A new super-thin Apple notebook computer was not the only sexy thing to come out of MacWorld. ADM held its all-member committee working group, and what could be more attractive than progress towards infusing our industry with copious ad purchases?

Thanks to Kiptronic and Porter Novelli for hosting the meeting in San Francisco and New York City respectively, and for Blog Talk Radio to connecting the dots through conference and chat. The hour was packed with reports and ideas. There was a lot worth covering, but I want to lay out the two biggest initiatives on our near-term plate.

Ad Units - (part of the Ad Standards Committee)

We are moving quickly to establish an advertiser-vetted list of the most common ad units to be deployed in our industry. Similar to the way IAB brokered known frame sizes for banners, we will release defined types of units that will be consistent and replicable across the largest swath of the industry. Why? Two reasons.  One:  We need a common currency to promote liquidity in the marketplace. Using these proposed units will not be a requirement to do business, but we believe they will further encourage transactions and get buyers, advertisers, publishers and intermediaries on the same conversational page.  Two: For advertisers to be interested in using our channel of distribution they need to be able to buy large amounts of media across many shows and networks, having a creative standard that allows them to do this ensures that marketing budgets will be placed in our industry.

Audience Counting Guidelines (part of the Measurement Committee)

Advertisers are much more likely to place advertising dollars within an industry that can demonstrate known quantities of measurement output.  In other words, an advertiser that calls on two separate publishers, should be able to make data-driven decisions on an apples to apples basis.  Today this is not an easy task.  ADM can enable these transactional analyses by offering guidelines to the most common practices that our industry uses to measure audience.  ADM will poll its members and develop a set of criteria that are currently being used to arrive at audience measurement.  We understand that not every member handles these actions the same ways, so articulating the variety of ways that are used, and agreeing on some basic operating principles, will take us much further toward creating a framework that advertisers can understand.

I consider these to be the most important objectives of the first quarter of 2008. There are plenty of other issues to focus on and work toward, as we certainly will. But expect ADM to drive towards delivery of these essential two outcomes in the very near future.