ISBA's Origin On Track as Six More Advertisers Join

Origin, a cross-media measurement initiative led by the UK's advertising trade group ISBA has added six more advertiser stakeholders, and says its platform is now 'up and running'.

Origin is part of a global, advertiser-led initiative backed by the World Federation of Advertisers and aims to help organisations plan and measure campaigns across digital and broadcast platforms. In 2021, it was announced that Kantar had been selected to build a single-source household panel to measure advertising exposure across linear and digital channels; and the following January the project completed the first stage of its cross-media measurement proof of concept (POC) evaluation.

Origin and ISBA (the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) said in 2022 that they were committed to delivering a 'viable product' by early 2025. They have now confirmed that 'Alpha' trials of the system - involving advertisers EE, L'Oréal, PepsiCo, P&G and Unilever and their agencies EssenceMediacom, OMD, Publicis One and Mindshare - are being completed now with beta trials due to start in March. The six new backers - Boots, Colgate-Palmolive, HSBC, Nationwide, Sanofi and Red Bull - will be on board for these and join 29 advertiser stakeholders already signed up. Following the beta stage, the ISBA says Origin 'will effectively go live in the pilot trials phase ahead of its Minimum Viable Product launch in Q4 2024'.

Origin CEO Tom George (pictured) comments: 'The Origin platform has been driven by brand owners who need cross-media reporting and insights to help drive more effective campaigns in an increasingly complex advertising ecosystem. The fact that six more brand owners have joined the programme as funders is testament to its importance and the amount of demand in the market for what will be a global-first in audience measurement.

'The platform is up and running and data is now being surfaced - we expect to add many more participants both on the buy-side and sell-side as the trials phase progress across 2024'.

Web sites: www.originmediameasurement.com and www.isba.org.uk .