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Rina Chandran

Mumbai , Sept. 9

IMG — the leading sports, leisure and lifestyle marketing and management company — may soon bring to India Comperio Research, a part of the Mark McCormack group of companies, which specialises in quantitative and qualitative research in sports, arts and sponsorship.

The company provides media and consumer research for brands, broadcasters, agencies and event organisers. The Indian offices of IMG are already handling outsourced research for Comperio's global clients, and with the rapid growth of the sports and entertainment space in India, there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of the large investments being made, said Mr Ravi Krishnan, Managing Director - India & South Asia, IMG.

"Advertisers have always looked at evaluating the return on investment in the print and electronic media, but more and more of the adverting rupee these days is being spent on below-the-line and non-traditional media like sponsorships and events," Mr Krishnan said.

"There has been no facility to evaluate the return on investment on these so far, but there is clearly a need to do so." While the benefits of several of these activities are largely qualitative, it is possible to measure the effectiveness of investments in these areas, he added.

Comperio's research services include quantitative media and sponsorship research, sponsorship appraisals and valuations, customer profiling, behaviour and attitude research, brand value research, brand exposure tracking, and economic impact and consumer insight studies. The methodology includes face-to-face and telephone interviews, online surveys, focus groups, opinion polls and surveys, and workshops. So its media effectiveness research would measure and monitor the impact of the brand exposure, how it is perceived in the target markets, and the reasons why.

The findings will, therefore, help develop and improve the effectiveness of a company's activities, Mr Krishnan said.

Globally, IMG manages events such as the Grammy Awards and New York Fashion Week, while in India it manages the Tata Open, the Lakme India Fashion Week and the Royal Challenge Indian Open (golf). "Measurement of media effectiveness here has grown to a point where an independent media audit firm (Meenakshi Madhvani's) is being set up," Mr Krishnan said. "There is clearly a need for scientific ways to measure investments in events and sponsorships, as well."

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