••• sports and leisure research
Vision Critical kicks off Sports Fan Council
Online community gathers feedback on fan experience
Vision Critical, Vancouver, Canada, is now offering Sports Fan Council, an online community of fans of professional sports. The Sports Fan Council solution is used by teams to capture feedback over time in order to make improvements and enrich the fan experience. The solution is programmed with fan engagement activities and analysis in order to help teams increase fan satisfaction and loyalty, improve ticket sales, maintain and secure corporate and media partnerships and leverage fan creativity to improve existing products and effectively release new ones. The Council provides fan activities and a dialogue with their sports team. Fans will provide feedback on their buying decisions, how much they are willing to spend and their reactions to the experience pre- and post-game. Sports Fan Council is available as an add-on solution to existing Vision Critical Insight Community customers or as part of a Vision Critical Insight Community offer for new customers.
••• mobile research
Jibunu aims to improve the respondent experience
Reduce scrolling, simplify grids
Jibunu, a Leominster, Mass., research firm, has introduced RAD JEFF, a combination of “Responsive Design and Jibunu’s Enhanced Features and Functionality,” designed to improve the respondent experience on all de-vices, increase completion rates and decrease length of interviews. One JEFF enhancement is the reduction of scrolling required by the respondent to answer the standard answer grid. Technology allows the display of one row at a time and an automatic progression through the grid questions as the respondent answers each row. At the same time, the answer row is replicated and moves down the grid as the questions are answered. The button to move to the next page does not appear until all rows are shown and all answers are given. Other improve-ments include stylized grids using CSS3, with large clickable areas instead of tiny radio buttons or checkboxes, and number-pad activation on mobile devices for numeric questions instead of the standard mobile keyboard.
••• shopper insights
Verve app adds iBeacon technology
Can track in-store behavior, deliver surveys
Apple’s iBeacon technology has been incorporated into the Community Panel member app of London research firm Verve. When a panel member enters a client’s store, their Verve app detects the in-store iBeacons and the member’s location (down to aisle level). This data can then be used to trigger a range of activities such as preloaded surveys on their mobile devices based upon where they are/have been in the store, how long they remained in a given area and the journey they have taken through the store.
As Verve also holds, with clear permission, members’ purchase behavior for many of its retail clients, it is also possible to link the journey taken with actual purchase data. IBeacons use Bluetooth Low Emissions technology to communicate between the Verve app and the iBeacons so that the detriment to battery life associated with GPS technology is no longer a problem.
••• health care research
Platform monitors social media impact on health care service
Filters conversations by source, language
Media Marketing Research International, Surrey, U.K., and Klood, a social media marketing firm in Milton Keynes, U.K., have partnered to create Brand Data Intelligence (BDI), an online listening and analysis platform. The program is designed to monitor the impact of social media on the reputation of a health care service by filtering conversations on social networks by source, location and language. BDI also allows snippets of the data to be tagged for further analysis of sentiment, allowing accurate interpretation of sarcasm and cultural nuance.
••• social media research
Tool aggregates Facebook user reactions to brands
Data is anonymized but users can’t opt out
Facebook, Menlo Park, Calif., has teamed with DataSift, a Reading, U.K., software firm, to provide researchers with a tool to see what Facebook users are saying about events, brands, products and politics. The tool, Pylon for Facebook Topic Data, aggregates and anonymizes the data to ensure that private information is not divulged and customers cannot identify exactly who said what. While companies can already use Facebook’s data to target advertising, researchers can now gain insights to develop products or decide which audiences to target. Researchers must provide a specific query about opinions or trends to DataSift, which then runs it against Facebook data and produces a report of anonymized statistical data that matches the query. The process requires that 100 Facebook users match a query for it to be allowed. Currently the service is only available to companies in the U.S. and U.K. Facebook users do not have the option of opting out of the process.
http://datasift.com/products/pylon-for-facebook-topic-data
••• the business of research
Schlesinger Associates debuts client portal
Tracks study recruitment, progress
Iselin, N.J.-based research firm Schlesinger Associates has completed the development of Client Space, its client portal software. The custom software solution provides clients with on-demand access to their accounts and qualitative data collection projects using a secure dashboard to track various aspects of their account, including active study/recruitment progress, study history and historic data. The portal also allows the client to provide controlled access to study stakeholders and to interact directly.
••• Briefly
Sisters Kate Buckley and Sarah Buckley Faulkner have joined forces to form The Story Corp, a Cincin-nati-based brand story agency. www.thestorycorp.com
The ratings of Portland, Ore., researcher Rentrak can now be used as a currency in the Spectra OX Spot and Network platforms of New York-based software firm Mediaocean.
