Media evaluators took their first steps towards consensus last week with
an agreement to establish a joint industry body to develop a standard
unit of media measurement.
Evaluation companies including Metrica, Mantra, CMS, The Henshall Centre
and Media Measurement, pledged support for a joint body incorporating
IPR and PRCA representatives.
Over pounds 20,000 of funding was pledged by members of the industry,
although the joint body has yet to be ratified by the IPR and PRCA.
Support for the body was, however, by no means unanimous. A further 12
representatives withheld their support due to reservations about the
benefits of a common standard to the industry.
Industry representatives also failed to rise to calls for the immediate
establishment of an association which would sit alongside the IPR and
PRCA in the joint industry body.
The think tank was the brain child of Raymond Wilson, group corporate
affairs manager at Norwich Union, Quentin Bell former chairman of the
PRCA and Peter Crowe committee member of the IPR Marketing
Communications group.
The trio proposed the creation of a standard unit of measurement - The
Public Relations Point (PRP) which would dovetail with existing
advertising GRPs and TVRs
‘The evaluation industry has grown tremendously and is facing enormous
opportunities but still acts as an immature one, and therefore it needs
to form itself into an association,’ said Bell.
