In the run up to the cricket World Cup, TAM Media Research, the television viewership monitoring agency, has rolled out a new service for advertisers.

Called Instadia Non Television Monitor, the new service promises to measure the prominence level of product placements during a sports event.

Speaking to Business Standard, Atul Phadnis, director, TAM Media Research, said that with the World Cup round the corner most brands are trying hard to be visible.

"They want to reach the viewers through television sponsorships and spot-buys, and even through various ground elements in the stadium: on-ground billboards, replay bugs, scrollers, etc."

"While advertisers had a very good feel of cost efficiencies for spot-buys, the impact of on-ground sponsorships was not known. The new monitor makes that possible."

To ensure the success of the tool, TAM conducted a study for soccer World Cup and India's cricket series against the West Indies and New Zealand.

"We realised that not only does cricket offer a host of brand promotion options such as ground billboards, bat stickers, pop-ups, side-screens etc, the prominence level was much higher in the case of cricket (83 per cent) compared to soccer at 7 per cent," Phadnis said.

The study also revealed that ground billboards, replay bugs and ground paintings are the most frequent brand flashes during a cricket match and thus the top three options for on-ground promotions.

Based on the above findings, the advertiser can now actually choose whether he wants to spend on a replay bug or scroller or scoreboard or instead tie-up for ground display.

He could even opt for sponsorship of T-shirts, stumps or bats depending on which will be the most effective for the kind of investment he is making on advertising on these options.

The new tool from TAM also enables the data to be further fused with the TV viewership data to gauge the number of exposures delivered through these on-ground promotions versus spot-buys (how many people actually saw those scrollers or replay bugs).

"The best part is that the advertiser can calculate the return on investment on these which so far were offered as value-adds. Since you can measure the effectiveness you now know if these are converting into viewership for your logo. The channel can thus sell better and advertiser can buy better," he added.

The agency, said Phadnis, is busy working out arrangements with different subscribers for the Instadia Non Television Monitor including broadcasters, advertisers and sporting firms.