Keynote Session

A Conversation About the Future  
Rishad Tobaccowala, author of Rethinking Work: Seismic Changes in the Where, When and Why, will sit down with ARF’s Scott McDonald to discuss why we need to rethink work. How does it need to be rethought? What steps must the marketing, media research, and advertising industries take?
Rishad Tobaccowala – Author, Speaker, Teacher & Advisor
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF

Presentation

Olympics in a New Era of Measurement
In an era where sports represent much of the most in-demand content in the media universe, NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Paris Olympics showed dominance across all platforms. Beyond adding up viewership, the measurement work focused on understanding the reach and overlap across platforms, mapping out the viewer journey to and from the Olympics, sizing the impact for advertisers, and understanding the role of social and short-form video platforms as complementary viewing platforms and sources of discovery. These efforts were crucial in understanding viewer behavior, optimizing content delivery, and enhancing both the overall viewing & advertising experience.
Jorge de la Rosa – SVP, Research, NBC Sports Group
Matt Gottlieb – SVP, Ad Sales Insights & Measurement, NBCUniversal
Brian West – SVP, Data & Measurement Strategy, NBCUniversal

Conversation

How Nielsen Continues to Innovate Audience Measurement
Christine Pierce, Nielsen’s Chief Data Officer, discusses Nielsen’s latest innovations and advancements in audience measurement. From Big Data + Panels to Advanced Audiences and more, hear how Nielsen is driving more accurate measurement for the industry.
Christine Pierce – Chief Data Officer, Nielsen
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF

Attention is Not Attention is Not Attention

It’s certainly not emotion.

Matthew Cottle – VP, NA Ad Effectiveness Leader, NIQ

How B2B Brands Can Win Audience Attention

Which advertising tactics matter, and which don’t?

Phillip Lomax – EVP, Business Development, MediaScience
Ty Heath – Director & Co-Founder, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn

Optimizing Retail Media Networks

A unified approach to omnichannel ROI measurement and integration.

Bharath Gaddam – Co-Founder, DataPOEM

Send In the Clones

Measuring the performance of human and AI-generated voices in audio advertisements.

Steve Keller – Sonic Strategy Director, Studio Resonate/XM Media
Nick Fletcher – Senior Manager, Studio Resonate/XM Media

Beyond Clicks and Conversions

The world’s largest attention and outcome study.

David Bassett – Founder & Chief Analytics Officer, Lumen Research
Anders Lithner – CEO, Brand Metrics
Parvati Vaish – SVP, Analytics, Havas Media Network

Enhancing Position Auctions in Retail Media

An improved retail media auction approach to increase advertiser and retailer revenues.

Carl Mela – Finch Foundation Professor, Duke University
Jason Pratt – General Manager, Koddi

How to Train AI to Go Deep

AI can be trained to grasp genuine emotions.

Dirk Ziems – Founding Partner, Concept m AI
Steffen Schmidt, Ph.D. – Founding Partner & Managing Director, Concept m AI

Women in Analytics /Young Pros Luncheon — MULTIPURPOSE ROOM

Sharpen Your Skillset for Success
Join the ARF Women in Analytics and Young Pros groups for an interactive luncheon on March 25 at AUDIENCExSCIENCE. Inspiring industry peers will share how they are growing their careers by identifying the skills and strategies needed and putting them into action.

Attention and Brand Lift

Advertising during emotionally charged events.

Nicole Jones – Chief Media Commercial Lead, Kantar
Siddarth Subramaniam – Vice President, Media Client Service, Kantar
Deepak Varma – Head of Neuroscience Insights, NA, Kantar

The Untapped Opportunity of Omnichannel

The benefits of an omnichannel, audience-first approach for brands and consumers.

Holly Riedlinger – Principal Consultant, PA Consulting
Melissa Hutter – Sr. Director, Research & Insights, The Trade Desk

Beyond Likes: How Creators Drive Real Business Outcomes

Learn how brands can effectively partner with creators to boost commerce and reputation in a high-stakes economy.

