The Marketing Research Awards Program, which will be equally funded by Google and WPP over the next three years, encourages academic research on the effectiveness of digital marketing. Researchers will use advertising data gathered by WPP’s BrandZ brand-perception study, media data from GroupM and information on consumer search behaviour provided by Google.
Executives from the companies said they hope the project’s results will alter perceptions in favour of online advertising, which frequently receives as little as one per cent of brand advertising budgets.
The companies will award grants to independent researchers looking to participate in the project. As many as 12 grants will be given for the first year.
The project will be managed by executives and academics from Harvard Business School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google and WPP.
"The industry needs a much better handle on how offline and online media interact with each other and how that interaction shapes consumer attitudes and behaviours,” said Eric Salama (pictured), CEO of Kantar Group, the WPP research house that publishes BrandZ,. “This initiative will be a critical part of that solution."
Google’s chief economist and co-director of the programme Hal Varian added that the research “will contribute to more effective and more measurable advertising performance.”
