The advertising and marketing services company WPP Group Plc has joined a million-dollar interactive media study under way in the US. Others taking part in the Electronic Access Study include accountants Coopers & Lybrand, US West Inc and BellSouth Corp, Fidelity Investments, Prudential, American Express and the US Postal Service. This is the first step made by the group’s new multimedia task force, the company told the conference. The $1m will finance the next six months of the study, which will look into supply and demand on the information superhighway. The study is expected to continue beyond 1994 and WPP will gather information from 70 companies and members of 1,400 homes, plus one specific focus on advertising. The firm believes it is time to develop an understanding of what consumers think they need and are willing to pay for now, and what they will want and pay for in the future, because so far in the interactive arena, a lot has be said about the technological advances and the what might bes but not about what the consumers feel.
