Hansa Hires Karnad as Media and Digital Leader

In India, consumer insights specialist Hansa Research has appointed Ashish Karnad as Executive Vice President and Head, Media and Digital Business. He joins from Nielsen, where he oversaw the firm's work on the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

Hansa has offices across India, Singapore and the USA. In 2012, it made a deal with Ipsos to bid jointly for the MRUC (Media Research Users Council) IRS but the contract went to Nielsen. Two years ago, the MRUC invited agency partners to pitch for the IRS as its three-year contract with Nielsen neared the end. This time last year, MRUC paused production and publication of its IRS 2020 readership survey, due in large part to the economic impact of Covid-19.

Karnad (pictured) joins with more than 25 years' media research experience, and after nearly four years at Nielsen, where as Executive Director, Media Effectiveness he was in charge of the IRS, and also established India's first cinema occupancy measurement system. Prior to this he worked for Kantar's Millward Brown as Director, Media and Digital Solutions, South Asia, and spent eighteen years at Kantar firm IMRB International, focusing on all types of media research.

While at Kantar, Karnad launched India's first meter-based TV audience measurement system (TAM), which was then extended to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; and he launched and managed TGI in India and Sri Lanka, as well as India's first radio audience measurement (RAM) system.

Web site: www.hansaresearch.com .