User:KatiePearce/Millward Brown

Millward Brown is a global company focused on brands, media and communications. It is part of Kantar Group, the insights arm of WPP plc, and the world’s second largest market research organization after Nielsen Company.

Leadership
Eileen Campbell is the global CEO of Millward Brown. Campbell became CEO in 2007 and regularly speaks at marketing conferences.

Founders
Gordon Brown and Maurice Millward founded Millward Brown in 1973 in England having both worked as product testers at General Foods. The business was set-up above a row of estate agents in Royal Leamington Spa, a town in the Midlands (England). The aim of the business was to provide clients with information that allowed them to make correct marketing and management decisions. Previous Millward Brown CEOs include Bob Meyers who held the position from 1997-2007.

Mergers and Acquisitions
From 1980, Millward Brown rolled out continuous tracking studies in the U.S. but managed them from the UK. In 1986, Millward Brown acquired U.S. research agency, Ad Factors. Bob Meyers, executive vice president of Ad Factors became CEO of the new company re-named Ad Factors/Millward Brown.

Millward Brown became a global company in 1987 with moves into Europe led by Tony Copeland. In 1989, Millward Brown was bought by global communications services company WPP plc, headed up by CEO Martin Sorrell. Maurice Millward retired in 1992 and Gordon Brown retired in 1994.

Dynamic Tracking
In 1976, Maurice Millward and Gordon Brown set-up their first continuous tracking study, now named Dynamic Tracking, for Cadbury Schweppes with the objective to explore the issue of ad wear-out over time.

Dynamic Tracking provides a complete 360° view of brand health and a continuous flow of knowledge about what is working for a brand and what could be working better. The approach now used for continuous tracking is almost universally based on that introduced by Millward Brown.

In 1985, Gordon Brown published “Tracking Studies and sales effect. A UK Perspective.” In 1986, Gordon Brown introduced the Awareness Index in his paper, “Modelling Advertising Awareness.” The Awareness Index (AI) is now a widely used metric for aiding the assessment of advertising.

In 1987, Gordon published another paper “The Link Between Sales Effects and advertising content.” Another paper followed in 1991, “How Advertising Affects the Sales of Packaged Goods Brands,” known internally as “The Black Book.”

Link
Gordon Brown and Nigel Hollis developed the Link pre-test in 1988. Link uses a comprehensive set of evaluative and diagnostic questions to predict the impact of an ad, in terms of both the attention it will generate and the sales that will result. It identifies areas that could be further developed or fine-tuned.

With over 40,000 ads tested, the Millward Brown Link database provides a wealth of data for category and country comparisons. In 2008, Millward Brown conducted its 50,000th Link ad pre-test. .

Link360 launched in 2007 which enabled multimedia campaigns to be pre-tested.

Brand Dynamics
Millward Brown launched Brand Dynamics in 1996. Brand Dynamics is used to look at a brand’s health. Millward Brown created the brand dynamics pyramid as an instrument to diagnose the factors underpinning customer loyalty to a brand. Millward Brown launched online ad assessment facility, Digital Link, in 2006.

Neuroscience
Millward Brown is on the emerging area of neuroscience and its application to advertising research, and launched the Neuroscience Practice in 2010. Headed up by Graham Page, the team has four regional leads in AMAP, LatAm, Europe and North America.

BrandZ
Millward Brown manages the annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking. The study is conducted by Millward Brown Optimor to determine the financial value of consumer-facing brands and announced Apple as the most valuable global brand in 2011. It is the only brand ranking to combine consumer measures of brand equity - from the Brand Dynamics studies in Millward Brown’s BrandZ database - with financial data.

In November 2010, Millward Brown launched its first ever BrandZ Top 50 most Valuable Chinese Brands ranking.

Value-D
In February 2011, Millward Brown launched the findings of its Value-D study, which looked at brand value and desire.

Language of Love
In 2010, Millward Brown Firefly announced the findings of its Language of Love in Social Media study, which recommends successful strategies within the social media space.

Value of a Fan
In 2011, Millward Brown launched the Value of a Fan study in collaboration with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). The study was conducted with WFA members and looked at what contributes to a successful brand fan page.

Specialist Practices
BPRI Millward Brown Optimor Dynamic Logic Millward Brown Firefly Neuroscience Practice

Books
The Global Brand published in 2008 and written by Millward Brown chief global analyst, Nigel Hollis

Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom

Advertised Mind by Erik Du Plessis

IPA booklet - Driving Top Line Growth, by Dominic Twose

The Branded Mind by Erik Du Plessis

Awards
Millward Brown sponsored the U.S. and Australian Effie Awards in 2009.

Key People
Millward Brown’s global board is made up of:

Eileen Campbell – Global CEO

Gordon Pincott – Chairman, Global Solutions