ARF chief sees “tangible progress” in a chaotic marketing-research industry

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the industry body, believes that real progress is being made in tackling some of the biggest problems facing the research industry.

“Whenever we find ourselves banging our heads against difficult and perennial problems,” argued Scott McDonald, “it is easy to feel discouraged or to lose sight of tangible progress.

Scott McDonald, president/CEO, Advertising Research Foundation (ARF)

“But that is a big mistake,” the president/CEO of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) told the organization’s 2019 AUDIENCExSCIENCE conference. “Most scientific progress happens in incremental steps that can be slow, but that accrete and accumulate in ways that give us confidence that the progress is real and not hype.”

Indeed, he said as he kicked off the Jersey City gathering, “To bring focus...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands