CYMFONY INTRODUCES NEW MARKET INTELLIGENCE STUDIES

An extensible framework for providing actionable insights from social media dialogue

WATERTOWN, MA - February 9, 2010 - Cymfony, a Kantar Media company and a leader in analyzing influence in social and traditional media, today announced the introduction of Cymfony Market Intelligence Studies - a customizable framework for deriving deeper insights from traditional and social media dialogue impacting brands.

Based on best practices that Cymfony has defined from years of experience, three types of research and analysis products are available to address marketers' needs. Each study supports increasing complexity and breadth - in content scope, depth of insight, and development of recommendations:

• Cymfony Competitive Landscape Study: an in-depth audit to understand the metrics and assessment of brand presence in online dialogue.
• Cymfony Category Insights Study: a comprehensive perspective encompassing the brand's digital identity and consumer mindset, motivations, influence, and barriers to adoption.
• Cymfony Holistic Market Research Engagement: a deep-dive market discovery which might span international markets, influence implications, or correlation with proprietary data sources, such as sales data or survey research.

"We find that marketers need more than basic trend analysis provided by quantitative views of brand mentions in social media sources," said Cymfony Senior Director of Insights Practice, Natasha Stevens. "Our Market Intelligence Studies provide a consistent, reproducible insight delivery framework through which social and traditional media can be integrated into the broader market research portfolio."

To maximize the value extracted from analyzing online conversations, conducting a series of Cymfony Market Intelligence Studies is recommended. Sequencing multiple studies together, a richer picture of the consumers' true attitudes, motivations, and behaviors emerges. As a result, marketers better optimize their digital programs, marketing mix, and client engagement.

Market Intelligence Studies, available now, are conducted and delivered by a team of Cymfony's social media analysts, linguists, and industry experts utilizing the company's third generation listening platform, Cymfony Maestro.

"The new Cymfony Market Intelligence Studies provide actionable advice to our growing base of customers," said Richard Pasewark, Cymfony's General Manager. "The framework's flexibility supports a range of market research needs, enabling us to provide the high-value insights and recommendations that have become our trademark."

About Cymfony

Cymfony, a market influence analytics company, scans and interprets the millions of voices at the intersection of social and traditional media. Its third-generation listening and influence platform, Cymfony Maestro, integrates innovative technology with expert analysis to identify the people, issues and trends influencing businesses—at the speed of the market.

Combining powerful automated analysis with expert human interpretation, Cymfony provides research solutions to help better understand consumer preferences, competitor strengths and weaknesses, and other information critical to a company's reputation, brands, products and employees. Cymfony works with marketing, research and PR professionals worldwide, offering a range of packaged and custom services to address specific intelligence requirements, such as social media strategy, consumer opinions and trends, customer satisfaction, PR measurement, and reputation management. Cymfony is part of Kantar Media, WPP's insight, information and consultancy group. For more information or to schedule a demonstration of Cymfony Maestro, contact Cymfony at (617) 673-6000 or visit www.cymfony.com.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than in 50 countries, Kantar Media enables exploration of multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, social media, and outdoors worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors - Intelligence, Audiences and TGI & Custom. Combining the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insights to more than 22,000 customers around the world. (www.KantarMediaNA.com ).

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com