The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) is a nonprofit industry association

Trade association

A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry...

 for creating, aggregating, synthesizing and sharing knowledge in the fields of advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 and media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

. It was founded in 1936 by the Association of National Advertisers

Association of National Advertisers

The Association of National Advertisers is a representative body for the marketing community in the United States of America. ANA’s membership includes over 400 companies with 9,000 brands that collectively spend over one hundred billion dollars in marketing communications and advertising....

 and the American Association of Advertising Agencies

American Association of Advertising Agencies

The 4A's is an American advertising agency trade association.Founded in 1917, their website states that 4A's membership "produces approximately 80 percent of the total advertising volume placed by agencies nationwide." The association issues annual awards for the best agencies, in different...

. Its stated mission is to improve the practice of advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

, marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications. Its membership consists of over 400 advertisers, advertising agencies

Advertising agency

An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...

, research firms, media companies

Media proprietor

A media proprietor is a person who controls, either through personal ownership or a dominant position in any media enterprise. Those with significant control of a public company in the mass media may also be called "media moguls", "tycoons", "barons", or "bosses".The figure of the media proprietor...

, educational institutions and international organizations.

The ARF conducts several research initiatives. It publishes the Journal of Advertising Research, a peer-reviewed

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

 academic periodical. It also sponsors a variety of advertising-related marketing research

Marketing research

Marketing research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information — information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve...

 endeavours and hosts periodic conferences on advertising and media-related topics. The ARF operates the Roy Morgan Information Center as a clearinghouse for advertising research, promulgating industry standards and guidelines, and it provides training and administers the annual David Ogilvy Awards Program.

During the 1990s, the ARF spearheaded notable primary research

Primary research

Primary research consists in research to collect original primary data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting secondary data...

 in studies such as the Copy Research Validity Project, which redefined the area of copy testing

Copy testing

Copy testing is a specialized field of marketing research. It is the study of television commercials prior to airing them, and is defined as research to determine an ad’s effectiveness based on consumers’ responses to the ad. It covers all media including print, TV, radio, Internet etc...

, and the ARF/Ad Council Study to determine the impact of public service advertising. More recently, the ARF has pioneered efforts to define advertising engagement

Engagement (marketing)

Engagement measures the extent to which a consumer has a meaningful brand experience when exposed to commercial advertising, sponsorship, television contact, or other experience....

and to measure consumers' emotional responses to advertising.