the delegate fee lower than Madrid in 2012.
More about Rio later, but I recently met the new CEO of AAM US, Tom Drouillard, on a visit he made
to London and he has confirmed his attendance, which is good news indeed.
2.
IFABC Europe Meeting
The IFABC Europe Group held a very useful and successful meeting in Zagreb at the beginning of
May. The event was superbly hosted by Sinisa Zugic and Igor Kern of ABC Croatia and the
programme was put together by Magnus Paulsson and colleagues, with moderation from Richard
Foan. The keynote external speaker was Dominic Lyle, Executive Director of EACA (European
Association of Communications Agencies). He presented the findings of research he carried out
amongst the members of his European Media Council, looking at what the agencies think about
audit bureaux and what services they would value from ABCs in the future.
The meeting also agreed the setting-up of a European Knowledge Centre, listing all the products and
services provided by each of the European bureaux, which will be created by Constantin Popa of
BRAT. Carolyn Morgan, who is revising and updating the ‘Future ABC of 2015 and beyond’ project,
presented her initial view of developments in the global media market. Finally, there were useful
discussions on print auditing, digital publications, multi-platform reporting (with new ideas from
Sweden) adex reporting and digital process opportunities in brand safety and viewability. The
meeting also agreed to set up a new European project to focus on cost and efficiency savings and
identify possible joint projects in these areas, for discussion at the Europe group meeting in Rio.
3. Global Data Library
The IFABC Global Data Library, managed by Iwona Szczesna, is now in its third year and starting to
become a valuable resource consulted by IFABC members and the wider media industry. Raising the
profile and status of IFABC was a key objective of setting up the library and we are now starting to
make real headway here. In 2014 we are adding magazine data for the first time, the Top 50 by
country for both Consumer and Business titles and covering print and digital edition circulation.
Please ensure that you have provided all the up-to-date data required for both magazines and
newspapers – we will all get more out of this if we put more in!
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International Federation of
Audit Bureaux of Circulations
4. New Members
The active New Member programme is now under the leadership of Manuel Sala from OJD Spain. In
the last few months we have been in discussion with Pakistan, Kenya and Nepal about setting up or
reforming bureaux and with New Zealand and South Africa about re-joining IFABC. We are also
planning to invite potential new ABCs in Paraguay and Uruguay to attend the Rio event as observers.
5. Industry Relations
IFABC continues to link up with other global media organisations to lead and stimulate debate. At
the recent I-Com (digital measurement) global conference in Seville, I co-chaired (with George Ivie of
the US Media Ratings Council) a private round table of industry measurement bodies (research and
census) and discussed our collective views of the challenges we all face with a panel of global
marketers and advertisers; a second meeting brought TV measurement bodies into the debate
about video measurement on-line.
Paul Dovas also recently presented to the FIPP Asia-Pacific Conference on measuring digital editions
and publications, which was warmly received by the large audience of delegates in Bangkok. Richard
Foan and I continue to work closely with EACA and we are planning for the WFA to present in Rio.
And finally ....
6. The Global Assembly in Rio
Preparations are now in full swing for the programme. The centrepieces will be:
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Presentations from a senior global GroupM leader Cynthia Evans, Chief Research and
Strategy Officer, GroupM, Latin America and an advertiser/ WFA.
‘Future ABC of 2015’ – how far have audit bureaux come since the 2012 report and what are
the 5 further steps they need to take now to ensure a healthy future?
Digital media editions and publications – what metrics and measurement does the media
world want and how to report “brands”?
Best practice for print auditing – new ideas and efficiency savings.
Marketing and membership retention – what works?
Who will lead and run the IFABC for the next two years?
Should we change the IFABC name or descriptor?
All in all it will be a great programme and I believe we will have a stimulating and rewarding event
that will offer practical ideas for innovation and improvements to all attendees. I look forward to
meeting as many of you as possible there.
With best wishes
Jerry Wright
Chief Executive of ABC UK and President of IFABC
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