Meenakshi Madhvani's Spatial Access to start off on October 13

Meenakshi Madhvani, erstwhile CEO of Carat Media Services, is all set to launch her independent venture Spatial Access Solutions Pvt Ltd on October 13. A media audit specialist, the firm will be based in Mumbai with plans to set up operations in Delhi and Bangalore. "Much depends on the clients we get in the two cities," she says. "If we get the clients, we will start operations in Delhi and Bangalore."

To begin with, Spatial Access will focus on strategic audits and buying audits. "By strategic audits, I mean, audit what the client has done in terms of strategic planning," explains Madhvani. "Has the client looked at the right target audience, market and media mix? What is the impact he is getting out of the mix that he has used? Could he have increased impact by tweaking with the mix?"

Elaborates Madhvani, "If a client is spending Rs 3 crore, what kind of discounts and rates is he getting. Is it more or less or in line with the benchmarks in the marketplace?" she states.

The ad and media veteran who was a juror at the recently concluded Media Lion Awards at Cannes has commissioned a qualitative and quantitative study to "establish the current market practice and client concerns about media investments and current service".

Conducted by Mumbai-based Proact Research and Consultancy Pvt Ltd, the qualitative study will target the top 25 advertisers while the quantitative study will focus on 200 advertisers. "The study does not get into names," explains Piyul Mukherjee, director, Proact. "It aims to figure out the issues faced by clients in general through one-on-one interviews with the CEOs of firms who are high spenders. Again, the quantitative study is more of a satisfaction study," she adds.

Armed with this knowledge, Madhvani hopes to pinpoint areas that require redressal as far as servicing a media audit client goes. "A definitive plan for Spatial Access is in place," she says. "This piece of research, which should be completed by the end of September, will support or indicate areas that need to be tweaked or modified," she adds.

Spatial Access is also in talks with R3 of Singapore and Australia-based Charles Godbolt, two international media audit specialists for an alliance with them. "There are two reasons why talks with international players make sense," explains Madhvani. "One, increasingly clients are working across markets, and, to represent them in more than one market, an alliance makes sense. Two, there is a sharing of information and learning, leading to a loose network."

Madhvani hopes to see 15 people on board on the day of launch. "We should subsequently increase the number," she says. However, our agenda is pretty clear - to add some amount of transparency to a business otherwise opaque." © 2003 agencyfaqs!