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Toronto, February 1, 2017: The Association of Canadian Advertisers today announced it has joined the Media Rating Council (MRC) to bolster its mandate of ensuring marketers do business in a fair, transparent and accountable marketplace.

ACA is the first and only Canadian member of the New York-based, industry-funded self-regulatory body that audits and accredits audience rating services.

“It is our hope that joining MRC demonstrates ACA’s commitment to transparency and accountability in all media,” said Ron Lund, President and CEO of ACA. “We encourage others in the Canadian industry to stand up for these issues as well to help restore trust.”

ACA’s membership in the Council will give Canadian advertisers a forum to push non-audited and accredited vendors to seek MRC accreditation. In addition, advertisers will have greater oversight of the MRC’s work with Canadian media measurement systems both in digital and broadcast.

It will also ensure ACA involvement in MRC work on viewability, invalid traffic, impressions and click definitions, as well as greater insight into the state of accreditations and audits.
The mission of the Council – which comprises more than 150 members from broadcast TV and radio, cable television, print, advertising agencies, advertisers and Internet constituencies – is to secure audience measurement that is valid, reliable and effective. The MRC sets the standards for ratings operations and ensures compliance through audits performed by an independent CPA firm.

“We appreciate the leadership that ACA is showing in encouraging measurement organizations important to Canadian advertisers to seek MRC Accreditation,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director at Media Rating Council. “A strong advertiser voice in MRC is critical to achieving MRC’s mission of seeking audience measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective.”