• Adweek, Monday, October 12, 2009 10:16 AM

Back in August, Procter & Gamble claimed it was unaware it advertised in Glenn Beck's controversial news show and said that any P&G ads appearing in the show were mistakes. Turns out, such mistakes are easier than ever to make, and most errors aren't detected until weeks or months after the ad campaigns are over.

To help fix the problem, several near-real-time verification systems have entered the market in the last year. The largest are Montreal-based Eloda 's Protocol and Nielsen's KeepingTrac. (Adweek is owned by Nielsen). GroupM has a blanket agreement with KeepingTrac for clients that want to utilize the service. MPG is testing both systems for its client Reckitt Benckiser and Carat has worked with KeepingTrac from the outset.

Eloda, whose clients include Walgreen, Accenture and Bell Canada, says it has found that most campaigns have discrepancies in 3% to 20% of the ads in the campaigns. Eloda is currently going private in a pre-packaged plan under Canadian Bankruptcy Court, from which it expects to emerge in four weeks.

Read the whole story at Adweek »