AAM and BPA Merger
AAM and BPA Merger
An Alliance for the Benefit of Members
Tom Drouillard, CEO and Managing Director, Alliance for Audited Media, March 23, 2023
The Alliance for Audited Media and BPA Worldwide have recently merged to continue to drive increased trust and assurance across media channels.
The merger received overwhelming support from the AAM and BPA boards and memberships, the Alliance for Audited Media and BPA Worldwide have merged to become the largest not-for-profit media auditing organization in the world.
As we start a new journey as one organization, I wanted to give some background on how we came together and set the stage for what’s to come.
AAM and BPA have always been unique entities in the media industry – independent not-for-profit organizations, governed by boards including advertisers, agencies and publishers, focused on bringing trust to media transactions through audits and data distribution.
Together we are stronger. Between our organizations, we have more than two centuries of media auditing experience and 2,000 clients. We have a diverse client base across business, magazine and news media, with growing digital audit and certification services. We recognize that audits are critical to addressing the many issues the media industry faces. In fact, demand for increased digital advertising assurance was a driving force in the merger. By coming together, we can work with the industry as one auditing organization at this critical time when media and advertising are challenged with serious issues related to media quality, brand safety, privacy and sustainability.
Combining our complementary expertise and capabilities allows us to bring independent assurance across more channels — websites, newsletters, events, print, out-of-home, podcasts and ad tech — and across growing compliance areas such as advertising, editorial, privacy and sustainability.
This is the beginning of our combined organization. While we plan to make improvements over time, the experience of AAM and BPA clients will not change in the short term. As we work to bring our organizations together over the next few months, we promise to:
- Maintain our high level of service at a low cost as a not-for-profit organization.
- Streamline media buying and selling through a single data destination.
- Develop a suite of assurance services that raises the level of trust and transparency.
We appreciate the trust our members place in us as the industry authority for assurance services that increase media transparency and accountability. We are dedicated to differentiating high quality media outlets and service providers and are focused on helping buyers choose quality and maximize return on their media investments. We look forward to this journey as one organization with our clients, our employees, our board of directors and our industry.
IFABC announces Executive Board at 30th General Assembly
IFABC announces Executive Board at 30th General Assembly
Board members and the Presidency are voted for by delegates
representing IFABC members.
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) has elected its President and Executive Board at the 30th IFABC General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria in September 2022. This marked the first time in four years that members of the IFABC were able to meet in person at a General Assembly to share ideas, news and developments from around the world.
An important part of the 3-day event is the election of the Board and its President to steer the group into the future.
The 2022-24 members of the Executive Board are:
- Alexandra Beier-Cizek - OEAK, Austria
- Arina Ureche - BRAT, Romania
- Hormuzd Masani - ABC, India (IFABC Honorary Treasurer)
- Jean Paul Dietsch - ACPM, France
- Kai Kuhlmann - IVW, Germany
- Manuel Sala - OJD, Spain
- Pedro Silva - IVC, Brazil
- Simon Redlich - ABC, UK (IFABC President)
- Tom Drouillard - AAM, USA (IFABC Secretary)
Simon Redlich, Chief Executive of ABC UK, was re-elected as President for a second term, with Tom Drouillard, CEO of the U.S.-based Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) and Hormuzd Masani, Secretary Genreal of ABC India, also re-elected as the group’s Secretary and Honorary Treasurer respectively.
Simon commented, “I’m honoured to be re-elected as President of the IFABC for a second term. Over the last two years, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with my fellow members on a number of initiatives to advance auditing and media measurement. It’s clear that by pooling our learnings and expertise we’re able to find solutions more rapidly, which is essential in any fast-paced industry. I look forward to another two years of collaboration, as we focus on a new agenda to further advance transparency and accountability in media on a global scale."
IFABC is a global federation of audit bureaux committed to exchanging ideas and solutions to better support independently verified media data.
Tom said, “I am honored to be reelected to serve a third term as secretary for the IFABC. The IFABC is a great forum for collaboration and the exchange of ideas to help elevate trust and transparency in media, across platforms and around the world.”
IFABC is a global federation of bureaux representing 24 countries. It provides a forum for these organisations to come together, share knowledge and develop collaborative solutions that support trust in media.
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About the IFABC
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification (IFABC) is a voluntary federation of industry-sponsored organisations that have been established in nations throughout the world. IFABC members have a common commitment to the accurate and transparent reporting of comparable print and digital media performance data. Its aim is to work with national and international organisations in any way that constructively supports the work of its members. The Federation seeks to encourage and facilitate the exchange of experience and best practice between member organisations, and is committed to working towards a greater standardisation and uniformity in the reporting of circulations and other data. For more information, visit ifabc.org.