••• television research
More accountability for TV ad measurement
Rovi reporting tool to quantify ad effectiveness and ROI across platforms
Santa Clara, Calif., digital entertainment company Rovi Corporation has launched Rovi Analytics, a reporting tool designed to deliver metrics to measure TV advertising buys. Providing measurements including uniques, impressions and time spent, Rovi Analytics is intended to drive greater accountability for advanced TV advertising campaign performance.
Rovi Analytics extends measurement capabilities from service provider set-top boxes as well as connected television and video devices, offering campaign performance reports for agencies and advertisers that buy inventory on the Rovi Advertising Network. The reporting capabilities can combine census-level measurement with metrics to provide a view of campaign results across the various digital platforms Rovi serves. The performance metrics can be filtered by a range of criteria including day-part and geography and aim to enable advertisers to measure the effectiveness of TV ad units.
www.rovicorp.com
••• ethnographic research
Camera one, camera two
See-Me aims to offer visual narrative of consumer life
U.K. research company SPA Future Thinking has launched See-Me, an ethnographic tool designed to track where respondents go, what they do and what they are exposed to, providing a visual narrative of consumer behavior.
The solution uses a range of different cameras, from micro-HD video to fish-eye cameras, that aim to be unobtrusive so that respondents forget their presence.
Footage from the cameras can then be used in several ways. Researchers can use photo elicitation techniques to discuss content with the consumer and create a visual landscape from their point of view supported with a narrative or compile highlight reels to complement existing quantitative or qualitative research.
www.spafuturethinking.com
••• social media research
Net Promoter meets social media
SparkScore sets out to interpret social media data via NPS
San Mateo, Calif., research company Satmetrix has debuted SparkScore to measure customer conversation on the social Web using Net Promoter. SparkScore is designed to analyze, classify and categorize conversations customers are having in public and private social media about products and services by strength of sentiment.
SparkScore also offers benchmarking on a weekly basis to compare scores with others in the industry. SparkScore is available at no cost.
www.spark-score.com
••• music research
Whale-size music-listener data
Grooveshark launches Beluga for music insights
Grooveshark, a Gainesville, Fla., Internet music service, has debuted Beluga, a free music information tool that combines in-house market research with Grooveshark data to provide music insights. The free, no-registration-required tool aims to allow anyone to conduct in-depth research about a particular artist and their fanbase.
Tapping into Grooveshark’s 20 million unique monthly users, Beluga conducts analysis to find correlations between artist affinity and their listeners’ demographics, location and survey responses.
http://beluga.grooveshark.com
••• customer experience
VOC from a new VantagePoint
Bundled solutions aim to decrease CEM cost, complexity
Seattle research company NetReflector Inc. has released VantagePoint VoC Hubs, a suite of bundled, fixed-cost, feedback solutions designed to streamline VOC measurement programs. The suite is customizable; can be implemented in as little as four weeks; and can address the full range of VOC touchpoints, including call center monitoring, customer/partner/employee satisfaction, Web site feedback and product/service satisfaction.
Built and hosted on NetReflector’s VantagePoint enterprise feedback management software platform, VantagePoint VoC Hubs services include custom program design consulting; survey development; data collection/hosting; detailed reporting and analysis; and ongoing project management.
www.netreflector.com
••• data analysis
Adding analysis to the marketing mix
ThinkVine adds Analytical Services to optimization software
Cincinnati research company ThinkVine has debuted new analytical services offerings that are intended to deliver more strategic guidance about marketing spending levels, timing and tactics across consumers, channels, products and geographies. The information aims to produce deeper insight into consumer behavior to improve the accuracy of short- and long-term forecasts and the in-depth information provided for marketing scenarios.
Whether it be channel service, pricing service, product optimization service or segmentation service, ThinkVine’s Analytical Services aims to maximize the marketing-mix optimization process. ThinkVine Analytical Services can be integrated with the ThinkVine Marketing Mix Optimization software.
www.thinkvine.com
••• virtual research
Meet Sherry
New offering uses holographic technology to conduct interviews
New York research company Ebony Marketing Systems has introduced Sherry, a holographic interviewer. Sherry can work in any location in any part of the world, though the current technology is somewhat limited in the types of studies for which it can be used.
Sherry works by inviting respondents to participate and then directs willing participants to use an iPad interface to take the survey and record their answers. Sherry comes equipped with two iPads for interviewing two respondents simultaneously. Clients can view Sherry in action remotely via a video interface.
The offering is geared toward long-term projects in moderate-to-high-traffic areas. In the future, Sherry will be able to conduct full interviews and record the responses. Sherry can also distribute incentives, samples and coupons. For more information call 718-742-0006.
••• tracking research
Optimize your studies
A four-part solution to help manage tracking
Bangalore, India, research company Cross-Tab has launched Tracking Optimiser, a solution designed to enhance the value of tracking studies by combining subject-matter experts, technology and established processes.
