GroundTruth, the leading location-based marketing and advertising company, announced that it has been granted accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for its Location, Place, and Visitation data sets. As part of the accreditation, GroundTruth’s methodology and the validity of its place-based visits for advertising targeting, and driving and measuring advertising performance has been found to comply with MRC’s industry standards.

With concerns surrounding ongoing changes to data access across the industry, tested and trustworthy data continues to be a top priority for marketers. Accreditation of GroundTruth’s visitation data gives brands a new level of confidence that they are using location-based data to drive and measure their advertising campaigns that has met the high bar needed to achieve MRC accreditation.

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“We congratulate GroundTruth for meeting the rigorous requirements necessary to earn MRC accreditation for its Location, Place, and Visitation data sets,” said George W. Ivie, Executive Director and CEO of the MRC. “Throughout the accreditation process, GroundTruth has shown a high level of dedication to continuous improvement and to enhancing its now-accredited data sets, and we look forward to continuing our work with them in the years to come.”

“We are delighted to see GroundTruth receive the Media Rating Council’s (MRC) accreditation for its visitation data,” said Jonathan Faulkner, EVP of Digital iHeartMedia. “GroundTruth’s commitment to location accuracy and transparency of its methodology over the years is at the heart of our relationship. Accurate location data is increasingly critical in the marketing and advertising ecosystem and GroundTruth continues to be a leader in the space.”

For GroundTruth to achieve accreditation, the MRC conducted a rigorous and thorough audit and review process, which included the following:

• An assessment of Ground Truth’s adherence to location-based advertising measurement guidelines issued by the MRC, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).
• An in-depth audit through an independent CPA firm to confirm GroundTruth visits’ compliance with industry standards.
• An evaluation of GroundTruth’s methodology for determining consumer location, place and visits, measurement methodology, data filtration processes, and reporting procedures as they relate to GroundTruth’s location data technology.

MRC’s multi-faceted review process also verified GroundTruth’s ability to detect visits and accurately assign them to a location. Three of the critical areas of GroundTruth data tested for quality by the MRC are Location Determination (the accuracy of mobile location signals), Place Determination (the precision of place mapping), and Visit Determination (the ability to distinguish and verify actual visits).

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“The MRC’s accreditation seal has become the standard for determining data quality and effectiveness throughout the industry,” said Eddie Dingels, GroundTruth’s COO. “GroundTruth’s new accreditation reflects our ongoing effort to offer customers a best-in-class system for visits and location attribution. We’re also excited how this new category from the MRC will further advance our industry, as it’s crucial for brands to have access to metrics that are trusted, reliable, and effective.”

A non-profit industry association established in 1963, the MRC’s goal is to ensure that measurement services are valid, reliable, and effective. In the spring of 2017, the MRC produced standards around visitation metrics and what constitutes the sufficiency of a visit. As visitation has become a key measurement KPI for location data, accreditation by a trusted independent third party such as the MRC provides advertisers and media agencies full assurance they are using location metrics that have been verified as compliant with the MRC’s standards.