MMA Launches First Fully-Integrated Marketing ROI Service

”Avista by MMA Decision Support Service” helps marketers make profitable decisions throughout the marketing lifecycle

Wilton, Conn., February 15, 2005
Marketing Management Analytics, Inc. (MMA) today introduced the first fully integrated,
enterprise decision support service that gives companies the ability to make more profitable and informed marketing decisions throughout the entire marketing lifecycle.

MMA, the pioneer and innovator in advanced marketing analytics, is an independent operating unit of Aegis PLC, (AGS.L) of London, one of the world’s leading marketing services companies.

The new web-based service – “Avista by MMA Decision Support Service (Avista DSS)” -- is designed to increase a company’s return on marketing investment (ROMI) by at least 15% in the first year of operation by improving the entire marketing decision process.

“What is unique about Avista DSS,” said John Nardone, MMA executive vice president of product development and marketing,“ is that it gives marketers both a complete, up-to-date picture of the business through continual monitoring and analysis of marketing performance and a window on the future through “what-if” forecasting.”

Avista DSS takes the guesswork out of marketing spending by providing immediate insights into an organization’s marketing effectiveness from the corporate level down to the individual product level and from the countrywide level down to the local market level.

Avista DSS makes marketing accountable by defining a return on marketing investment (ROMI) for each marketing initiative. It lets marketers easily and quickly do the necessary analytics -- “what if” analysis, optimization, forecasting, reporting and ongoing monitoring – to take an immediate snapshot of the business. They can then quickly identify any shortfalls and make the necessary course corrections.

The “brains behind the system” are an integrated database of real-time company and syndicated data, MMA’s proprietary models, and marketing experience based on 1,000 studies conducted by MMA on hundreds of brands and businesses in more than 20 countries. Data are refreshed on demand so users have immediate access to the latest information in one
central place.

"Making marketing more accountable is the battle cry across the marketing industry," said Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology research company. "Marketing's dual role -- driving short term sales and long-term brand building -- complicates measurement. But we expect marketing and measurement practices to change dramatically as marketers begin to rely more on analytics and external measurement specialist companies."

Avista DSS is designed for ease of use. It was developed with direct input from the MMA User Groups and Advisory Council, which include executives from 15 Fortune 500 companies. Avista DSS provides specific functional views for brand managers, senior executives, researchers and financial professionals.

“Avista DSS provides a unique service to corporate America with enterprise-ready tools that help marketers maximize sales or profits,“ said Ed See, MMA executive vice president of product development and consulting.

“It was not created in a vacuum but is carefully based on the input of our category-leading clients and our 16 years of experience in marketing analytics.”

By using Avista DSS marketers can gain many advantages including:

• Determining the optimal allocation of marketing dollars across products, marketing tactics and geographies to maximize sales or profits
  
  
• Having the ability to react quickly to changes in the marketplace
  
  
• Capturing all the marketing history, including performance data, in one location
  
  
• Forecasting results
  
  
• Receiving dashboard views of key performance metrics
  
  
• Creating customized marketing models
  
  
• Visualizing marketing data through standardized or custom web-based reports

Avista DSS will be available in a limited release March 1, 2005, with its market launch scheduled for July 2005. Avista DSS will be available by subscription, eliminating the need for any software purchase on installation and the need to manage multiple vendors for data, marketing analytics and technology.

Avista DSS is hosted by IBM in a data center with multiple layers of physical security. There are no unique technical requirements. Users simply access the application through a standard web browser.