BARC India names its digital offering suite 'EKAM'

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India to launch all its digital products under the brand name EKAM (The Sanskrit word which means "One"). The logo created by Grey Advertising India, draws inspiration from the four colors (Red, Blue, Yellow and Green) used in the BARC India logo.

The branding highlights BARC India's commitment to provide industry with a single platform for all measurement products, across TV and Digital.

The EKAM suite of products will include: EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.

EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device. EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARC India will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan - which will give an overview of digital ads in India, look at where the advertising money is being spent and which sectors are producing more digital ads. The final product in this suite - EKAM Integra - will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this, BARC India's TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

Advertisers in digital space face several issues today. These include: dependency on publishers/platforms for data, lack of quantifiable differences in impressions, inability to see unique and de-duplicated reach & frequency across publishers/platforms and lack of knowledge on ROI, among others.

BARC India, as a Joint Industry Company, has been studying the problems and has developed the EKAM suite of products based on industry-specific needs. By providing unique Reach and Frequency across devices de-duplicated by Brand, Campaign, Site or Placement, the EKAM solutions will allow analysis and comparison of different platforms and their offerings. With a Single-Source Panel, large TV and Digital Booster panels, Census level impressions and Big Data on Digital side, EKAM will offer a much more robust and accurate ability to show key metrics like incremental reach.

"We are happy to announce the launch of the EKAM, our digital offering. The ecosystem needs Measurement of both Video Ads and Content, whatever the pipe and device maybe. As the brand name suggests, BARC India is working towards its goal of integrating TV and Digital measurement. Our EKAM suite of products will be rolled out over the next 18-24 months. It will provide the industry with independent third party measurement, verification of audience and eventually viewability of video ads and content," said Partho Dasgupta, chief executive officer, BARC India.