NCS Chief Research Officer To Be Honored for Her Contribution To Elevating the Science of Advertising and Marketing
Leslie Wood First Woman to Receive ARF Erwin Ephron Demystification Award
NEW YORK – March 20, 2019 – NCS announced today that Chief Research Officer Leslie Wood, Ph.D will be recognized with one of the advertising industry’s most prestigious awards at the ARF’s upcoming AudienceXScience conference. Created to honor Erwin Ephron’s legacy, the award seeks to acknowledge those in the advertising industry who most contribute to simplifying the complex ideas that make up the business of advertising and media research.
Wood has spent her 30+ year career in advertising research shaping the way the industry uses data and information, answering the big questions about how advertising works. Landmark initiatives include work related to: how to build brands; the long term effect of advertising; reach & frequency; the key elements that drive advertising response; purchase-based media planning; and the ability to measure whether advertising directly resulted in a sale.
“NCS has long been committed to advancing the advertising industry toward greater effectiveness. Leslie’s work has changed the way we approach media, shaping our products and benefiting our leading CPG clients while driving the industry towards a higher standard of advertising,” said Carl Spaulding, EVP of Strategy, NCS. “We couldn’t be more proud and supportive of Leslie, and eager to see where her current research takes us.”
In 2001, Wood was the first to bring Fusion to the United States, leading a consortium of seven companies to investigate the concept of fusion between TV and product purchase data. She also led Media Trust which did the analytic work on Project Apollo, resulting in an understanding of how to connect media exposure data with purchase data to answer the question “did my advertising result in incremental sales?”
Having previously received the ARF Great Mind award for her work in advertising measurement, Wood has also served as the chair of the Advertising Research Council and as president of the Market Research Council. Previous recipients of the Erwin Ephron award include industry visionaries David Poltrack, Irwin Gotlieb, Dr. Jim Spaeth and Bill Harvey.
“Erwin’s legacy is the lesson that to extract the full value of data and research, one must make it accessible, understandable and actionable,” says Scott McDonald, CEO and President of The Advertising Research Foundation. “Leslie has been a true innovator in helping the industry gain insights and see applications where others could not. She embodies the criteria that form this award in a way that few others do and we are delighted to recognize her for her many contributions.”
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