• by David Kaplan , October 18, 2004

Like every other media entity these days, WPP Group's MindShare wants a better idea of how effective its product placement deals are, and so the media shop has hired IAG Research, which bills itself as the TV ad effectiveness ratings company, for its In Program Performance (IPP) product.

IPP is IAG's tool for measuring the ad-effectiveness of every product placement and sponsorship on television every night, an IAG spokeswoman said.

"IAG will be providing data and analytics research, which MindShare USA will use to optimize media buying strategies across reality, sitcoms, dramas, and sports programming," she said. "IAG's In Program Performance product will help them better understand how to value product placement for their clients."

IPP measures actual viewer response to product placements and sponsorships and provides metrics on brand recall and fit, through questions such as whether a placement fit seamlessly and naturally, or was awkward and interfered with the enjoyment of the program.

Secondly, the system records responses to brand opinion and whether the viewers have been inspired to make a purchase as it also gauges the level of intent behind those answers.

IPP launched last October and now boasts that more than 5 million product placement surveys of TV viewers have been captured and analyzed, according to IAG's spokeswoman.

IAG works with all the major ad holding companies -- Aegis Group, IPG, Omnicom, and WPP - and plans to aggressively market the IPP system over the next few months.

"We looked at several products and found the IAG product superior for the relevant and actionable data they collect for virtually every night of the year," said David Marans, senior partner, director of consumer insights, for MindShare. "We found their offering very compelling."

MindShare has TV billings of over $4.06 billion annually, with major accounts including Unilever Bristol-Myers, American Express, Sears, Gillette, IBM, and Kimberly Clark.

Clearly, part of the reason the agency looked for measurements of product placement were tied to last year's arrangement where MindShare helped ABC develop "The Days," which featured a cross-marketing deal with Unilever and other clients.