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Addressing Biases in Multicultural & Inclusive Identity Data
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APPENDIX: HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN AIMM’S
VALIDATION STUDY REVIEW AND BENCHMARK STUDY:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the two projects the Association of National Advertisers and the Alliance for Inclusive and
Multicultural Marketing (ANA-AIMM) are leading to improve multicultural data?
1. Media Rating Council (MRC) Review of Cultural Identity Validation Studies:

MRC will provide a confidential, independent, objective, expert review of data providers’ own
validation studies.
2. Updated Multicultural Identity Accuracy and Coverage Benchmark Study, Overseen by MRC:
This study will determine accuracy and coverage rates of multicultural/demographic audience data across
third-party data providers. Each provider’s assignments will be compared to Nielsen’s National Television
Panel, which is a strong, MRC-audited, observational dataset. The study will compare demographics
assigned to the exact same households/addresses.

What’s the background on the validation study project?
AIMM’s 2018 study of cultural identification accuracy uncovered the fact that most providers claimed their
accuracy levels were 95 percent or higher. When pressed for support or documentation of these claims, the
providers declined to share any validating information. That 95 percent accuracy rate seemed high to AIMM
members. Their own day-to-day experiences, as well as a June 2019 Journal of Advertising Research article
citing much lower accuracy and coverage levels, led to a high degree of skepticism. Extraordinary accuracy
levels are not expected, realistic, or necessary but multicultural marketers need a realistic idea of what ”good”
looks like. Also, AIMM needs to lay a foundation for the path to progress by defining the current state and
identifying potential best practices.

What’s the background on the Accuracy and Coverage Benchmarking project?
AIMM’s first benchmark study on multicultural consumer identity accuracy and coverage data showed that there
is not enough reliability among data providers to effectively target and understand the impact of multicultural
campaigns on sales and ROI. A new benchmark project is needed to set realistic expectations for marketers
and create a progress “dashboard” involving all data providers in order to witness improvements in multicultural
identity coverage and accuracy. This project will also enable AIMM to begin to identify best practices in
assignment of cultural identity.

What exactly is MRC going to be looking at when we provide our validation study?
MRC will review third-party validation studies and perform a specialized review of the processes followed to
validate audience identification data.