If you are attending Nielsen's annual Consumer360 conference in San Antonio, we hope you'll stop by our CRE booth, which will be located by the Innovation Expo within the main foyer near the general session room. You will be able to enter your name for a drawing to receive an iPad 3 and request a copy of our soon-to-be-published Big Data Primer.

You can't miss the booth – nor will you be able to miss CRE members attending the event: They will be wearing special CRE-ID ribbons on their conference name badges.

We'll also have a special hashtag for the event – #CRETalkingConsumer360 – and we'll be tweeting from our @CREtalk Twitter handle during the event.

We hope to see you there!

The CRE will host a late-July event to provide an update on the Digital Research Committee's previously announced ethnographies of video-viewing. The accelerator ethnography, to examine potential future consumer behavior, is scheduled for completion by that point, and the CRE will announce findings on that, as well as a material update on the progress and learnings to-date on the longitudinal ethnography.

Nielsen clients should look for an email with details in early July.

The CRE's forthcoming whitepaper on cross platform metrics, overseen by the Media Consumption & Engagement (MC&E;) committee, is progressing toward a fall debut.

In the meantime, the CRE's research associate on the effort, Horowitz Associates, undertook a review of the literature about current industry thinking on the issues surrounding the topic.

The review encompassed secondary sources on the subject of cross-platform measurement, including industry journal articles, white papers, conference presentations and trade press articles. Horowitz identified the following four key "issue areas": alignment of metrics and units of analysis; alignment of methodologies; the relative benefits and drawbacks of single-source versus data integration; and whether or not engagement, or any other dimension of the media consumption experience, should become part of the metrics used to evaluate media across different video, audio, digital and static platforms.

The research review summary will be posted to the CRE's website.

The study team is underway with the next phase of the project, conducting primary research among executives across the media industry. In addition, Betsy Frank, a former CRE member, has been brought in to supplement the resources applied to the project.

The core objective of the white paper is to inform the development of a research agenda for the CRE that will help guide the industry toward the development of consistent media metrics.

An update will be provided in a subsequent newsletter.

The CRE's ROI Committee, chaired by David Poltrack, continues to lead the audience research community in advancing the dialogue regarding the complex practice of marketing mix modeling (MMM).

The Council recently granted the committee approval to award Sequent Partners a new project to follow up on its 2013 whitepaper, The Current State of Marketing Mix Models. Poltrack announced the follow-up study on June 10 at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) Audience Measurement 2014 conference, "The Measurement Mandate."

The CRE's objectives in this ongoing effort include the development of an in-depth understanding of principal ROI methods used; defining best practices; and recommending priority areas for industry improvement.

Visitors to the CRE site can find the 2013 ARF AM 8.0 presentation of the Sequent whitepaper findings.

For the CRE's regular quarterly meeting held earlier this month, Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), visited to update the members on what his organization views as "strategic media imperatives."

These include measurement initiatives underway in the area of cross-platform analytics; the "Making Measurement Make Sense" (3MS) effort including the participation of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC); measuring the "plethora" of unmeasured media; standardization; and ongoing measurement governance.

Accountability consistently tops the list of priorities in ANA member surveys, Liodice noted.

Advertisers, agencies and media companies must institute an industry-wide "business-proposition mentality," he said. "We need to invest millions to generate billions."

Citing 3MS – and that it "has taken three years to get going" – Liodice said the ANA is working to help "evolve and transform industry metrics and measurement to improve the ecosystem and decision-making by marketers."

Liodice added that the 3MS participants formed consensus around a common top priority: standardized video measurement across all platforms. "Many people have been doing that," he said. "But those case studies have not been vocalized. We're working on doing that."

He promised continued communication with the CRE on the ANA's efforts.

The ANA has been cooperating with the CRE on its cross-platform whitepaper (see article above).

At the CRE's quarterly meeting in March, the Council welcomed as a member John McMorrow, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, at Cox Television's HRP subsidiary.

Experts on advertising research and audience measurement joined for a panel discussion, "The Measurement Mandate – Progress Report," on June 10 at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) Audience Measurement 9.0 conference in New York.

The panel was moderated by Joan Lewis, Global Consumer & Market Knowledge Officer, Procter & Gamble.

The panelists, representing organizations engaged in measurement issues, were: Jane Clarke, Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM); Bill Duggan, Group Executive Vice President, Committees, Association of National Advertisers; George Ivie, Executive Director of the Media Rating Council; Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Industry Services, Interactive Advertising Bureau; Jasper Snyder, Executive Vice President, Research and Innovation: Cross-Platform, The ARF; and Richard Zackon, CRE Facilitator

Lewis posed these questions to panelists:

Q: What's your organization doing?

