After interviewing nearly 20 candidates, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement has hired former Time Warner Inc. media research executive Jane Clarke its managing director to oversee CIMM's next-generation TV viewing initiatives.
CIMM was formed this summer by 14 media companies, ad agencies and large advertisers to seed new forms of TV audience measurement, with set-top box data and cross-platform video as its initial two focus areas. The group has already met with five set-top data suppliers to gather information on the market.
Clarke, who will be based in New York City, will oversee day-to-day operations for CIMM, including management of the request for information process, vendor relationships and the resulting research studies. Clarke will report directly to the CIMM Executive Board.
Colleen Fahey Rush, chairman of the CIMM executive board and MTV Networks executive vice president of strategic insights and research, said Clarke was selected based on her years of experience with media-industry research.
"She has terrific leadership skills, real research chops and all these years of experience -- and she totally gets it," Rush said.
Clarke most recently was vice president of insights and innovation in Time Warner's Global Media Group involving marketing research across TV, online, mobile and print. She has led cross-media measurement initiatives both internal and external to Time Warner, including serving as a co-chair of the Advertising Research Foundation's 360 Media & Marketing Super Council and as a contributor to the Council for Research Excellence's Video Consumer Mapping Study.
Rush said that Clarke has accepted a two-year contract with CIMM and will start after the first of the year. The coalition will be securing independent office space for her, and Clarke expects to hire an assistant but that will be all of CIMM's staff for now.
"Really with the funds that CIMM has been raising, we don't have the luxury of hiring a lot of staff," Rush said. CIMM has raised about $1.4 million from its initial partners.
Rush said almost 20 candidates threw their hats into contention. "We had a lot of great candidates and it wasn't an easy decision," she said.
In a statement, Clarke said, "As change accelerates across the media landscape, it's imperative that content providers and marketers work together to articulate our shared needs and spark innovation in measurement. I'm looking forward to working with all our member companies to develop measurement that will power the continued growth and evolution of the media industry."
Current CIMM participants are: AT&T, CBS, Carat USA, Discovery Communications, GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom Media Group, P&G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner Inc., Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.
