Northern Trail Outfitters wants to know the number of contacts in their account.

The Contact Data View is the authoritative system data view that reflects the full Contact model in Marketing Cloud, including all contacts synchronized from connected Salesforce orgs and those created natively. A scheduled Automation Studio sequence — SQL Query Activity against the Contact Data View, followed by a Data Extract Activity configured to email the resulting file or a notification — satisfies a recurring, hands-off weekly report to the CMO. Option C is close in mechanics but targets the Subscriber Data View, which reflects the legacy All Subscribers list rather than the full Contact model; in a Contact Model-enabled account, this undercounts or misrepresents the true contact base. Option A references a ' Contact Extract Activity, ' which is not a standard Automation Studio activity name — Data Extract Activity is the correct term, and it operates on Data Extensions, not directly on a live count without a preceding query. Option B ' s ' Contacts Counts Standard Report ' is not an out-of-the-box Marketing Cloud report. Consultants should default to querying the correct data view for the object being counted, then automating the export/notification with Automation Studio rather than relying on manufactured report names. Reference: Marketing Cloud Data Views, Automation Studio Query and Extract Activities.