Research Initiatives

ARF Research Leadership Committee

The ARF conducts original, critical research, answering the toughest questions the industry encounters in today’s ever-shifting landscape. The foundation funds this research by committing a portion of members’ dues to its research initiatives. Based on member feedback, the 2025 research agenda will focus mainly on these major projects:

  • The Relative Impact of Media vs. Creative vs. Brand vs. Targeting.
  • The Value of Premium and User-Generated Content (UGC).
  • The Attention Measurement Validation Initiative, Phase: 3.
  • 2025 ARF Handbook: Using AI in Advertising Research.
  • Retail Media Networks.
  • Cross-Platform Calibration.
  • Sonic Branding.
  • The 7th Annual Privacy Survey.
  • Advertising and the Disabled.
  • Attention Metrics Survey.
  • Future Media Planning.
  • Industry Uses of Gen AI.
  • Brand Safety in Turbulent Times (News Adjacency).
  • 3rd Bi-Annual Organizational Benchmark Survey.

To help focus on the most pressing issues in the industry, the ARF formed the Research Leadership Committee (RLC) in 2019. In 2020, this 21-member group quickly became essential to the foundation’s research process. Members interested in joining the 2025 committee should contact Membership.

The benefits of joining include:

  1. Helping to shape the ARF’s 2025 research agenda.
  2. Ensuring 2025 research funds support the needs of RLC members.
  3. Being recognized as an industry thought leader.
  4. RLC members co-create alongside the ARF Research Department by:
  • formulating research questions,
  • impacting the brands and campaigns studied,
  • helping to fashion RFPs and select research partners,
  • gaining early access to raw data and,
  • helping to interpret and shape results, final reports and conference presentations.

RLC members attend a one-hour, virtual meeting every eight weeks. Two identical meetings are held on the same day at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. ET to accommodate different time zones. You can call in from anywhere. Members will also attend occasional meetings as research is completed to help interpret the results.

To find out more about the RLC, email our Membership team.

2024/2025 Participants include:
2024 Participants