The four cornerstones of Tracking Optimiser are: dedicated tracking specialists to manage field issues, identify new efficiencies and achieve robust information to validate trends; a managed program to provide optimum control of the study and precision in managing sample frames; validation through other sources, including social media and below-the-line activity to help validate the findings; and real-time reporting via a mobile/tablet application to access data whenever and wherever.
www.cross-tab.com
••• hospitality research
How was your stay?
PillowChat for hotels sets out to mine social media for brand conversations
London research consultancy BDRC Continental has introduced PillowChat in the U.S. PillowChat is a social media product in the hotels sector, focusing on producing social media data to provide intelligence into what consumers really think about a brand.
Designed to help with a launch, build relationships or manage online reputation, PillowChat aims to allow users to understand what consumers think; respond and talk to consumers to encourage brand advocacy and drive sales; and manage reputation by engaging directly with positive and negative influencers.
PillowChat monitors user-generated content (i.e., blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, photo/video sharing sites, forums, social networks, etc.) to discover what consumers are saying, with results analyzed by location, gender, age, date and sentiment.
The data can be viewed alongside more traditional quantitative data in an interactive dashboard.
www.bdrc-continental.com
••• online qualitative
An enhanced experience
Itracks updates BBFG software with improved video capability
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, research company itracks has released video questions, answers and reporting enhancements to its bulletin board focus group (BBFG) product. With this release, itracks’ BBFG moderators are able to post bulletin board questions and collect responses via a Webcam and tag videos as they watch the responses in one action.
A video reporting page allows users to search and edit video clips and create a highlight reel that can be inserted into reports.
www.itracks.com
••• customer experience
Three-pronged platform for CEM
Product suite uses customer feedback to better the bottom line
Ann Arbor, Mich., research company CFI Group has rolled out its latest technology platform intended to offer customers a set of analysis and workflow tools that monitor and measure the customer experience across multiple channels. The platform is combined with the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Ann Arbor, Mich., and consists of three integrated suites and supporting toolsets to provide a solution for organizations to listen, analyze and respond to customer feedback.
CF Monitor is designed to allow customers to continuously listen to the voice of the customer through multiple channels, including brick-and-mortar locations, call centers, Web sites and social media. The suite also supports a variety of traditional and emerging data collection methods.
CF Analyze is powered by a technology using the science of the ACSI to measure satisfaction and predict future behaviors and link satisfaction to financial results.
With CF Workflow, time-sensitive information is delivered through alerts and push reporting. The solution also includes case management tools to help alleviate customer service issues and document management for organizing customer feedback data.
www.cfigroup.com
••• sentiment analysis
Automated coding, human touch
Ascribe Intelligence aims to improve analysis of verbatim feedback
Cincinnati research company Ascribe has debuted Ascribe Intelligence, a suite of integrated analytics tools designed to allow organizations to gather, classify, code and then visualize verbatim feedback, regardless of industry, channel or language. Ascribe Intelligence aims to combine the accuracy of human processing with the speed of automated coding to help perform detailed analysis of consumer sentiment and derive business insight from that data.
www.goascribe.com
••• ad research
Look with a Digital Eye
Russian companies partner to launch targeting tool for banner ads
Moscow search engine Yandex and the Russian division of Chicago digital communications group VivaKi have released Digital Eye, a tool for targeting display ads. The advertising method is intended to allow advertisers to differentiate specific segments of the Web-user audience, depending on the amount of time they spend in front of their television sets. Digital Eye is based on Yandex’s Crypta technology and is available exclusively to clients of VivaKi group agencies in Russia.
www.vivaki.com
••• panel research
App improvements for Toluna.com members
Mobile app sees several enhancements
Wilton, Conn., research company Toluna has updated its mobile application, following the reintroduction of Toluna.com, the company’s member community Web site. Members may now use the application to participate in in-depth, traditional surveys. The iPad and iPhone app is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The Android app is available in English.
Among other capabilities, the Toluna mobile app enables members to ask and answer questions with images, via mobile devices. They can also publish those questions and answers on social networks. The app is available to download free of charge from the App Store.
http://tolu.na/w0QdMT
••• customer experience
Verint advances portfolio
VOC suite updated to include text analytics and interactive dashboards
Melville, N.Y., research company Verint Systems Inc. has launched a series of enhancements to its Voice of the Customer Analytics portfolio. The Insights module features embedded text analytics and interactive dashboards.
The integrated text analytics are designed to gather insight into the emotions behind collected feedback; benefit from automatic theme detection, comment categorization and sentiment analysis summaries; drill down into individual customer feedback to view exact comments and analyze root causes; and expose the why behind what customers and employees are saying about a company, brand or specific products and services.
