Indiantelevision.com Team

(29 May 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: American TV ad effectiveness ratings company IAG Research has closed a $47.5 million Series E financing round from two leading sources of private equity, Insight Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Founded in 1999 by Alan Gould and Ken Orkin, IAG Research says that it has become the standard for determining advertising effectiveness on television. IAG measures viewer response to every ad, product placement and TV programme occurring across all broadcast and major cable networks covered.

Syndicated IAG data is now used by advertisers to maximise their ad efficiency. IAG subscribers include Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, GM, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Paramount, Sony, NBC, CBS, Fox.

Gould who is the company's co-CEO says, "IAG's mission is to measure viewer response to television programming wherever it goes and the proceeds from this financing will be used to accelerate the development of the technology to measure ad supported Vod, television delivered via the internet, mobile television and video gaming.

"IAG's position is unique in the world of ad effectiveness measurement as it has deep relationships with both advertisers and networks."

Insight Venture Partners MD Jeff Horing says, "Two things make us extremely bullish on IAG. First is the growing market for real time ad effectiveness metrics. Leading marketers have embraced IAG's ad effectiveness tools and IAG is now well positioned to become the standard by which ad effectiveness on television programming on all platforms is measured.

"Second is IAG's ability to deploy new measurement systems as new TV platforms (Vod, Web, Mobile) emerge. IAG's information management and technology team is by far the best in the media research space. It gives IAG the ability to build systems and deploy them in a manner unrivaled by their competitors."

Robert Goodman who is a general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners says, "IAG has been doubling its business for the past several years and we believe given the rapid disruption in the television business model and the growing need to demonstrate ROI, that IAG's growth will only accelerate in the future.

"We also see a market where advertisers increasingly value the effect of their ads equal to the audience size they reach and in this new world, IAG will emerge as the leader."