Advocacy
Your ability to apply insights and analytics is impacted every day by regulators and legislators.
Your membership ensures that together we make your case and ensure you can continue doing your job.
Your voice in the halls of power
The future of your ability to apply insights and analytics is impacted daily by local and global decision-makers through new laws and regulations. Decision-makers may not always appreciate the ingredients you need to carry out your work or why your work is beneficial to the economy and society. When they don't understand, they risk adopting laws that restrict your ability to do good work. Together we make your case and ensure you can do your job.
Because advocacy is vital for your work
The influence of lawmakers can be immense on your work and organisation, from regulating your ability to collect and use personal data to imposing administrative requirements. The future of our industry is discussed every day by local and global decision-makers. While the legislative process can be lengthy and difficult to navigate, successful advocacy does not have to be.
The advocacy service brings together legal and public affairs experts and your peers in the industry to champion your interests in the halls of power. We monitor for you emerging legislation around the world, intervene when your interests are in danger, and promote a good understanding of the value of your work and the impact of their proposals on its quality.
Together, our collective voice is stronger
Across the world, we monitor the landscape for changes that impact you and work closely with a network of international and national partners to guarantee you effective, responsive representation.
Advocacy efforts extend beyond ensuring that the community speaks on your behalf with one consistent voice to legislators and stakeholders. Our mission is to amplify your message and build support by raising awareness and educating the public about the important role you play in improving people's lives.
A benefit for everyone
You rely on public trust and confidence to carry out your work. We raise your awareness and understanding of the value of insights for the public good and highlight the commitment members make to respect the rights of individuals and keep that public trust high.
Together with national and international associations, we align key messages and operate an effective and consistent global self-regulation framework to govern ethical and professional standards that meet public expectations on your work.
We build the capacity of local insights communities by establishing associations where they do not exist and organising activities to bring individuals and organisations together, thereby extending the reach of our corporate social responsibility efforts.
Our advocacy service in action
Themes we're monitoring for you
Championing the conviction that the projects you conduct and the insights you generate add value and positively impact people’s daily lives and organisational objectives.
Insights and analytics are essential enablers of the digital economy. We raise understanding of how digitisation is fundamentally changing your capacities and economic role.
Personal data is essential for many insights and analytics projects. We believe respecting the privacy of individuals is critical to maintaining the trust needed for you to operate.
Polling is an essential way to measure public opinion and sentiment. We're ensuring you can conduct independent polling (free of government or special interest interference) to enable free and democratic societies.
Access to census data is crucial to select a representative sample from a population. We work to guarantee access to this data whilst providing the necessary guarantees to avoid data abuse within insights and analytics.
Strong, accountable self-regulation guides you and the community to adopt ethical and responsible professional standards. We work to promote acceptance of its value as a valid regulatory tool.
Recent position statements
The expertise of the sector can help shape and improve legislative proposals. By meeting with your members of public institutions, issuing position statements and participating in the public debate at conferences and stakeholder events, we empower you to educate your elected officials about the importance of your work and encourage them to adopt supportive legislation in your interest.
Value of Insights
Convinced of the value of insights and analytics to inform decision-making, it is important to create an enabling environment for those responsible for generating them.
The communication advocates for enabling environment and the pro-active use of insights and analytics in all decision-making.
Audience measurement is key to ensuring a viable European Media Industry
Issued July 2023. Create the enabling conditions for a sustainable and pluralistic media industry for a thriving democracy in EuropeESOMAR, as part of this joint industry letter on the European Media Freedom Act is urging the European Parliament to enable conditions for a sustainable and diverse media industry in Europe. This letter proposes principles to ensure comprehensive audience measurement, impartiality through independent third-party measurement, data sharing obligations with media service providers, and high standards in code of conduct. ESOMAR is monitoring the developments in the audience measurement industry.
Our specific suggested amendments are:
A definition of audience measurement which includes users of all online platforms.
To secure impartiality in measurement, audience measurement systems shall be carried out by independent third parties or self-regulatory bodies.
To ensure that collaboration with independent measurement providers is done in good faith and that data shared in that context has the quality and granularity to produce measurement that is comparable.
An obligation for providers of proprietary audience measurement systems to share audience measurement data, free of charge, with media service providers regarding their own content and services.
To ensure that the codes of conduct uphold the highest recognised standards in audience measurement and are made mandatory and to ensure that independent third-party audience measurement providers and self-regulatory bodies are duly consulted when drawing up the codes of conduct.
To clarify what constitutes a provider of proprietary audience measurement systems.
