Origin, the UK cross media measurement initiative has reached another milestone with the ISBA Council agreeing that funding for the next stage of Origin’s development will come in part from ISBA and its members’ subscriptions.

The process of implementing a one-off increase to 2023 subscriptions to facilitate this has now begun and all members have been informed.

This commitment to support Origin financially reflects the importance of accountable cross-media campaign measurement to marketers. In our latest ISBA member survey, cross media measurement was named as a key challenge. Fragmenting audiences, the proliferation of advertising formats, and siloed proprietary measurement have made it impossible to optimise the effectiveness of campaigns. The ISBA membership is now committed to making the solution to this a reality.

Speaking about the decision, Margaret Jobling, CMO Nat West and ISBA President said:

“As marketers, one of the biggest challenges we face is how to communicate advertising messages to our customers effectively and efficiently without bombarding them with excessive numbers of ads that we know diminishes the public perception of, and trust in, advertising. This is becoming increasingly difficult as audiences continue to fragment.

If you overlay the strategic media planning challenge this presents and how this situation can contribute to media inflation, then this explains why NatWest are founding stakeholders in Origin. The ability to better measure and optimise reach & frequency across multiple channels from a single- source of data is critical for us in achieving our aims.

As President of ISBA, I know that many brand owners feel the same.

This latest development is a clear sign of the importance of Origin in advancing the audience measurement offerings and a clear sign of commitment from the UK advertiser community.”

Sarah Mansfield, VP Global Media, Unilever and ISBA Vice President said:

“The opportunity that cross media measurement, delivered through Origin, will provide in terms of the ability to plan the most efficient and effective media schedules is vital for marketers and this is why Unilever has been a funding supporter since its inception. The commitment by the ISBA Council to increase funding is a clear sign of the groundswell of support by the marketing community for true deduplicated cross media reach metrics through Origin.”