Advertising Checking Bureau Details

The Advertising Checking Bureau has over one hundred years of experience in marketing and offers a range of services to its clients. It manages cooperative advertising programs (these are marketing campaigns run by a manufacturer and a retailer or wholesaler); ad tracking services (this involves measuring the effectiveness of marketing programs); the administration of sales incentive schemes; and compliance programs.

The ACB works with a client to find business opportunities and then plans and implements a marketing program. The company's website (acbcoop.com) identifies five steps that it takes with a new client:

  1. Strategic Planning and Needs Assessment. ACB and its client discuss what the client wants and how to achieve the client's objectives within a budget.
  2. Program Research and Design. ACB plans the marketing campaign.
  3. Implementation and Communication. ACB launches the campaign and keeps its client informed.
  4. Program Management, Measurement, and Customer Service. ACB monitors the program's effectiveness and keeps its client informed.
  5. Business Intelligence Evaluation. During debriefing, ACB and its client look at the campaign results and judge overall performance.

Advertising Checking Bureau Example

Mega Inc. is launching a new range of ice cream and asks the ACB for help. The ACB sends a team to discuss the marketing campaign with Mega and representatives of the retailers that will sell the new range. Together, they draw up a program that will run nationwide, both online and off. As well as advertising, the campaign includes a sales incentive program for local retailers to encourage them to promote the product to their customers.

The ACB and Mega work together from the beginning to the end of the campaign. The ACB measures the effectiveness of all aspects of the program, from customer awareness of the new product to sales performance. The ACB told Mega that it provided a cost-effective service that drew on years of experience. Mega benefitted from an efficiently managed and sophisticated campaign and appreciated that the ACB kept them fully informed every stage of the program.

History of the Advertising Checking Bureau

In 2017, The Advertising Checking Bureau, Inc. celebrated its Diamond Anniversary. Walter B. Katzenberger, an Account Executive with an advertising agency, founded ACB in 1917. In 1929, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet asked ACB to check that newspaper advertising campaigns were running as planned. By the mid-thirties, the ACB was working with Colgate, Lever Brothers, and Proctor & Gamble.

In 1937, the ACB had installed computer systems in its offices in Chicago and New York. ACB donated this equipment to the United States government to help with the war effort in the Second World War. During the war, the ACB tracked government war bond advertising performance and received a government award for excellence.

After the war, the ACB expanded its range of services, opened new offices, and became one of the most trusted and efficient operatives in its field. Walter Katzenberger remained in control of the bureau until his death in 1969, when control passed to his wife. On her death, the Katzenberger Foundation took over control until 1985, when it sold the ACB to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Since 2008, the ACB has belonged to its own management.