Toy of the year

The new Advertising Index Switzerland (AIS), with which Wemf will be offering a rival product to Media Focus from January, promises to add some color to the media planner's gray salad of figures next year. While the industry is still arguing about the sense and nonsense of a second currency in the area of advertising sales statistics, many are delighted with the radical transparency that the two statistics open up. They relentlessly shed light on the previously shrouded jungle of discounts and freespace. As before, Media Focus tells us how much advertising was placed by a particular client in a particular medium. The AIS now also provides us with the invoice issued to the client. This means that in future it will be child's play to work out to the nearest decimal place how much discount a competitor has taken - or granted.this subversive and unintended possibility could easily become the most attractive sales argument for the AIS. In any case, plausible justifications for double-tracking are rare. In December, the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) also joined the discussion. It is calling for a standardized base currency for advertising sales statistics. The SWA is also conducting a written survey to clarify the needs of its members.
(dse)