After 98 years, it was no longer as easy as ABC.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations today introduced a new name and brand identity – the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) – intended to more accurately reflect its role within the rapidly changing publishing industry.
The new brand, announced today during the AAM’s annual conference in New York, was endorsed by 94% of its members, which include more than 4,000 publishers, advertisers and agencies throughout the United States and Canada (asked how it planned to win over the remaining 6%, AAM executive vice-president Neal Lulofs joked: “I’m going to suppose that the 6% misread the ballot”).
The brand identity is the culmination of a new strategic plan that the Arlington Heights, Illinois-based organization began implementing nearly two years ago, said Lulofs. The repositioning involves a build-out of AAM’s digital auditing expertise and cross-media capabilities.
The move is intended to reflect AAM’s expanding auditing purview across multiple platforms: print, tablets, smartphones, websites, social media, e-mail newsletters and digital publishing.
“Our customers’ businesses have been changing so dramatically and so ours was as well,” said Lulofs. “The 98-year-old name wasn’t the right way to move the company forward for what we hope is going to be another century.”
While digital has been a consideration for AAM for nearly two decades – it introduced an interactive division in 1996 and has been expanding its capabilities over the past 18 months – vice-president and general manager, Joan Brehl, said it was imperative the organization adapt to its changing role. “I think people get the print area, but the digital side is something we have been doing and will be expanding.”
The hope, said Brehl, is that the revamp will help attract new publisher partners.
Brehl said there will be “a number” of future announcements that demonstrate AAM’s commitment to digital auditing, including an initial certification of Adobe Inc.’s Digital Publishing Suite – programs that its publisher members use to create and distribute digital publications on tablets and smartphones.
AAM will also release its fourth annual “digital publishing survey” next month. The study underscores the significant transformation taking place within the publishing industry, with 90% of publisher members now providing content on mobile devices, up from 51% just three years ago. New data also suggests that digital editions now represent 15% of all U.S. newspaper circulation, up from 9% in 2011.
“Our customers’ businesses have changed, and we’ve changed along with them,” said Brehl. “It’s [now the] total brand footprint in reporting.”
The revamp also features a made-in-Canada aspect, with the new AAM name suggested by Shelagh Stoneham, senior vice-president and GM, brands and marketing at Rogers Communications and chair of the AAM’s Canadian board.
“She’s been a great leader on this, helping guide us through the whole process in a rational, methodical way starting with research and then looking at what other organizations in our space have done,” said Lulofs.
The organization’s new logo was also created pro bono by Toronto design agency Würstlingroup. The revamp also includes new U.S. and Canadian websites featuring a new Media Intelligence Centre – an online resource containing what it calls a “comprehensive” range of audited information and media analysis tools that features a newly designed interface and added capabilities.
The launch of AAM is being supported by a new video in which industry leaders speak to changes occurring within media and the need for third party auditing across multiple publishing platforms.
Featured speakers include Stoneham, Phillip Crawley, publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, ZenithOptimedia Canada CEO – and current AAM board chairman – Sunni Boot and Michael Clinton, president, marketing and publishing director of Hearst Magazines. The revamp is also being touted by media outreach and print ads appearing in member publications.
