MediaPost: ARF Returns To Ad Roots, Hires Agency Exec To Manage Its Research Mandate

In an attempt to re-focus the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) efforts on selling the benefits of advertising to major marketers, the group appointed ad executive Bob Barocci to head the organization. In the past few years, under previous ARF head Jim Spaeth, the group participated in many media mix studies and other research projects that often suggested that advertising worked best in the context of a diverse series of marketing efforts that included new media and other forms of communications.

Barocci's approach to advertising, however, may disappoint agency members who hope he will be a staunch advocate for the bygone era of broadcast media primacy. He told MediaDailyNews

The subject of saturation and media fragmentation has been talked about as a problem for too long. We need solutions. Nobody should lament the loss of network advertising, which was a figment of the network's imagination. Advertising has always worked and the more segmented the media gets the greater the opportunity for advertisers.