Tune Into Accountability: RAB Establishes Verification, Ratings Guidelines

headshot of Jeff Haley The Radio Advertising Bureau's board of directors has adopted a resolution that aims to make radio more accountable to advertisers, with recommendations for selling and schedule verification standards. The resolution, adopted by the RAB board during a semiannual meeting in Los Angeles last week, follows the decision by a number of big broadcasters to begin posting ratings to increase the medium's transparency for advertisers and media buyers.

The new RAB resolution suggests guidelines for the practice of posting ratings that are intentionally broad, since not every radio ad campaign can be judged by the same criteria.

To allow flexibility in reporting ratings, the RAB guidelines suggest that advertisers and radio broadcasters should "agree on posting criteria before the schedule runs, including the verification of audience delivery and the accepted margin of error."

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On this basis, "broadcasters will resolve shortfalls in audience delivery or schedule criteria as agreed." In terms of timing, the RAB suggested that "the advertiser/agency post-buy analysis should be conducted within 90 days of the conclusion of the schedule." If a makegood is required, it should be delivered within 60 days of the completion of the post-buy analysis.

The RAB also suggests that advertisers and broadcasters should "aim to reduce statistical error through aggregating audience measurement (multi-book, multi-month averaging), expanding demographic targets, and lengthening delivery time frames."

These broad guidelines will take more concrete form in the near future, according to Jeff Haley, the president and CEO of the RAB. Haley remarked: "We will work closely with the buying community and the American Association of Advertising Agencies to develop and refine our proposal into a set of sound business practices that will enhance advertisers' confidence in radio while protecting our industry."

The RAB noted that radio advertisers "have not had the benefit of verification or a make-good guarantee that other media have provided," but adds that this is increasingly unacceptable, as "advertisers and their agencies are now held to greater accountability standards due to company specific and certain regulatory oversight of their media investments."

Frustrated by the lack of accountability, the RAB implies, advertisers may simply take their money elsewhere; one obvious candidate is the Internet.

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