The customizable dashboard and reporting advancements aim allow users to create and share dashboards to communicate developments, opportunities and problem areas to decision makers; incorporate data from external sources; and centralize and streamline corporate feedback.
www.verint.com
••• Briefly
Surrey, U.K., research company MARSC Limited has launched its MARSC Community Panel. The panel is customizable with multisite management and multilingual content options; allows users to recruit a well-profiled target audience; provides scalable community size; and offers direct engagement with customers and social media and community tools.
www.marsc.com
Research Now, Plano, Texas, has collaborated with New York research company Experian Marketing Services to overlay its U.S. research panels with Experian Mosaic USA consumer lifestyle segmentation, allowing Research Now to code its research panels using Mosaic’s system, which classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into 71 segments and 19 overarching groups.
www.researchnow.com
Shelton, Conn., research company SSI has added Dublin, Ireland, research company Experian’s Financial Strategy Segments coding to its U.K. sample, allowing respondents to be recruited based on financial behaviors.
www.surveysampling.com
Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive Service Bureau has launched Get Sample!, a sample-only offering designed to deliver respondents from Harris Interactive panels.
www.hisbonline.com
Westport, Conn., research company Imperium has launched ChildGuardOnline, a service to verify parental consent so Web sites and mobile apps can comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act regulations. ChildGuardOnline also offers parents and guardians the ability to instantly approve and manage the Web sites they have authorized for their child’s use via the service.
www.imperium.com
IBM, Armonk, N.Y., has released IBM Analytical Decision Management V7.0, a software platform designed to optimize resource trade-offs; use predictive analytics, rules and scoring to grow revenues and increase loyalty; predict and prevent threats in real-time; and manage assets and resources by predicting equipment failure, staffing downtime and service disruptions.
www.ibm.com
QSR International, a Doncaster, Australia, research software company, has released NVivo 10, featuring the ability to capture and work with Web pages and online PDFs; import Facebook posts, LinkedIn discussions and tweets from Twitter; and automatically code social media data and visualize the results.
www.qsrinternational.com
CMS Research, Toledo, Ohio, has launched a global research program to affordably employ a local toll-free number in each targeted, non-U.S. country. The program aims to ensure surveys are conducted at one location, in the consumer’s native language, to provide uniformity across data collection.
www.cmsresearch.com
A new U.S. patent for using functional magnetic resonance imaging used Gainesville, Fla., research company AdSAM’s Neuro Emotion System to identify specific regions of the brain that relate to measuring appeal and engagement. The patent was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C., and confirms that AdSAM accurately measures appeal and engagement, combined with empowerment, to identify specific feelings.
www.adsam.com
American Pasteurization Company (APC), a Milwaukee high-pressure toll processor, and The National Food Lab (The NFL), Livermore, Calif., have partnered to offer a high-pressure processing solution for food and beverage manufacturers in the U.S. The partnership offers APC’s clients access to The NFL’s full suite of services, including challenge studies, shelf-life studies, product development and formulation work, focus groups and taste panels.
www.thenfl.com
The CASRO Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ) division of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), Port Jefferson, N.Y., has awarded certification to New York research company Millward Brown’s Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region for compliance to the ISO 20252 standard for market, opinion and social research. Processes outlined in ISO 20252 are designed to produce transparent, consistent, well-documented and error-free methods of conducting and managing research projects.
www.casro.org
Harpeth Marketing, a Franklin, Tenn., marketing firm serving the market research industry, has released “Marketing & Sales for the Market Research Firm: Part 1 - The Fundamentals,” a 15-page e-book. The e-book is available as a free download at www.harpethmarketing.com/ebook.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. and the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), New York, have released the results of a cross-platform pilot test that examines how TV viewers use PCs and mobile devices as second and third screens to access video content.
www.arbitron.com
London research company Kantar Worldpanel ComTech has launched a Chinese mobile phone consumer panel. Worldpanel ComTech service will use Kantar Worldpanel’s existing operation in China to conduct its interviews.
www.kantarworldpanel.com
ThinkNow Research, Burbank, Calif., has increased the frequency of its Hispanic online omnibus survey to 12 waves per year.
www.thinknowresearch.com
Perception Research Services International, Fort Lee., N.J., has completed a wave of shopper research on private-label usage, indicating that 86 percent of shoppers still purchase some private-label products on a regular basis.
www.prsresearch.com
The Census Bureau, Washington, D.C., has released detailed estimates about the social, economic and housing characteristics of hundreds of race, tribal, Hispanic and ancestry groups at numerous geographic levels. The findings are contained in two data products: the 2006-2010 American Community Survey Selected Population Tables and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey American Indian and Alaska Native Tables.
www.census.gov
Borderless Access, a Bangalore, India, research company, has launched InstaBid, a mobile app designed to give market researchers up-to-date information on sample feasibility and cost per interview for any online sample RFP across emerging markets. The app is available for Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices.
www.borderlessaccess.com