The Advertising Research Foundation To Integrate the Marketing Science Institute

Association devoted to marketing science and research will become division of the ARF

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the industry leader in advertising research among brand advertisers, agencies, research firms, and media, has announced plans to integrate the Marketing Science Institute, a non-profit member organization at the forefront of marketing science and research, into its organization.

The action was approved by both the Boards of both the ARF and MSI and, pending ratification by MSI member companies, will become effective January 1, 2021.

Through the integration, the Marketing Science Institute will become a division of the ARF, but will maintain an advisory Board of Trustees. The Board will continue to guide MSI’s agenda of events and research priorities, with budgetary oversight by the ARF. The MSI division within the ARF will be headed by an Academic Executive Director and by a Managing Director, to be named.

As a division of ARF, MSI will retain its legacy mission of bridging knowledge between academia and business.

ARF CEO Scott McDonald will sit on the new MSI Board of Trustees, while MSI will have two seats on the ARF Board of Directors.

MSI members will retain their MSI membership benefits but will gain access to ARF services as well. ARF members will have the opportunity to expand their membership to include MSI services.

McDonald says by consolidating research agendas and adding MSI’s academic network and its deep expertise in marketing science, the ARF can build upon its efforts looking at marketing more broadly, especially as the distinction between marketing and traditional advertising continues to blur. The acquisition of MSI will also enable continued expansion of ARF’s member base, bringing in B2B and DTC marketers.

“This acquisition enables the ARF to accelerate our work into advancing full funnel advertising and marketing practices,” says McDonald. “The work of the ARF and MSI have always paralleled each other and in recent years increasingly overlapped. The two organizations also share a core tenet of being relentlessly empirical and using science as our True North. That is what made this integration so appealing. Now we can jointly pursue a common mission and provide both ARF and MSI members with access to a greatly expanded database and expertise network. “

“Today’s consumers are more diverse than ever, and technology is rapidly accelerating the pace of change within marketing. We need, more than ever, independent, collaborative, and science-based translational research in our field,” says Sean Bruich, VP Consumer Science & Insights, NIKE, Inc. and member of the MSI Board of Directors. “The MSI board of directors is confident that the new combination of ARF and MSI will accelerate innovation in marketing and will create even more value for our member companies.”

“MSI is a cherished institution among marketing academics. The ARF integration preserves all that makes MSI special, while creating exciting new opportunities for access and impact in the marketing community, says Kevin Lane Keller, EB Osborne Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.

MSI, a non-profit member organization, was founded in 1961, with a mission of bringing together marketing’s most renowned scholars and leading marketers to create an unbiased platform for scientific research, purposeful collaborations, and unparalleled peer-to-peer networking.

In 2018, the ARF acquired the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), which became an affiliate of the organization, focusing broadly on advancement of media measurement.

About the ARF: Founded more than 80 years ago, the ARF is dedicated to furthering, through research, the application of science to the practice of marketing and advertising. By creating and sharing objective, industry-level research, standards and best practices, it enables members to build marketing leadership within their organizations. It has 400 members from leading brand advertisers, agencies, research firms, and media-tech companies. For more information, please visit www.thearf.org.

About MSI: MSI, a non-profit member organization, has been at the forefront of marketing science and research since 1961. We bring together marketing’s most renowned scholars and leading marketers from the world’s best companies to create an unbiased platform for scientific research, purposeful collaborations, and unparalleled peer-to-peer networking. For more information, please visit https://www.msi.org/