Last week I had the pleasure of teaching Advertising Effectiveness 101 as part of the IAB professional development series. I've taught a few of these before and every time I come away more pumped up about the opportunities ahead for our industry. If you aren't familar with the program the IAB gives certification to people new to the industry who complete 40 hours of training on online advertising. They do some of the training and a few other companies also offer courses. It's a great way for people new to the industry to quickly get a foundation and show they are serious about our business. Peter Cervieri from Scribe Media was there to ask some questions after the event as you'll see in the video below.
The event was sold out so it was full of smart folks excited to be there. Many came from traditional research backgrounds and were looking to integrate more online advertising measurement into their multi-channel plans. Others included new technology vendors and people primarily buying online advertising. We had a great discussion about how you need to start measuring online advertising effectiveness with the basics - person-based uniques, frequency and GRPs -- thereby building trust in our ability to deliver comparable metrics that make the conversation comprehensible when marketers look to online's capability. Of course once they start spending more online we can dazzle them with our amazing talents in measuring advertising impact attitudes, behaviors and sales too!