Aarti Bhaskaran – Global Head, Research & Insights, Snap
Kara Louis – Head of Global Agency Research, Snap

Ads Don’t Bother Viewers, Bad Experiences Do

Issues in streaming environments diminish the viewer experience.

Andrea Wood – Director, Research & Insights, Comcast Advertising
Daniel Bulgrin – Director of Research Operations & Insights, MediaScience

Football’s Big Game: How Viewers Tuned In and Shifted Behavior Across Sources and Time

How viewers consume TV around the Big Game. 

Rich Guinness – Associate Director, Data Licensing, VIZIO
Mikey Kramer – Data Analyst, VIZIO
Jason Moe – Director, Inscape Measurement

Innovations in Cross-Screen Incremental Outcome Measurement

Using ML techniques that doesn’t require experiments.

Greg Faletto – Intermediate Data Scientist, VideoAmp
Keith Landry – Sr. Principal Data Scientist, VideoAmp
Katy Mitchell – Director of Product, VideoAmp

Presentation & Conversation

Smart Segments, Better Retail Media
Retail media is growing fast with the promise of rich customer behavioral data and closed loop measurement. But many advertisers are not happy with the results they are getting. Retail Media CPMs tend to be higher than other media options, which requires campaign performance to be higher to justify the investment. Smart advertisers are building unique segments that take advantage of consumer purchase data to lower their effective CPM (eCPM) and deliver exceptional results.
Explore five approaches advertisers use to build unique segments that deliver superior results.
Mike Ellgass – EVP Media, CPG and Retail, Circana

An Interesting Year in Measurement
Against political and economic uncertainty and the rise of AI, advertisers and media companies face many uncertainties. How is CBS thinking about their businesses in periods of instability? How have live events, which often promote the rest of the network schedule and build the brand, changed? What direction are changes in viewership trending?
Colleen Fahey Rush – EVP & CRO, Paramount
Interviewer: Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF

Presentation

Cross-Media Measurement Challenges: Data Transparency, Inconsistent Methodologies & Their Impact on Campaign Measurement 
What happens when different measurement sources on the same campaign do not align and can potentially impact planning decisions for marketers and agencies?  Dotdash Meredith will share a real example of a (blinded) Q4 DDM 2024 campaign to highlight the challenge of understanding the “source of truth” and how to evaluate vendors that do not provide transparency on methodology and/or their use of panels.
Neil Napolitano – Executive Director of Measurement Innovation, Dotdash Meredith

Award Presentation

Erwin Ephron Demystification Award: 2025 Recipient
The Erwin Demystification Award, founded in tribute to Erwin Ephron, the father of ‘recency,’ and legend in his own right, honors industry leaders who can, among other criteria, similarly take complex subjects and make them accessible and understandable.

Keynote Session

Measuring Human-AI Societies  
We live in societies where humans and AI agents influence each other. In a recent article (available here), this phenomenon is referred to as human-AI co-evolution. AI agents are evolving faster than we are, but their goal remains the same: to show us popular items they think we will like. This exploitation mode limits exploration and growth. In this talk, learn about human-AI co-evolution and why measuring the feedback loop between us and AI agents is important. You will also gain insight into balancing exploitation with exploration.
Tina Eliassi-Rad – Professor of Computer Science and The Inaugural Joseph E. Aoun Chair, Northeastern University

Presentation

Why Online Privacy Matters for Marketers
The future of advertising is here, and it’s built on privacy. How can Privacy Sandbox help you power successful campaigns while respecting user privacy? How can you leverage these technologies alongside other privacy-safe signals to achieve your goals? How should you collaborate with agency and ad tech partners to navigate this change? Join the Privacy Sandbox team for insights and discussion about the new era of online advertising.
Lisa Martinez – Director Privacy Partnerships, Google
Bosko Milekic – Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Optable

Impression Quality: Codifying Attention Metrics

Moderator: Horst Stipp, Ph.D. – EVP, Research, & Innovation, ARF

Streaming: Changing TV

Moderator: Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer, ARF

Identifying Language preferences in US Hispanic/Spanish-Speaking Households

Leveraging media consumption across the digital ecosystem.

