BPA testing Brand Reach audit with business-to-business publisher

Nonprofit media-auditing organization BPA Worldwide is testing its Brand Reach audit-report process with business-to-business publisher Stamats Business Media as a client. The report is a way for publishers, media buyers and advertisers to get a view of all the communication channels by which a publication reaches consumers. Auditing is typically done on a channel-by-channel basis.

In testing, Stamat's Meetings West magazine brand was able to see a report that included metrics from the print magazine, two e-mail newsletters and a webinar. Stamats publishes multiple titles across several platforms.

Glenn Hansen, president and CEO of BPA Worldwide, said that the Brand Reach audit is the next generation of BPA's Integrated Media Report, which audits print circulation, Web site traffic and e-mail newsletters.

“Today, media owners have so many more touchpoints with their customers like webinars, whitepaper downloads and trade shows,” he said. “We needed to devise a way that media owners could have measurement of each channel in a cost-effective way.”

If this audit becomes widely used, Hansen said the pricing structure of BPA could shift from an annual fee basis to a rate, based on how long the audit process takes.

Hansen said the goal is to move into beta testing on January 1, 2010 and make Brand Reach available to all of its clients by July 1 of next year.

Stamats could not be reached for comment.