••• shopper research
Methodology gets real with shoppers
Incorporates AI, biometrics
Teaneck, N.J., shopper insights firm PRS IN VIVO has launched Next Generation In-Context Research, a methodology designed to provide a better understanding of real shopper behavior to influence consumer choices that have a real-world impact on business results. The aim is to analyze how shoppers interact with products in real environments, what influences shoppers’ purchase behaviors and help determine how to design choice architectures in order to win in every retail channel. Next Generation In-Context Research aims to provide answers to these questions in a behavioral framework that is flexible, modular and simple to implement. The method incorporates new technologies to improve decision-making: AI to predict outcomes; a biometric bracelet to measure emotion; and enhanced eye-tracking and video journey-mapping. In addition, every project can include an e-commerce module.
••• ux research
UserZoom aims to boost user research studies
Suite of UX product enhancements
San Jose, Calif., UX insights company UserZoom has released enhanced product functionality to help customers build and analyze user research studies. The company redesigned its Study Builder, making it easier to create UX tests on a range of devices. The addition of the star rating question type allows researchers to more easily align satisfaction questions with how their organization measures satisfaction and experience ratings. Enhancements to Results Beta, which allows customers to extract and share UX insights from studies, include the addition of the full breadth of question types to the new Results Beta visualizations and new filtering capabilities that include the ability to filter by rating scale responses. UserZoom has also released Video Transcripts, which includes features like dynamic scroll, enhanced search, clip creation and text export.
••• panel research
New platform from P2Sample
Offers provider integration
Alpharetta, Ga., sampling solutions firm P2Sample has launched its new platform, an automated solution for panel management and fieldwork. The platform offers: a single system to manage proprietary panels and programmatically integrate with more than 200 sample providers, with connections to panel companies, exchanges and marketplaces; interfaces and intuitive flows that allow management of sample across the entire project lifecycle, from bidding/quotation to field to delivery for quota setups, feasibility estimates and faster launches; integration with and ability to blend sample from more than 200 providers; access a global audience of respondents; no additional platform or software licensing fees; integration with traditional and custom data collection systems and multiple methodologies, including eye-tracking, facial coding, nonconscious measurement, video capture and traditional surveys; and proactive automated alerts and real-time reporting to ensure projects stay on track.
••• ad research
Nielsen initiative targets smart TVs
Focuses on addressable advertising
Nielsen, New York, has launched Nielsen Advanced Video Advertising, a new technology, product and commercial initiative that will focus on expanding and innovating addressable advertising for smart TVs. The smart TV landscape has the potential to usher in a gold rush for marketers, programmers and OEMs. There are more smart TVs in the market today than ever before and more than 250 million expected by 2023, according to Statista. With more devices capable of delivering addressable TV advertising, similar to the digital world, Nielsen identified the need for an end-to-end, AI-optimized platform that enables ad delivery, data-driven targeting, automation, real-time optimization, unified campaign management and measurement. To further accelerate the initiative, Nielsen has acquired Sorenson Media, an addressable TV technology company.
••• media research
Unilever spearheads development of cross-media measurement model
Engages World Federation of Advertisers, others
London-based consumer goods company Unilever has announced an initiative to build a cross-media measurement model to help brands measure and understand campaign impact across the media landscape. The company has engaged the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and other industry bodies to invite other brands, platforms and publishers to join in efforts to further develop the measurement system. Unilever is leading the effort to develop a model that will combine existing industry measurement tools into a system that measures campaign audience, audience reaction, campaign impact and sustained impact over the short-, medium- and long-term.
“To realize our vision of a more transparent and high-quality digital ecosystem, our partnerships have been, and will remain, instrumental in developing an always-on, privacy-safe model for cross media measurement,” said Keith Weed, Unilever CMO, in a press statement. “We are hugely encouraged that our digital and measurement partners worked with us to enable these significant steps towards solving the challenge of holistic media measurement. This represents a genuine willingness across the industry to find creative, effective solutions to shared issues. We look forward to welcoming other leading advertisers and industry associations to the initiative to help address this industry challenge.”
