Commentary

State Of The 'Currency' Marketplace: Fiesta, Siesta, Fiasco?

by Tony Jarvis , Op-Ed Contributor, April 1, 2026

The Advertising Research Foundation's CIMM East Conference in New York City Tuesday began where last year's left off: on an advertising “currency fiesta,” per Fox Senior Vice President-Research & Data, Ad Sales' Kym Frank, who famously made that quip in 2025.

"Currency siesta" fellow panelist Nicolas Grand, executive director of research …

alternate currencies, currencies, events, media measurement, metrics, research, television

3 comments about "State Of The 'Currency' Marketplace: Fiesta, Siesta, Fiasco?".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 1, 2026 at 1:45 p.m.
Very comprehensive report, Tony. I gather that there wasn't much interest in determining whether anyone was watching TV content or ad messages---which still continues to amaze me.
Reply

Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, April 1, 2026 at 2:46 p.m.

Ed: Just posted this on LinkedIn in response to Dr. Tracy Adams', ARF, excellent observations on the complex barriers facing media measurment in the US. I believe it underlines the concerns we have both expressed regarding the critical importance of people-based real exposure measurement for too long.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tracy-adams625_cimmeast2026-cimmeast2026-measurement-activity-7444879478142439424-_Jnw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAKo4FUBIAk90m3xtqphku7ECsUhBCx676Y

"I would add a caution that relying on device-based ("content rendered counts on the glass" aka "viewable impressions") measurement essentially takes the industry back years to circulation/distribution metrics that we seriously left behind after the seminal Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Media Model was published, 2003. Understanding how advertising works and the most relevant metrics to use has continued its sophistication with Attention metrics. No Attention. No outcomes!"

I have a piece coming out imminently on ARF's Evaluation of Attention Measurement, Phase III that was driven by Tracy together with Paul Donato at ARF. Terrific work on this critical media dimension by ARF.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 1, 2026 at 3 p.m.

Thanks, Tony. Looking forward to youir upcoming report.