Czech Implementation of the European Electronics Communication Code and impact on insights & analytics sector
Issued October 2021. Joint position statement with our partner association in the Czech Republic, SIMARRole of Insights in the COVID-19 epidemic
Issued March 2020, addresses the important role insights can play during this crisis.Open Letter on Brexit and the Need for Research
Issued July 2016. Joint letter with 8 European associations.Read how ESOMAR, with the support of 8 associations, is calling upon the establishment of a fully cross-party expert group composed of academics, experts from research and civil society organisations, and representatives of the EU institutions, to look at the causes of the outcome of the UK referendum on leaving the EU and lasting solutions to address it from a citizen-centric approach.
Enabling the digital economy
Insights and analytics are essential enablers of the digital economy. The digital revolution is changing dramatically how insights and analytics are generated and used.
The community advocates for a balanced approach that guarantees continued protections for individuals and their data and enables organisations to leverage the power of data responsibly.
Improving working conditions of persons working through digital labour platforms
Issued March 2022 together with EFAMOThis position statement is submitted on behalf of EFAMRO, the European Research Federation, and ESOMAR, the World Association for Data, Research and Insights.
Whilst our associations support the overall aims with its proposal, as a sector our concern is whether the proposed text might have adverse effects. We believe this is an unintended consequence of the current draft of the communication from the Commission and recommend increased clarity regarding the scope of the guidelines.
Data mining for insights and the EU Copyright Reform
Issued August 2017 together with EFAMROThis position statement is submitted on behalf of EFAMRO, the European Research Federation, and ESOMAR, the World Association for Data, Research and Insights.
In the statement, ESOMAR and EFAMRO make the case for harmonised requirements and enabling actors to provide societal and business benefits derived from the fair use of digital content.
The organisations call for a broad exemption for Text and Data Mining for scientific and statistical research purposes. This exemption should apply regardless of the purpose or type of the research project and the organisation commissioning or executing the research project.
Data Protection and Privacy
Handling personal data is essential for any insights and analytics project – data protection and privacy are therefore crucial topics for organisations looking to use insights.
The community advocates the respect of the privacy of individuals as critical to maintaining the trust needed for our industry to operate.
EFAMRO and ESOMAR joint statement on Guidelines 03/2022 by the EDPB
Dark patterns in social media platform interfaces: How to recognize and avoid them.EFAMRO and ESOMAR joint statement on Guidelines 05/2021 by the EDPB
on the Interplay between the application of Article 3 and the provisions on international transfers as per Chapter V of the GDPRESOMAR, FEDMA, EFAMRO joint statement on Guidelines 04/2021 by the EDPB
Codes of Conduct as tools for transfersData: a new direction
Public consultation on reforms to the UK’s data protection regimeAudience measurement in the EU ePrivacy Regulation
Statements of the ESOMAR-led Coalition for Audience MeasurementThe ePrivacy Regulation proposed by the European Union has a major impact on the digital ecosystems of the world. The wide usage of technologies like cookies online mean that the EU's efforts to condition how they can continue to be used will impact audience measurement activities of countless organisations, a major revenue source for insights and analytics providers.
An ESOMAR-led coalition for audience measurement is helping to bring the audience measurement ecosystem together to raise understanding of how audience measure is used, how it benefits organisations and society more broadly, and call for a clear and enabling environment for your audience measurement activities.
Freedom to conduct opinion polling
Public and opinion polling are some of the most public forms of insights. They offer an independent perspective on public sentiment and intentions.
The community advocates the freedom to carry these activities provided they comply with the established self-regulatory framework.
Proposals to restrict polls in Slovakia
Issued November 2019 together with SAVA and WAPORThe Slovakia parliament has just passed legislation restricting the publication of election poll results in the 50 days before an election. This regulation would more than triple the length of Slovakia’s existing restriction of poll reporting during the two weeks before an election – already one of the longest embargoes in all of Europe.
ESOMAR, SAVA and WAPOR recommend abolishing its restrictions on publishing polls to give voters access to the most accurate polling information, conducted in the last week before the election. Or at the very least, to not lengthen the current restrictions already in place.
Proposed reform of electoral law in Greece
Issued March 2016 together with AGMORC and WAPORESOMAR supports AGMORC, the Greek National association for market, opinion, and social research in urging the Greek government not to take a rash action considering the 2007 Legislation in operation in Greece has proven to be sufficient in ensuring that polling agencies in Greece accomplish their important societal task of capturing snapshots of public opinion at any given moment. Further modifications would further distance the Greek legal framework from its neighbours, creating unnecessary legal complications for both operators in Greece and international polling agencies.