• March 15, 2004

In a move suggesting they have not made as much headway as they would have liked, the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies Monday called upon media outlets, advertisers, agencies and their supporting players to "embrace" Ad-ID, a new digital coding system for trafficking and managing ads across media in a digital media environment. The code, which is owned by the associations, has been dubbed a "UPC code" for advertising, because of its ability to seamless track advertising campaigns regardless of their point of origin or their final output. It's also considered a critical component for advertising verification and media auditing systems. To date, only a handful of major marketers including Procter & Gamble, Con Agra, PepsiCo, Ernst & Young, Nautica, and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have signed up to use the Ad-ID codes, which are leased on an annual or an a la carte basis.