MUMBAI: A decade old now, Eikona, the neutral Public Relations Audit arm of TAM Media Research, is embarking on its next journey. After having set many proactive PR measurement & audit benchmarks for the industry, a vibrant and freshly rebranded Eikona is all set to aid the Brand Custodians (Client Organization & its Agencies), with end to end solutions on Brand Management through Earned Media. The objective is to play an intrinsic role in helping Clients & Agencies at every step of their Brand Communications Planning, Execution and Review process.
Towards this, Eikona shall offer holistic, neutral, one stop research and data solutions for Earned Media management. Eikona’s service span will include helping Brand Custodians Listen to the Mood of the Market, Set Communications Targets, Monitor Execution, Audit & Advisory and finally, establish Earned Media’s impact on (Corporate/Product) Brand Reputation.
TAM Media Research CEO LV Krishnan said, “Our organization is very uniquely placed. While through TAM & RAM we help the industry understand the TV & Radio consumption patterns & dynamics of Indian consumers, what makes us come a full circle is our ability to not only monitor & correlate a brand’s Paid Media initiatives through ADEX and but also the Earned Media initiatives through Eikona. These data sets help industry scientifically understand and correlate brand’s Visibility as well as its Reputation.”
Explaining Eikona’s focus on Earned Media management, Eikona Sr. VP,Siddhartha Mukherjee said, “We are living in a Reputation Economy. Here is where, Earned Media is fast moving towards the centre stage of any Brand Building or Sustenance exercise. While the need to manage this space has become quintessential, it is the methodology of managing & leveraging Earned Media that is becoming a complicated combination of art & science. Eikona will focus its energies in helping Brand Custodians with step by step, end to end solutions starting with Communications Planning, Execution checks, Audits & Advisory, and finally, helping establish Earned Media’s impact on Brand Reputation scores.”
In India, the definition of Earned Media is quite different from that of the Western markets. Adding on, he said, “The western world has already transitioned deep into the Online world. Web portals, news websites, social media platforms comprising of blogs, chats forums etc. comprise of 70-80% of their average daily time spent on overall media consumption. However, in India, offline mediums like Print (Newspapers & Magazines) & TV News Channels comprise of similar majority numbers! This is what makes Earned media management in India offline skewed. Which is why, the western definition of ORM – Online Reputation Management - should be more appropriately positioned for India as Offline Reputation Management.”
