• by Erik Sass , April 5, 2006

At a time when advertising accountability seems to be top of mind, a group of advertisers, agencies and marketing scientists has formed a new initiative to finally crack the ROI code. Dubbed The Boardroom Project, the initiative hopes to establish the kind of marketing measurement standards that will finally lead to both transparency in marketing decisions, as well as easier ways of evaluating the success of those decisions.

"The main aim is that all the information that we're collecting--the metrics and the data that we all use on a daily basis--should have a formula that leads to accountability," says Kate Sirkin, executive vice-president of Starcom MediaVest, one of the agencies involved in the initiative. "Right now, of course, we measure the impact of copy, circulation, GRPs, engagement--but we need to understand how and why they're linked to increased cash flow. Does it lead to increased value for the brand in the short or the long term?"

Other charter members of the effort include PepsiCo, research giant VNU, the Advertising Research Foundation, the Marketing Science Institute, and the ARS Group, but SMG's Sirkin says the group hopes to recruit other marketers and agencies to sign up.

In large part, The Boardroom Project will be an econometric effort, and will seek to put some firm numbers around some seemingly ethereal concepts such as engagement. "Engagement isn't driving it, but it will become important in it," notes Sirkin.

Of course, failed efforts to formulate industry-wide plans for marketing accountability have littered the road over the last few years--so what makes The Boardroom Project different? Well, in the past the initiative often came from a small group of people, who didn't really sell it to the rest of the industry, according to Sirkin. By contrast, "We're working on the whole industry to make sure that our broad set of inputs is as good as it can be. We're working with merchandisers, manufacturers, media agencies, advertising agencies, and industry bodies--everyone."