Toronto - A research project from an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and his colleague at MIT's Sloan School of Management has received one of 11 research awards announced today from the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program. The supported projects represent the first round of awards in the three-year program that will see WPP and Google commit up to $4.6 million to support research into how online media influences consumer behaviour, attitudes and decision making.

Prof. Avi Goldfarb from the Rotman School and Prof. Catherine Tucker from the Sloan School received the award for their project, "Does internet advertising help established brands or niche ("long tail") brands more?"

The program is overseen by Professor John Quelch, senior associate dean of Harvard Business School and a non-executive director of WPP; Dr. Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist; and Professor Glen Urban, former dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This committee made final decisions on the proposals to be funded and will guide the project implementation process for the winning submissions. Information on the Google and WPP Marketing Research and Awards Program is available at http://research.google.com/university.

Prof. Goldfarb received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2002 and his B.A.H from Queen's University in 1997. Much of his research explores the impact of information technology on marketing, on universities and on the economy. In addition, he has developed new techniques for measuring and understanding brand value. Prof. Goldfarb has published over 25 articles in a variety of outlets, including the American Economic Review, Marketing Science, Management Science, and the Journal of Marketing Research. He serves as a co-editor at the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy and as an associate editor of Information Economics and Policy.