As proprietor and Research Architect for the Olympic Media Consultancy we serve global clients in 3 key areas:
Provide expert leadership, analysis, planning and strategic thinking to optimize the value and usage of available media/marketing and data/systems information.
Generate increased marketing ROI (revenue, profitability and brand equity) by providing relevant insights through designing, executing and interpreting superior advertising research.
Evaluate and improve advertising and media effectiveness for agencies and their clients by understanding, developing and managing meticulous consumer research and applying "leading edge" models and concepts.
Tony was Chairman of CARF, Canada and is a former Board member of The ARF and MRC . An Olympian he was formerly the British Olympic Swim Team Captain. He writes Op Eds exclusively for Media Post and also offers regular pithy comments on Media Post articles. He refuses to use "Fakebook"!
- No Attention, No Outcomes in
Planning & Buying Insider on
04/15/2026
- State Of The 'Currency' Marketplace: Fiesta, Siesta, Fiasco? in
Planning & Buying Insider on
04/01/2026
The Advertising Research Foundation's CIMM East Conference began where last year's left off: on an advertising "currency fiesta," per Fox Senior Vice President-Research & Data, Ad Sales' Kym Frank,
who famously made that quip in 2025.
- In The Industry's 'Currency Fiesta,' Is Attention The Ultimate Common Currency? in
MediaDailyNews on
04/08/2025
"Fiesta" or "farrago," could attention metrics be the multicurrency solution that normalizes value across all media channels and media vehicles?
- ARF Day Two: 'Who Do You Trust?' in
MediaDailyNews on
03/27/2025
The second day of the Audience x Science conference echoed Day One's trust issues, underscored by discussions about the evolution of AI, the ANA's Project Aquila, and the continuing dominance of
walled garden data.
- ARF Day One: Nielsen Still The Currency Force, Attention Finds Its Center in
MediaDailyNews on
03/26/2025
The first day of its Audience x Science Conference delivered fascinating learnings on media and ad measurement, but "attention" metrics surely dominated.
- Media & Marketing Analytics: Back To The Future? in
Planning & Buying Insider on
11/14/2024
Sequent's partners, Jim Spaeth and Alice Sylvester, have assiduously helped marketers understand the enormous complexities and see through the smoke and mirrors of marketing mix modeling, multi-touch
attribution, and last-touch attribution, as revealed by their many cautions, caveats, and questions.
- CIMM Report Reveals An Elephant In The Panel Measurement Room in
Planning & Buying Insider on
10/24/2024
Thanks to CIMM, the industry now has an incredibly comprehensive and detailed report on the value and projectable costs of panel-based audience measurement.
- A Hundred Reasons To Ask, Does The Trade Desk Have 'Premium' Right? in
Planning & Buying Insider on
09/19/2024
That's what an ARF town hall discussed Wednesday following its release of a "top 100" premium suppliers list, which ranks Hulu No. 1 and France's Le Figaro No. 100.
- The Marketplace Implications Of MRC's OOH Standards in
MediaDailyNews on
07/01/2024
Buyers and sellers who chase cheap CPMs generated by inflated opportunity-to-see metrics rather than significantly more valuable likelihood-to-see ones will undervalue out-of-home media.
- Are Attention Metrics On A Path To Becoming Advertising Currency? in
Planning & Buying Insider on
05/16/2024
Based on this week's release of phase 2 of the ARF's validation initiative, it's complicated.
- No Attention, No Outcomes
by
Tony Jarvis
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/15/2026)
Ed: Sound further insights and considerations as always. From a media planning and buying perspective, "Attentive audience (actually watched or heard) exposures" should surely be the basis for all Cross-Media-Measurement as also urged by Jonathan Waite. It would establish the minimal media metric threshold to achieve any outcome (verus raw impressions) albeit depending on the impact of "many other varibles", as you rightly point out.
- State Of The 'Currency' Marketplace: Fiesta, Siesta, Fiasco?
by
Tony Jarvis
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/01/2026)
Ed: Just posted this on LinkedIn in response to Dr. Tracy Adams', ARF, excellent observations on the complex barriers facing media measurment in the US. I believe it underlines the concerns we have both expressed regarding the critical importance of people-based real exposure measurement for too long. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tracy-adams625_cimmeast2026-cimmeast2026-measurement-activity-7444879478142439424-_Jnw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAKo4FUBIAk90m3xtqphku7ECsUhBCx676Y"I would add a caution that relying on device-based ("content rendered counts on the glass" aka "viewable impressions") measurement essentially takes the industry back years to circulation/distribution metrics that we seriously left behind after the seminal Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Media Model was published, 2003. Understanding how advertising works and the most relevant metrics to use has continued its sophistication with Attention metrics. No Attention. No outcomes!"I have a piece coming out imminently on ARF's Evaluation of Attention Measurement, Phase III that was driven by Tracy together with Paul Donato at ARF. Terrific work on this critical media dimension by ARF.
- Your Agency Is Officially A Seller -- Time To Start Treating Them Like One
by
Maarten Albarda
(Media Insider on
03/20/2026)
When advertisers understand that CPM stands for "Completely Positively Mad" and worse when not based on people-based measures of attention, i.e. avoid "viewable impression" device-based metrics, the impact of their media investments as part of their overall marketing efforts, will assuredly drive more cost effective brand campaign outcomes.
- IAB Sweden Expels Meta: Warns Advertisers About Fraud, Brand Safety
by
Laurie Sullivan
(MediaDailyNews on
03/13/2026)
It would be insightful to hear from Arielle Garcia at "Check My Ads" on this bold leadership move in Sweden especially as it came from iab. Lessons to be learned and actions to be taken here???
- Synthetic Data Is Rewriting The Rules Of Measurement
by
Tasha Webb
(Planning & Buying Insider on
03/11/2026)
Bring it on, John!
- Don't Be Dumb
by
J. Walker Smith
(Planning & Buying Insider on
02/19/2026)
Walker: Huge thanks for the references and forthright insights on LLMs, AI plus your cautions on their use in marketing. Garbage in, garbage out!? Appears to have parallels to the current often deliberate disconnect and misunderstanding of the relative value of device/screen-based versus persons-based (consumer) actual exposure media measurement and the latter's imperative to drive a campaign outcome verus the former.
- What Authoritarianism Gets Wrong
by
Gord Hotchkiss
(Media Insider on
01/27/2026)
Gord: An insightful and encouraging piece. The Minnesotan protesters are the real US patriots. See you at The Shaw in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON over the Summer? "Elbows up!"
- Nice Merger You've Got There, It Would Be A Shame If Something Happened To It
by
Dan Perry
(Red, White & Blog on
01/02/2026)
Dan: Brilliant synopsis of the evolving capitulation and convenient acquiesence of the media to the current regime. While many would have no desire "to live there" or now perhaps even "live here", I am reminded of what the film maker Michael Moore implored during an MSNBC interview during the first equally corrupt term of the current incumbent: "Stay and fight!"
- '60 Minutes' And 'Integrity': Where Do Viewers And Brands Figure In?
by
Wayne Friedman
(TV Watch on
12/29/2025)
Melissa: Spot on from a former CBS employee. As consistently demonstrated, "no experience" and "proven to lack the qualifications and intellect necessary for the job" pervades the current administration who Weiss unequivocally has demonstrated she serves.
- The Most Red - Er, I Mean Read - White & Blogs
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
12/29/2025)
Joe: Another brilliant year of reporting - and a well deserved standing "O" and thank-you. Elbows-up!