••• advertising research
Ace Metrix approach gauges ads’ cultural sensitivityÂ
Looks at cultural, social issuesÂ
Los Angeles-based ad research firm Ace Metrix has launched an approach that aims to quantify the level of cultural sensitivity portrayed in advertising. Scores measuring evidence of empowering and exploitative signals across all ages, genders, ethnicities and religions, etc., as well as the amplitude of an ad’s overall signal, are designed to provide advertisers with a pragmatic understanding of viewer reaction to their ad in terms of cultural and social issues. In addition, emotional metrics and viewer verbatim comments lend further insight into specific actions brands can take to reduce negative elements in their creative and improve their overall cultural sensitivity score.
••• utilities research
GE Power apps target grid efficiency
Predictive analytics-based
GE Power has rolled out a series of predictive analytics applications for the power industry, designed to help keep electric grids operating more smoothly. The new tools use data from transmission and distribution networks and are connected via a common data fabric. They include: storm readiness, which uses high-resolution weather forecasts, outage history, crew response and geographic data to accurately forecast a storm’s impact; network connectivity, which uses operational data to find errors and maintain network data integrity; and effective inertia, which forecasts and mitigates the impact of inertia from large power generators on grid reliability.
••• research apps
Facebook tries MR again with Study app
Users will be compensated
Facebook is launching a new market research app called Study from Facebook. The firm will run ads to encourage people to participate. When someone clicks on an ad, they’ll have the option to register and, if they qualify, they’ll be invited to download the app. Once invited, they’ll find the Study from Facebook app in the Google Play Store. As they sign up, people will see a description of how the app works and what information they’ll be sharing so they can confirm they want to participate. Anyone who uses the app will be compensated. Only people who are 18 and older will be eligible to participate at launch and all participants will be able to opt out at any time. Facebook will work with Applause, which will manage the registration process, all compensation to participants and customer support. Facebook had drawn fire for its previous Facebook Research app, which was seen by some as being too invasive of users’ privacy.
www.facebook.com/facebookstudy
••• survey research
MarketVision adds ADA-compliant survey offeringsÂ
Partnership with Clovernook Center
Cincinnati-based MarketVision Research has debuted ADA-compliant survey solutions for the blind and visually impaired. Through a partnership with Clovernook Center of the Blind and Visually Impaired, MarketVision Research developed proprietary survey solutions to improve compatibility with screen readers for the blind and enhance usability through high-contrast designs for those with visual impairment. The solutions are compliant with ADA website accessibility guidelines.
••• Briefly
Philadelphia-based research company Focus Pointe Global has broadened its solution set to provide a full suite of CX services, including social media monitoring and text analytics, mystery shopping, guest recovery, customer intercepts and more. These services are being provided through a partnership with customer experience management company Market Force Information.
Research company MRI-Simmons, New York, has launched Sales Catalyst, an automated partnership exploration and audience analysis tool. Built on the Simmons Insights platform with Smart Search technology, Sales Catalyst helps advertising sales, partnership and sponsorship teams show the overlap between their audience and that of a potential partner.
Emeryville, Calif., research and strategy consultancy Greenberg Strategy has added Greenberg Inside to its suite of offerings. Greenberg Inside is designed to help organizations identify and understand habitual patterns and develop solutions to create more empathetic and higher performing workplaces that drive overall business growth.
The Global Research Business Network (GRBN) will be launching the second edition of the Invest in Insights Handbook. Version 2.0 of the handbook will include new examples of insights ROI measurement as well as new advice on how insights leaders can implement their own ROI measurement program. Additionally, the scope will be expanded to include new research and guidance on how leaders can build the business impact of the insights function. Over the coming months, GRBN and its partners will be conducting research into how the insights function is evolving to become more business-impact focused. Key data and insights will be included in version 2.0.
U.K. cross-media measurement firm RealityMine has rolled out new RealLife Data Feeds across its host of RealLife products. Measurement for Walmart’s U.S. Web site and app and more extensive global Amazon shopper data is now available to clients as part of the rollout. In addition, app recognition has been enhanced through improved algorithmic and manual validation.
