Cablevision Systems, Rainbow Media, ABC Family and Facebook head a list of 34 members who have joined the Advertising Research Foundation since June, representing a cross-section of the advertiser/ad agency/media/research and academic communities, officials said Tuesday.
"Having Facebook as a new member is a clear indication that our initiatives regarding the value of understanding social media are resonating throughout every facet of our industry," ARF chief research officer Joel Rubinson said in a prepared statement.
Cablevision is part of a large media group—including ABC Family and Disney Kids, Catalina Marketing, Fuse, National Cinemedia, PBS Kids Sprout, Rainbow Media and Tribune Media Net—that have just joined ARF.
The new members also include such major advertisers as Hasbro, Eli Lilly, Kimberly-Clark, Mars, Novartis, UBS, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Bain & Company.
Ad agencies include Adcentricity, Butler/Till, Global Hue and M:30.
Representing research companies are ADISN, Centris, Ensequence, e-Rewards, IMMI, Market Tools, Opinion Lab, ORCA (Opinion Research Center of Afghanistan), Research Now, The Advanced Marketing & Media Group (The AMM Group), and ThinkVine Solutions.
Completing the new member group are Academic institutions Berkeley College, The Media Management & Transformation Center at Jonkoping University (Sweden), and
The University at Albany (SUNY).
