Using a new two stage process, ABC will verify the level of distribution to households and also report on the likelihood of those households to meet a set of defined targeting criteria using third party geo-demographic segmentation tools such as TGI, Mosaic or Acorn.
This scheme has been designed to serve the needs of advertisers and agencies interested in effectively targeting a specific profile type through free media. ABC’s certification will help them to identify those titles best suited to delivering the audiences they want and give greater confidence and trust in using household distribution as an effective advertising channel, says the ABC.
Media owners can now demonstrate to their advertisers that their selected audience has been independently verified to ABC industry standards.
These new ABC standards have been developed for all sectors including magazines, newspapers and doordrop media, and are therefore open to any media owner planning to use household distribution.
Mark Davies, Managing Director of Whistl Doordrop Media commented: “This is a welcome initiative that recognises our channel’s ability to accurately target and deliver new products to valuable audiences without the circulation constraints of the newsstand.”
Mike Colling, CEO MC&C commented: “From an agency perspective, I welcome this move by ABC to establish an industry standard on the planning methodologies and data sources used to reach different audiences at a household level. This will bring Doordrop Media into the fold of gold standard media auditing.”
Jan Pitt, Group Executive Director of Client Services at ABC, added: “I’m thrilled to announce this new cross-sector ABC scheme and the development of a set of consistent industry agreed standards for this market. I look forward to working with the industry to bring the ABC stamp of trust to media properties for whom this method of distribution is important.”