“Unilever has always been a champion of key industry-wide initiatives,” said Carolyn Everson, Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions. “It’s important that we and others work toward a cross-media measurement solution – one that leverages independent third-party systems, protects privacy and improves people’s experience with ads.”
••• research education
Three new online courses from MRII
Qual, emerging methods, analytics
The Market Research Institute International, in cooperation with the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, has launched three new online courses.
Qualitative Market Research is designed to give you the foundational knowledge necessary to properly utilize qualitative approaches that yield valuable insights. This online course is PRC approved for nine hours.
Emerging Methods and the Future of Market Research explores how evolving technological, social, scientific, economic and cultural forces are redefining how market research is designed and conducted. This online course is PRC approved for 12 hours.
The bundled course Analytics 1-2-3 includes three Principles Express courses – Introduction to Data Analysis, Advanced Analytic Techniques and Working with Secondary Data: Syndicated and Big Data. This bundle will help students learn how to prepare data for analysis, select the most appropriate statistical methods and develop an analysis plan to support the business decision that needs to be made. Also covered will be the many secondary data sources now available, including the increasing availability of syndicated data and big data. This online certificate course is PRC approved for 36 hours.
www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/courses/market-research
••• Briefly
New York-based qualitative research firm First Insights has launched the UX Research Podcast, which aims to provide insights, strategies and best practices around how to conduct research in an increasingly digital world. New podcasts will be posted on a regular basis and UX and research communities are invited to reach out with ideas and commentary.
Chicago-based researcher IRI and Irvine, Calif., mobile research firm MFour have partnered to launch IRI OnSights, a solution that leverages MFour’s first-party GPS location information to collect data on consenting mobile panelists’ visits to U.S. bars and restaurants. The data provides IRI clients with passive tracking insights and actively collected survey information to improve marketers’ understanding of consumer behavior.
Data science company Dstillery, New York, has introduced Audience Studio, a platform that allows users to onboard first- and third-party data to create custom audiences, explore physical and behavioral attributes and activate in Dstillery’s DSP or their preferred DSP. The launch comes after a private beta test with various agencies.
Toronto-based data services firm Maru/Blue has launched its Ailments Community, which profiles members from across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. who suffer from or have been diagnosed with a variety of ailments. Patients and caregivers are included in the sample. The community can be used for quantitative and qualitative research and includes mobile missions and video interviewing.
Detroit-based online qualitative technology company Aha! has released its multi-day TruRotation ad/concept testing feature as part of its suite of market research tools. Using a proprietary algorithm to rotate ideas equally over multiple days, TruRotation allows insight strategists and researchers to deliver a randomized but exact balance of idea presentations for qual/quant ad, concept and idea testing for consumer and B2B research studies.
In London, data services firm Maru/Blue has launched its Maru Voice UK Omnibus, a solution that allows clients to test an idea, message or concept among U.K. citizens. In Toronto, Maru/Blue has launched its Hispanic Omnibus, a solution that allows clients to test an idea, message or concept among the Hispanic population.
Encino, Calif., sampling company InnovateMR has released new features for its self-serve platform Pegasus. The updated platform allows clients to field international projects and receive instant feasibility and pricing in the U.K. and Canada. Clients can also identify audiences with new, easy-to-use targeting, create census rep targeting and quotas, create custom screening questions and see real-time updates to feasibility and pricing as they build a target audience.
Los Angeles-based research automation platform PureSpectrum has launched Storefront, an automated insights e-commerce platform. Storefront automates survey creation with custom configurable inputs, data collection and report generation, allowing researchers to return insights to clients within 24 hours. It also includes access to respondents from the PureSpectrum marketplace.
Plano, Texas, data services firm Dynata is offering a joint solution through a strategic alliance with marketing technology company TruSignal Inc. Through the alliance, brands can use selected segments from survey responses collected through Dynata as seed data to help audience expansion. TruSignal uses the seed data segments to train its AI-powered predictive scoring engine to identify lookalike audiences at scale. Powered by TruSignal’s TruAudience Platform, 247 million U.S. adults are scored based on cross-validated, people-based offline data spanning 16 categories.
