aMap OMS Audience Research Laboratory inaugurated at MICA

October 28th, 2006, Ahmedabad: aMap OMS Audience Research Laboratory was inaugurated today at MICA campus in Ahmedabad. Audience Measurement & Analytics Ltd. (aMap) - Asia's first and only overnight audience ratings service, Optimum Media Solutions (OMS) - a media independent agency, have set up “aMap OMS Audience Research laboratory" at MICA campus.

While inaugurating the lab, Mr. Ravi Arora Managing Director aMap and Mr. Madhukar Kamath Chairman of the Mudra Foundation of Communications Research and Education expressed hope that the facility will be used to further the research agenda at MICA and provide valuable insights for practicing professionals.

Also present on this occasion were Prof. Atul Tandon, Director Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Chandradeep Mitra, President Optimum Media Solutions (OMS) & Ravi Dixit Director-Research and Knowledge Management, Audience Measurement & Analytics Ltd. Members of Governing council of MICA also graced the occasion and provided their inputs for the future direction of the research activities at the centre.

The laboratory is equipped with aMap data machines for overnight data on television viewing of urban India, state-of-the- art viewing station where content across nine channels can be monitored. Located inside the 19 acre campus of MICA the laboratory is a unique collaboration between an audience research organization (aMap), Media Specialist (OMS) and premier educational institute in the field of communications (MICA).

Three organizations from different domains (Media Planning and Buying, Audience Measurement, and Communications Management) have pooled their experience, expertise and resources to do the cutting edge research that would influence the way media is planned, bought, sold, and used. The beneficiaries of this research include advertisers, media planners and buyers, broadcasters, social scientists, academic institutions, and public policy planners.

The Lab operates under the directions of its Advisory Council. It works with experts in social sciences, psychology, anthropology, advocacy and marketing research to bring in different dimensions for exploiting audience research data. The research output of the laboratory will remain to be an intellectual property of all the three organizations.

The lab provides the students, faculty and professionals from the two organizations to undertake path-breaking research in the several key areas that include Understanding the viewing behaviour of Indian Television Audiences in terms of regional differences, differences by pop Strata, ratings based semiotic analysis of Televised content, developing loyalty indices for various genres of programming and propensity of various audience groups towards news programming during catastrophic events. The lab also aims at developing Indian Audience viewership theories.

The research areas will be reviewed continuously to keep them in sync with the changing requirements of the industry. Such research activities will provide the students and faculty to be in touch with the development in the field of media management and prepare them for enriching careers in this highly specialized field.

OMS is Mudra Group's specialist practice in media planning, negotiations, buying and implementation, which along with Tantr, the content creation specialist and Videotec, the content sourcing and marketing specialist, form the Mudra Group's Brand Integration practice.

OMS is today one of India's largest and most respected media agencies, with three of its clients featuring among the top 10 advertisers in the country today. It has an experienced and talented team of over 100 professionals working across over 40 clients in 6 offices in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad & Kolkata.