Sergey Fogelson – VP, Head of Data Science, TelevisaUnivision
Pouya Tehrani – Director, of Data Science, Graph & Insights, TelevisaUnivision

Cross-Platform Audience Deduplication for All

Bayesian deduplication methodology powers cross-platform reach measurement.

Rouzbeh Gerami – SVP, Data Science, Nielsen
Remy Spoentgen – Director, Data Science, Nielsen

The Evolution of Quality Media

Creating a custom effectiveness score for actionability.

Souptik Datta – Sr. Director, Data & Analytics Services, GroupM
Michael Siewart – Sr. Director, Data Driven Media, Colgate-Palmolive Company

The Power of Moments

A data-driven guide to crafting impactful campaigns.

Alexis Harris – Research & Insights Manager, TikTok
Nora Vulaj – Research & Insights Manager, TikTok

Into the Wild

How video advertising works in the real world.

Jeff Ephraim Bander – President, eye square
Olaf Schlesiger – Head of Research, Screenforce
Stefan Schönherr – EVP, Brand & Media, eye square

The Inclusive Screen

How marketers can leverage CTV to drive connections with multicultural audiences.

Alex Fu – Sr. Market Insights Manager, LG Ad Solutions

Quantifying the Netflix Effect 

How the streaming giant has changed the content calculus.

Brian Hughes – Director, Data Communications, Nielsen

Marketing Effectiveness Measurement: New Approaches

Moderator – Jay Mattlin, VP, Research & Councils Director, ARF

Diversity: DEI Equality & Authentic Representation

Moderator: Janelle A. James – SVP & US Head of Cultural Intelligence, Ipsos NA

Privacy: Approaches to Audience Targeting

Moderator: Colin Campbell, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Marketing, Univ. San Diego; Editor in Chief, JAR

Return On Media

Streaming video services generate better business outcomes using paid and owned together.

Rameez Tase – Co-Founder and President, Antenna
Jaewon Royce Choi, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University
Larry DeGaris – Executive Director, Medill Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University

Unlocking Advertising Potential

Inclusive representation through a data-driven approach.

Erika Digirolamo – Sr. Director, Global Media & Analytics, Circana

Privacy First, Cookies Second

The new advertising challenge.

Andrew Pascoe – VP,  Data Science Engineering, NextRoll

Balancing Short-Term Performance Marketing and Long-Term Brand Building

Strategies and implications for bridging the gap.

Matt Voda – CEO, OptiMine

A New Audience Perspective

D/Cipher connects major drug brand to audiences navigating Type 2 Diabetes in key moments of need.

Ieva Matulaitis-Kunca – VP, Research & Insights, Dotdash Meredith

Experiential Marketing Measurement

How Coca-Cola pre-tests, measures and optimizes impact.

Gabe Gales – Director, Global Media & Communications Effectiveness, The Coca-Cola Company
Dara St. Louis – EVP & Founding Partner, Reach3 Insights

For the Win

7 Myths (And Truths) Brands Need to Know About the Women’s Sports Fanbase.

Mary Kate Callen – SVP, Audience Impact & Intelligence, Paramount Advertising
Sophia Ingram Ross – Director, Audience Impact & Intelligence, Paramount Advertising

Panel

Reaction to “Is the Future of Planning the Platform?”
Industry heads share their points of view, informed by their experience working with planning systems based on MMM, Hyper-personalization, Agentic Targeting and Outcomes.
Don Abraham – Senior Partner, Consulting Division, Kantar
Claire Browne – Head of Research, Adelaide
Karen Chisholm – Director, Analytics Transformation, Pernod Ricard
Marc Vermut – VP, Knowledge Lab, TransUnion
Moderator: Paul Donato – Chief Research Officer, ARF