Q: What's the biggest barrier?

As for the latest activity from the CRE, Zackon noted the progress on the whitepaper on cross-platform measurement, and on the ethnographies, and the ROI Committee's newly launched follow-up study into marketing mix modeling. (For more on these projects, please see preceding articles in this edition.)

Regarding the "biggest barrier" facing measurement, Zackon offered, "It's been said that a big barrier is legacy systems. I think it's legacy thinking." Quoting Einstein, he added, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Zackon also urged ongoing progress in collaboration among the multiple organizations engaged in measurement. "We speak a lot about collaboration, but most of what I see is debate, not dialogue."

Further information on this and other panels can be found at the ARF's event microsite.

The CRE's Education Committee successfully hosted its first-ever Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) seminar on June 16, 2014 at the Manhattan office of MAIP sponsor the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As).

The CRE presentation, on "Using Research to Tell A Story," included opening remarks by CRE Education Committee Chair Jed Meyer, followed by a media & consumer insight case study presented by Meyer's Annalect colleagues Priscilla Aydin, Crystal Clark-Archer and Kebrina Robinson, all Education Committee volunteers; and it closed with a discussion panel on careers in research including three other Annalect executives: Tools & Insights Group Director, Kathy Grey; Investment Research Director, Jon Cogan; and Primary Research Director, Dr. Pamela Marsh. Chrystie Kelly and Laura Zampa from Universal McCann, also Education Committee volunteers, attended as well.

Nearly 100 MAIP interns joined for the two-hour event. "I could feel their enthusiasm based on the abundance of questions and their thoughtful remarks about the industry, the importance of research and their own career paths," Meyer observed.

"Based on feedback from networking after the event, the CRE presentation was well received and our goal to 'bring research to life' was certainly achieved," he added.

At the CRE's quarterly meeting in March, the Council welcomed as a member John McMorrow, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, at Cox Television's HRP subsidiary.

The CRE is pleased to announce that the following – including the CRE's first-ever colleagues representing the Nielsen Audio community -- have been accepted as members:

• Joseph Abbruzo, Executive Vice President, Chief Exploration Officer, Havas Media
• Kathleen Bohan, Senior Vice President, Local Research, Univision
• Buzz Knight, Vice President, Program Development, Greater Media
• Tony Marinaro, Corporate Director of Research, LIN Media
• Andy Rainey, Senior Vice President, Research, Radio Advertising Bureau
• Stacey Schulman, Executive Vice President, Strategy, Analytics and Research, Katz Media Group
• Howard Shimmel, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales and Research, Turner Broadcasting
• Susie Thomas, Senior Vice President, Partner, Research, Universal McCann

Stacey, Howard and Susie were CRE members when with previous employers.

At the CRE's quarterly meeting in March, the Council welcomed as a member John McMorrow, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, at Cox Television's HRP subsidiary.

Longtime CRE member Jack Wakshlag stepped down at the end of March from his position as Chief Research Officer at Turner Broadcasting. During his 12-year term in that role, he has been credited with innovations such as establishing Turner as the first TV organization to begin coding its programming to measure the impact of over-the-top video consumption on commercial viewing; digital ad load testing that persuaded Turner to place content online with full ad loads; CNN All Screen; Advanced Media Targeting; a highly regarded promo testing data base; and successful program/movie estimating processes, among other achievements. We know readers join us in congratulating Jack on this recently concluded phase of his distinguished career and in wishing him the best on his next endeavors.

The CRE has begun a committee for the study of the effects of commercial pod length. The committee, chaired by Hadassa Gerber, Director of Research for the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), expects to begin its inaugural research effort in 2014.

We're pleased to welcome back Judy Vogel, Vice President of Research at Gannett Company, Inc.; Michael Nathanson, Senior Research Analyst at MoffettNathanson, LLC; and Bryon Schafer, Senior Vice President of Research at Warner Bros. Television. All three were prior CRE members while with other companies, and were re-admitted at the CRE's December quarterly meeting.

The Steering Committee of the CRE voted to approve the establishment of a $30,000 scholarship in the name of Susan Whiting, at her alma mater Denison University. Susan, who will be retiring from her position as vice chair at Nielsen at year-end, was instrumental in the creation of the CRE in 2005.

The CRE welcomes its newest members: