Millward Brown and MaPS Join Forces; Global Research Leader Acquires Strategic Research Consultancy.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Millward Brown, a global leader and recognized authority in advertising, media, marketing communications and brand equity research, has acquired Boston, Mass.-based strategic marketing research and consulting firm, Marketing and Planning Systems, better known as MaPS. As an industry innovator, MaPS uniquely combines advanced marketing science with high-level consulting more typically associated with marketing, management and strategic consultancies. The combination of MaPS' advanced analytical approaches with Millward Brown's deep brand marketing databases -- based on 30+ years of experience -- will offer clients a broad range of solutions to address today's increasingly complex marketing challenges.

Millward Brown and MaPS will continue to service their own existing clients and will also work together whenever clients have the potential to benefit from the combined expertise of both companies. In addition, Millward Brown will work with MaPS to expand its advanced marketing science approaches to clients throughout the world.

Dr. John White founded MaPS in 1994, along with partners Dr. Bill Dillon, Dirk Wells, Jennifer Dimmick, Dale Rye and Sophie Yuan. Today, MaPS employs a staff of 67 professionals. The company has won strong loyalty from clients and has also been recognized by research directors as one of the best in North America, according to Inside Research, an influential research industry publication. Annual revenues for 2003 were US $27 million.

Commenting on the acquisition, Eileen Campbell, CEO of Millward Brown North America said: "We are thrilled to be joining forces with the talented team at MaPS. They enjoy some of the strongest relationships and most innovative solutions I've encountered in the research business, and Millward Brown will undoubtedly benefit from our association with MaPS. We're increasingly being asked by clients to address their thorniest business questions, and we're looking forward to the brilliant thinking from MaPS contributing to the answers we provide."

Added John White, president and CEO of MaPS: "The new organization's combined capabilities provide a tremendous platform for delivering solutions to meet increasingly demanding client requirements. Clients are no longer satisfied with narrowly focused research initiatives to satisfy specific information needs -- instead, they are demanding higher level marketing insights, drawn from a synthesis of diverse data sources. No one in the industry is better positioned to meet these challenges."

John White will remain CEO of MaPS, which will now be known as "MaPS -- A Millward Brown Company" and will report to Eileen Campbell, CEO, Millward Brown North America. All other MaPS management and consulting staff will be retained and will continue to serve their existing clients.

About Millward Brown:

Millward Brown (www.millwardbrown.com) is one of the world's top 10 marketing research organizations. It is an acknowledged leader in understanding and evaluating brand equity and the contribution of the total communications mix to that understanding. Through the use of an integrated suite of validated research techniques -- both qualitative and quantitative -- Millward Brown helps clients build strong brands and services. Millward Brown has 67 offices in 39 countries and also has several specialized practices in the U.S., including Greenfield Consulting Group (a full-service qualitative research company), Millward Brown IntelliQuest (a technology practice), and Millward Brown Multicultural. Additional practices include Millward Brown Global Media Evaluation (a global media effectiveness unit), Millward Brown Precis (a global PR measurement firm), and Kantar Media Research (provider of global Target Group Index (TGI) the world's leading media and market profiling tool). Millward Brown is part of Kantar, WPP's insight, information and consultancy arm.

About MaPS:

Marketing and Planning Systems, better known as MaPS, (www.mapsnet.com) is a strategic marketing research and consulting firm to Fortune 500 companies. MaPS provides an innovative business consulting approach to research engagements, leveraging its breadth of experience and advanced statistical modeling capabilities to meet client needs. MaPS consultants come from a wide variety of business and academic backgrounds, including management consulting, economics, marketing, and social sciences. The company has won strong loyalty from clients and has also been recognized by research directors as one of the best in North America, according to Inside Research, an influential research industry publication. MaPS is based in the Boston area (Waltham, Mass.), with 67 professionals on staff.