ZenithOptimedia focusses on measurement system; brings new research wings to India

The media agency has already introduced research arms such as Ninah and Touchpoints ROI Tracker; it plans to bring other research companies such as Ecco, along with an econometric modelling company to India soon.

The Publicis Groupe-promoted media agency, ZenithOptimedia, has read the demand for measurement systems to track the impact of each medium -- television, print, digital or radio -- by marketers. To meet this demand, the agency plans to bring its specialist research arms to India.

Speaking to afaqs!, Frank Harrison, strategic resources director, ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, says, "The world has just gone through one of the worst recessions in the last year and the result of this is that the boards of most of the companies are focussing on return on investment (ROI) on marketing and advertising. They are now demanding, more than ever, marketing accountability and a good measurement system to understand the effect of marketing on their sales -- in the short, medium and long-term durations. This is high priority for many brands now."

The media agency has already introduced two such arms -- Touchpoints ROI Tracker and Ninah -- which were launched a while back, and currently have offices in Mumbai.

Furthermore, maintaining the tide, it plans to introduce two more specialist research agencies -- an econometric modelling company (which is still in the development mode) and another research agency, Ecco.

According to Harrison, the company is developing a wide base of products to track the ROIs at various touchpoints.

Another research arm that the company is launching soon in India is Performix, which provides the marketers with measurement data in the digital arena. Harrison explains, "What we are doing is providing clients with live data, in the sense that when consumers click on banners, search, and interact with the brand on the website, we track that live and can report it live."

India is a diverse country where the consumer changes after every 30 kilometres. Keeping this in mind, the media agency has customised itself to work according to local needs. Harrison remarks, "Our metric systems are globally scaleable, but locally customiseable as we understand that each place and its consumers behave in a different way."

Interestingly, the media agency believes that the concept of owned and earned media is another area which has become a topic of interest to marketers, and hence, the agency is working towards building a strong presence in this field in India, as well.

"There is an increased focus on owned and earned media which is much more about the consumers' experience of the brand and the need to engage in more interactive ways. It's now a global terminology. Owned media, for example, is a video created by a company which, apart from advertising, can also be put up on the brand's website. The content can be further extended through earned media such as YouTube and virals for people to interact with the content.

Earned media is a whole new area of word-of-mouth that is driven by social networks such as Facebook and Twitter," adds Harrison.