Irvine, Calif., mobile research company MFour has introduced DisplayCheck, which provides researchers with validated ad effectiveness metrics derived from first-party mobile shoppers who have been naturally exposed to in-store displays, signage and end caps. The product tracks all store visits of double opt-in mobile consumers and sends them exit surveys immediately after they’ve left a store where the campaign being measured is under way.
Research company Curion has launched eFive, a sensory and product insights platform designed for emerging brands, with testing facilities in Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and New York City metropolitan areas.
Toronto-based consumer intelligence firm Maru/Matchbox has launched the Cannabis Chronicle, a quarterly study measuring cannabis consumption patterns, changing cannabis perceptions and attitudes, brand awareness, consideration and satisfaction and other topics impacting the cannabis industry. The study is conducted in Canada and in U.S. states where cannabis is legal for recreational consumption.
Columbia, Md., marketing agency Merkle has launched Rapid Audience Layer, a public, cloud-based marketing data management solution that integrates multiple data sources to deliver audience insights. Powered by Merkle’s Connected Recognition technology, the solution offers standard data hygiene and identity resolution, allowing marketers to recognize the same individual across several data sources.
Consumer insights firm MetrixLab has released Campaign Monitor, a multimedia campaign effectiveness solution. Campaign Monitor measures the performance of individual media channels as well as the performance of the individual platforms and placements within those channels. The solution can also assess the impact of campaigns on different audience groups.
InContext Solutions, a Chicago-based provider of 3-D simulation software for retail, has launched its second-generation decision-support platform ShopperMX. The platform simulates in-store shopping experiences within a virtual store environment, testing them with real shoppers. It supports use cases such as packaging design; micro and macro space planning; trade promotions; display and signage fixtures; and more. The updated platform includes a new back-end infrastructure, an improved user interface and new capabilities for collaboration.
London-based researcher Kantar Worldpanel has launched a consumer panel in Bangladesh, with services covering 5,150 households. Kantar Worldpanel will join with Kantar MRB, enhancing the household panel that has been in the country since 2002. The panel will cover 53 categories including new and fast-growing categories such as air fresheners, toothbrushes, chips, puffed snacks and biscuits, among others. The company will also provide its portfolio of analytical services that support clients’ decision-making in areas like retail strategy, media investment and innovation.
Virtualitics, a data analytics and visualization company based in Pasadena, Calif., has announced a new release for its flagship product, Virtualitics Immersive Platform, to support more use cases for a variety of industries. The software uses AI to identify key insights in the data, while visualization provides a way to represent the data and explain AI findings through desktop or coupled with virtual reality.
Boston-based digital experience intelligence firm Decibel has released Journeys, which provides a view of how Web site and app users experience every step of the online journey.
Cambridge, Mass., natural language company Luminoso has launched Score Drivers, a machine learning-powered solution that automates the process of finding drivers in qualitative and quantitative feedback from customers and employees. The solution analyzes unstructured reviews and survey feedback and shows how the unstructured data correlates with quantitative ratings.
San Francisco-based technology firm Insights Curry has launched its first product, MAXDIFF OPTIMINER, a cloud-based solution for max-diff research, including advanced design modules, optimization bundling and TURF analysis.
Software company Qualtrics has launched XM Controls, a suite of data protection and governance capabilities to help organizations comply with the latest global data protection and security policies. The capabilities will allow XM program managers to manage users, permissions, data, compliance, security and costs when building customer, employee, product and brand experience solutions on the Qualtrics XM Platform. The company has also added a series of new product enhancements to Qualtrics Research Core.
New York-based research and analytics firm M Science has launched SWIPE UK, which provides daily updates on consumer spending metrics. SWIPE UK, with indices on spending, unique shoppers, transactions and average ticket, includes 54 merchants across 30 publicly traded companies and complements SWIPE US.