Local Nielsen Media Impact, a solution by New York researcher Nielsen that provides local media planning and cross-channel optimization across local TV and radio, is expanding to include 19 additional markets.
London-based researcher Kantar has launched the Kantar Profiles Network, a source of permission-based, GDPR-compliant research respondents. Powered by the company’s OnePlatform, the Kantar Profiles Network allows CMOs and their marketing teams to develop or optimize marketing strategies based on human understanding at scale. This includes the ability to connect Kantar’s proprietary customer profile data with other information sources.
Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of San Francisco-based customer success platform Salesforce, has launched foundationConnect, a grants management system that allows foundations and public charities to manage the entire lifecycle of philanthropic giving.
Nashville, Tenn., company 20|20 Research has launched its Lean Community solution, which allows researchers to grow communities over time through research that is already being done. The company will host and manage the solution with its QualBoard enterprise platform, which provides the ability to engage respondents in a variety of events, including qualitative diaries and group discussions, real-time video chats and quantitative polls and enables clients to build a consolidated repository of knowledge over time.
Insights solutions company Toluna and its sister company, Chinese respondent and survey provider KuRunData, have expanded respondent reach via the company’s WeChat mobile survey app. Initially launched in July 2018, the market adoption of the applet has increased respondent reach by approximately 60 percent year over year.
Technology platform Qualtrics now offers ExpertReview - Response Quality, a solution that uses AI to allow research and insights professionals to weed out poor-quality feedback by automatically detecting bad actors, bots and disengaged respondents and providing recommendations to address the problem.
Consumer insights platform Batterii has launched Mobile Missions, a co-creation app that allows consumers to record video responses to company questions. The mobile platform allows consumers to record product in-usage, consumer shopper journeys, in-home research and more.
Cedar Knolls, N.J., marketing agency Marketsmith Inc. has introduced Retail Intelligence, a product designed for manufacturers and specialty retailers to optimize in-store performance by providing insight into trends and performance in each store and across stores on a daily basis.
Nielsen BASES has launched Retail Ready, a new service for packaged goods manufacturers that aims to help companies win retail distribution for new products.
Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), a data research platform and business intelligence tool, has added Healthbase to its data offerings. Healthbase, jointly developed by Compile and Decision Resources Group, is a dataset of U.S. health care facilities and prescribers. It offers insights into the health care market, providing subscribers access to information from the provider level to accountability control. WRDS is part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu/wrds/
New York-based research company SIS has unveiled the SIS Data Science platform, which will allow the firm to use data science, advanced analytics and data visualization with its panels more efficiently and accurately.
MRI-Simmons and EthniFacts have introduced the Big 5 Personality Suite, a targeting tool that separates consumers into 10 segments based on deeply held desires, aversions and other motivations. Users can identify consumers based on their openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability and then apply those learnings for messaging and in media plans informed by MRI’s consumer database.
Life sciences consulting firm Beghou Consulting, Evanston, Ill., has announced its new marketing research practice. The practice will include situation analysis, market assessment, strategy, planning, implementation and monitoring and will be led by pharmaceutical marketing research veteran Esin Izat.
Nielsen has expanded advertising measurement on YouTube’s mobile app with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings to 26 additional markets, including Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
State College, Pa., software firm Minitab LLC has released Minitab 19 Statistical Software, which delivers statistical analysis, visualizations, predictive and improvement analytics to enable data-driven decision making.
Elk Ridge, Utah-based research firm Mobile Digital Insights has released Research on Research: Diary vs. Recall-Based Studies, a 19-page report that can be downloaded for free from the firm’s Web site.
Research firm Benenson Strategy Group (BSG) has launched an online resource called Political War Room to Corporate Boardroom that will provide a series of content to help brand marketers and researchers better understand the consumer mind-set. The content delivered through Political War Room to Corporate Boardroom draws from lessons that BSG has learned in the political arena and applied to brands. The series will share these lessons and examples which center around strategic research as well as marketing and communications building blocks – from brand health monitoring to narratives to message creation.
Research firms iSN Global Solutions and CX-Talks have launched a quality control program called QC3. It is designed to help clients address the issue of poor data quality by focusing on two main business aspects: quality checks, which offer a detailed review of accuracy, including feedback and communication with client contacts; and editing services, for unstructured data (qualitative, open-ended) to ensure that the grammar and language used is accurate.
Jamin Brazil and Matt Tymn have launched HubUx, a project management platform for UX and research professionals. HubUx is designed to automate qualitative workflows across software solutions and panel providers offering an automated respondent recruiting solution including a scheduler for virtual interviews, focus groups and Remesh sessions, plus social recruiting services.Â
Researcher DigitalMR has launched a monthly syndicated social intelligence report for major banks in their respective countries. The report will be updated every month with posts from Twitter, blogs, forums, news, videos, reviews and other public online sources. The first three languages included – English, Spanish and Chinese – were selected intentionally to cover a large number of the global population.
Cincinnati software firm Ascribe and Germany-based research firm ASKi-Data announced ASKi-Data CX Snapshot, a text analytics tool designed to provide marketers and advertisers same-day, data-driven insights from consumer feedback surveys, including NPS studies. The new software, which uses Ascribe’s natural language processing, will enable ASKi-Data’s clients to analyze open-ended responses and verbatim comments from large-sample surveys.
Seattle-based actuarial firm Milliman’s MedInsight and Hayes, a division of health care marketing data firm TractManager, have announced the MedInsight Hayes Grouper, a new decision-making tool that integrates Hayes’ clinical criteria with Milliman’s claims analytics to create a data set of evidence-based claims analytics.
In Cambridge, Mass., Pioneer Intelligence has launched to help cannabis industry stakeholders better understand how communications strategies and tactics are resonating with audiences. Drawing from a proprietary database to generate insights and reports, the company focuses on marketing activities across three areas: social media, traditional media and brand-owned Web properties.
Teaneck, N.J., research firm PRS IN VIVO now offers Accelerated Behavioral Insights, a series of tools to offer guidance in NPD, shopper and packaging development. Available in combination or separately based on clients’ needs, the first tools to be included in the suite include: PackCept, a contextual, early-stage concept screener for NPD; PackFlash, a rapid online screener for pack designs; and AI Pack Screener, a tool to measure and optimize potential pack elements by analyzing new designs against the firm’s pack and shelf database.
Portland, Ore.-based SheerID has launched instant student verification in 191 countries recognized by the United Nations, allowing brands to use gated offers to engage college and university students around the globe. Students enter a few pieces of information – like name, university and date of birth – and SheerID verifies their eligibility to receive a brand’s student offer.
Toronto research firm Sklar Wilton & Associates has launched a disruption audit solution which includes a free assessment tool that companies can use to assess how their business will fare in a world of disruption. The tool, which uses the Wizu AI platform, focuses on three main dimensions: consumer-led planning, conviction for the future and being technology-forward. In the resulting customized report, gaps among the three dimensions help reveal the ability of the business to disrupt before it is disrupted and identify areas for improvement.
Dallas research firm Dynata is now offering Dynata Marketplace, an integrated, multi-supplier, automated research platform that is designed to enable researchers to blend Dynata’s first-party consumer data with multiple third-party data providers within a single platform to conduct research studies around the world.
Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business is launching a master of science in business analytics program this fall. Offered entirely online, the 30-credit program aims to help students develop equal expertise in business processes and data analysis. Courses cover using R/Python, JSON/XML and SQL and also look at examining business processes through their data models and extracting meaning from big, unstructured data.
Qualtrics has added API-driven survey programming capabilities to its Qualtrics Research Core insights platform. The new capabilities allow users to automate the creation and launch of research projects.
Marketing consultancy NEORIS announced its new practice, Augmented Intelligence, which utilizes pattern matching, machine learning, artificial intelligence and graph knowledge management. Joining NEORIS in its new practice are Demian Bellumio and Fausto Fleites, who led similar practices at other firms, and Sayyed Nezhadi, who will head its innovation labs.
Socialbakers, a Prague-based marketing company, released Content Hub, its new platform designed to use AI-powered content intelligence in order to aid users in planning, content creation and discovery, collaboration and insights.Â
Market researcher Ascribe announced the addition of X-Score to its Ascribe CX Inspector text analytics software. X-Score measures customer satisfaction by providing a score derived from comments about customer experiences.
TranscriptionWing, Civicom’s general transcription services unit, achieved compliance with the federally mandated standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Quantzig, an Illinois-based analytics company, announced the release of its free resource, which will supply data captured from sources such as onboard sensors and data collection points introduced by passenger counting systems, vehicle location systems, ticketing and fare collection systems, and scheduling and asset management systems.
MarketingIQ is launching its Swarm focused market research agency. The Swarm platform combines human feedback and artificial intelligence algorithms to generate insights.
New York-based market researcher Phoenix Marketing International has completed the annual third-party audit and maintained the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, which specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an information security management system.Â
Quester announced a new release of its text analytics software CoreText Analytics, which has now gained a sentiment analysis feature.
Survey research consultancy Researchscape International has launched ResearchStory, a survey response analysis tool. Its first external implementation is for users of SurveyGizmo software.
Surveying platform GeoPoll launched its SMS API, which will allow companies to utilize GeoPoll’s wide SMS connectivity throughout emerging markets. Â
Marketing research firm Rare Patient Voice, Towson, Md., launched its Proposal Automation Module, which will allow clients to enter information online – type of project, length of interview, respondent type and medical condition – in order to receive a proposal.
20|20 Research has launched QualLink 4.0. QualLink is 20|20’s API technology that integrates quantitative surveys and other online data resources programmatically with QualBoard 4.0. QualLink allows survey participants that meet researchers’ criteria to be transitioned into a moderated online discussion or other qualitative event, instead of going through the process of recruitment.
Research consultancy LRWGreenberg has formed LRWGreenberg Gaming, which brings together a team of researchers focusing on areas such as player segmentations; portfolio and product planning; title and platform launch positioning; and foundational brand and category insights.
Consumer intelligence platform Toluna has expanded the capabilities of its suite of automated research tools which includes PowerPack, PowerShelf and PowerConcept.
Insights firm PRS IN VIVO has launched the BEQual Toolkit, which allows respondents in qualitative research settings to react to new packaging designs after exposure to a prototype, interacting as they would with social media platforms.
Civicom Marketing Research Services has added the Storyboard feature to its qualitative content management platform Glide Central. The new addition will allow users to create storyboards from multimedia clippings and export them as stitched files.
Skyland Analytics released the latest version of its Skyland PIMS data collaboration platform. Version 3.1 expands PIMS’ external data source connectivity, data contextualization, analytics and control charting capabilities.
Software company ECI Software Solutions announced the availability of Cognytics, a cloud-based analytics and data visualization platform that helps users draw insights from the data in their enterprise resource planning systems to support business growth.
Inzata has launched InFlow, its automated data pipeline workflow tool created to provide real-time analytics.
Researcher GfK has launched Attribution+, an AI-based solution for grocery and drugstore retailers to gain intelligence on shoppers. The tool allows retailers to augment loyalty card data with insights from the GfK Consumer Panel. Attribution+ is the first tool that GfK and information tech company SO1 developed as part of their partnership.
Ventana Research, Bend, Ore, announced its latest Dynamic Insights research endeavor on sales analytics. It provides the research participant with an assessment of his or her company’s efforts, as well as research- and experience-based advice on next steps to improve.
Research firm FocusVision now offers Sample Marketplace in its Decipher survey platform. Users enter their sample specifications and click submit to obtain their quote. Once they decide to proceed, they can secure their sample and launch their study without leaving the Decipher platform.
A new research company, Stickybeak, has formed, based on an online survey platform that uses messaging-app-style conversational chatbot surveys, using characters and animation to engage audiences in quantitative research. Stickybeak recruits survey respondents through social media and is currently able to survey groups in the U.K., U.S., Australia and New Zealand.