TAM meets ISA, AAAI; lays out key steps

The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) called a joint meeting on 16 August 2012, with TAM.

As key users of audience research data, advertisers and advertising agencies need to know facts directly from the research agency. And if there are challenges at any level in the research, the research agency needs to share its proposed action plan with us', said Bharat Patel, Chairman-ISA and Arvind Sharma, President-AAAI, in a statement issued by AAAI on 17 August.

In the meeting, TAM outlined outlined six key action steps: (i) Appointment of a security officer and a security agency (ii) Expansion in number of meters in the existing six top metros (iii) A review by the industry of research processes that determine what TAM reports in its weekly reports. And what meter homes are left out of reporting for being data outliers (iv) Getting the outlier homes independently audited (v) Faster panel rotation and (vi) An internal audit team to be put in place as soon as possible.

“We look forward to speedy implementation of the six action steps outlined by TAM. With formation of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on the anvil, it will be appropriate for us to request BARC to review if these steps are adequate', said Patel and Sharma.