The study will consider the potential of emerging approaches across the continent and the differing motivations and incentives among advertisers, broadcasters, platforms, agencies and vendors.

The review will identify which approaches have the potential to deliver scalable, privacy-compliant, advertiser-grade solutions, and the practical steps required to achieve them. 

Industry consultants Andy Brown, Paul Goode and Sarah Mansfield will lead the review, and will be tasked with evaluating methodological strengths and weaknesses for cross-media measurement initiatives across Europe and the requirements for scale and adoption.

The review will also look at the roles of advertisers, agencies, media owners and measurement providers to make sure any initiatives have long-term viability.

The analysis will also outline any practical steps needed to move from experimentation toward solutions that can deliver consistent, deduplicated and comparable measurement of advertising exposure, reach and effectiveness across media channels, while meeting European privacy, regulatory and governance standards.

The review will not seek to mandate a single solution or currency, and instead provide a decision framework that markets can use to achieve greater alignment and collaboration across the ecosystem. 

CIMM, WFA and its authors will be supported by a cross-industry steering committee of senior leaders to make sure the review reflects technical complexity, political sensitivity, commercial competition and regulatory challenges, although the final analysis and conclusions will remain those of CIMM, WFA and the study authors. 

The steering committee includes: Zeman Bhunnoo, independent; Yannick Carriou, Mediametrie; Davide Crestani, Auditel; Ben Hovaness, Omnicom; George Ivie, MRC; Helen Katz, Publicis Media; Chris Mundy, RSMB, Valérie Morrisson, CESP; Neha Sharma, Unilever; Norman Wagner, Utiq; and Mark Stephenson, WPP Media.

 Jon Watts, managing director at CIMM, said: “While significant progress has been made, data silos, varying methodologies and regulatory constraints continue to create challenges for the industry.

“The commercial sustainability of different solutions is unclear. This new study aims to facilitate alignment and understanding about the prospects for cross-media measurement in Europe, the meaningful differences between the available solutions, and the challenges and priorities ahead – which will also be relevant to buyers and sellers in every market.”

Matt Green, director of global media and measurement at WFA, added: “Halo is now being brought to life through pioneering prototypes in the UK and US and the WFA is encouraged by the momentum behind the approach. At the same time, local JIC and broadcaster-led solutions continue to evolve.

“With this study, we hope to help the industry understand how these efforts can complement one another and what practical steps are needed for scalable, future-ready cross-media measurement that works for advertisers and the wider ecosystem.”