Modern Day Scribe, a Springfield, Mass., transcription services company, has been recertified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.
Focus Crossroads, a qualitative research facility in East Rutherford, N.J., received ISO 20252 Certification for Research Standards and Guidelines from the CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organizations) Institute for Research Quality.
Tremor Video, a New York marketing company, received accreditation from the Media Rating Council for several metrics including its video viewable impression measure.
In Regina, Saskatchewan, the University of Regina is constructing a 1,100-square-foot Laboratory for Be-havioural Business Research, equipped with multiple cameras to capture the results of tests, interviews and focus groups. The space will be used to simulate retail and casino environments and will provide mobile eye-tracking and physiological equipment such as heart rate monitors.
Chute, a San Francisco software company, has introduced Chute Insights, a visual marketing automation platform. Companies can find and organize fan photos and videos shared on Twitter and Instagram and then ob-tain the owner’s consent to publish them. The process allows companies to track influencer content and filter the materials to check consumer sentiment, purchase intent and trends.
www.getchute.com
San Francisco-based mobile marketing and analytics firm Upsight has expanded its Upsight Marketing plat-form, which processes billions of data points per month to help businesses understand user behavior and create targeted campaigns. The new platform also offers data visualizations to illustrate user relationships and provides user insights to build campaigns across multiple apps.
www.upsight.com/marketing
Consumer Opinion Services has opened a 1,500-square-foot focus group facility at its headquarters in Lloyd Center, Portland, Ore.
Springleap, a Cape Town, South Africa, researcher, has launched a creative insights division, using crowdsourced feedback to provide insights on local markets. Springleap also introduced the South African Trend Report, a monthly syndicated summary of marketing and brand activity.
www.springleap.com
Reston, Va., researcher comScore has introduced its comScore Mobile Metrix program in the U.K., replacing GSMA MMM in providing mobile audience measurement. Mobile Metrix utilizes comScore’s Unified Digital Measurement for smartphones and tablets. It will combine passive on-device measurement via mobile panels with census-level data to measure mobile media use across apps and browsers.
www.comscore.com
In London, TNS has launched a mini crowdsourcing tool, ThinkTank, to enable companies to interact with a select group of consumers, carefully chosen to be savvy, connected and future-oriented. ThinkTank will be backed up with analysis from TNS qualitative staff.
www.tnsglobal.com
Close on the heels of the Apple Watch release, London digital research agency Clicked now offers a weara-ble technology tracking study covering the U.K. market. It will track U.K. ownership and interest in smartwatches, fitness trackers, smartglasses and other wearables. Syndicated members will be able to tailor content to meet their own category and interests.
www.clicked-research.co.uk
New York-based appFigures, a mobile app performance firm, has begun providing analytics data along with other mobile marketing data within the Adobe Analytics platform.
https://appfigures.com
San Francisco technology firm Salesforce has introduced the Marketing Cloud Predictive Decisions tool, which analyzes customer engagement and provides recommended content, products or offers to consumers on a proactive basis. The software combines CRM and marketing data to determine the appropriate content or offer to each individual.
www.salesforce.com/marketing-cloud
Munich-based wywy has launched its TV Analytics App, which will provide analysis of the effect a TV ad has on Web site traffic. The app can detect TV ads in real-time and imports that information to the Adobe Cloud Mar-keting Exchange. Because planned airing times can differ from actual airing times, the app’s ability to identify the actual airing time is critical for accurate attribution of ad impact.
http://wywy.com
Pittsburgh research firm CivicScience has updated its InsightStore platform to allow greater control over viewing, analyzing and reporting on consumer research data. Customers will be able to create and apply their own scoring formulas and have more options for custom groupings. Another new feature automatically presents the most statistically-meaningful data between and across all questions.
http://civicscience.com/solutions/competition
San Francisco technology firm Meltwater has introduced a service which monitors and summarizes editorial, blogs and social media postings. It is available in 13 languages and includes features for competitor benchmark-ing and market tracking.
www.meltwater.com
Santa Barbara, Calif., digital marketing software firm PureClick has received Media Rating Council accredita-tion for its click forensics metrics which determine that traffic is coming from humans rather than bots, validating traffic counts from paid search and display campaigns. The accreditation applies to the company’s IAB Valid Clicks, IAB Valid Clicks Resolved and PureCaptcha confirmed clicks metrics which are used in its PureCaptcha and PureBounce products.