News notes
Reston, Va., firm comScore has been granted accreditation by the Media Rating Council for its mobile viewable impressions and related viewability metrics for display and video ads, in mobile Web and in-app, in validated Campaign Essentials.
Acquisitions/transactions
3Cinteractive, a Boca Raton, Fla., mobile marketing services company, has acquired the SMS messaging business portfolio of SITO Mobile Ltd., a mobile engagement platform. The acquisition will allow SITO’s SMS messaging clients to use 3C’s Switchblade mobile marketing platform and its product solutions, including SMS/MMS, mobile wallet and push.
In Nuremberg, Germany, the shareholders of researcher GfK have accepted a voluntary public tender offer by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. for 18.54 percent of the company. GfK Verein remains the majority shareholder of GfK with 56.46 percent.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Detroit-based research and consulting firm Morpace Inc. has formed a global strategic agreement with New York-based firm Marketing Evolution to provide automotive clients with ROI Brain, an ROI optimization solution that works in conjunction with brand equity tracking.
Dextro Analytics, based in Seattle, has partnered with New York-based marketing technology company Tapad. Dextro Analytics will leverage Tapad’s Device Graph, bolstering its insight engine to decode customer journeys.
Nielsen, New York, has integrated with San Francisco-based omnichannel personalization firm RichRelevance through the Nielsen Marketing Cloud, allowing retailers to leverage Nielsen audience data, analytics and technology to engage shoppers with personalized content, product recommendations and search results.
Salt Lake City customer experience software and services firm MaritzCX and CX Workout, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Service Profit Chain Institute, have formed a partnership, allowing MaritzCX to add CX Workout’s journey-mapping software to its portfolio of offerings.
New York-based marketing technology company Simulmedia and Chicago-based researcher IRI have formed a strategic alliance that allows CPG marketers to use IRI ProScores, a purchase-based predictive shopper audience targeting solution, with Simulmedia on linear TV to target their advertising to consumers based on actual purchase behaviors versus traditional demographic data.
Awards/rankings
Researcher Confirmit, based in Oslo, Norway, has announced the recipients of the Confirmit Young Market Researcher Awards, which identifies and rewards 20 researchers who are in their twenties and working to drive evolution and innovation in the sector. The winners include: Troy Allen, KJT Group; Emily Anderson, The Martec Group; Lizzie Cox, Hall & Partners | Open Mind; Paul Cussell, Breaking Blue; Louise Donnelly, STV Group plc; Robin Gale, Hall & Partners | Open Mind; Sandra Koh, Hall & Partners | Open Mind; Nick Licitra, KL Communications; Duncan McCready, STV Group plc; Ariel Malik, Kadence International; Christina (Figueredo) Massey, Smarty Pants; Radina Nestorova, Market Test JSC; Jake Pryszlak, Merseyside Sports Partnership; Melanie Rankin, B2B International; Rainier van Rietschoten, Veylinx; David Ruffolo, Hall & Partners | Open Mind; Audrey Schmitt, Kadence China; Brina Tretin, BuzzBack Market Research; Dean Wan, DBM Consultants; and Eric Ye, Myanmar Survey Research.
Jill Draper, president of Cedar Knolls, N.J., marketing agency Marketsmith Inc., has been named among NJBIZ Magazine’s Best 50 Women in Business, 2017.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Researcher GfK, Nuremberg, Germany, has launched Supercrunch, a new independent unit that offers customers automated analytics solutions to support marketing decisions, including product launches and pricing and advertising optimization. The offers range from data science consulting to full-service software. Norbert Wirth, previously the global head of data and science at GfK, will run Supercrunch. The new unit will offer its services in Germany first, with Great Britain and France to follow later this year.
Kantar Public, a research-based government and public sector advisory firm based in London, has launched its Singapore office, with Sandra Lim being appointed as executive director. The new office will focus on research, data and analytics, government communications effectiveness, digital service design and delivery and behavior change. Kantar Public also recently launched in Saudi Arabia.
Researcher Frank Hines has launched RealLife Research Inc., a new video-centric mobile ethnography firm based in York, Maine. The company offers Vidnography, its proprietary consumer-generated video ethnography method, as well as live in-home mobile ethnography; video surveys and diaries; market immersions and shop-alongs; online and interactive focus groups; bulletin boards; IDIs; and exploratory labs.
SIS International Research, based in New York, has expanded and relocated its London office to the Southwark area of London. SIS EMEA relocated its offices to expand its team, qualitative fieldwork and data collection capabilities.
Social data intelligence company Talkwalker, based in Luxembourg, has opened a new office in San Francisco to further accelerate growth in the U.S. As part of its expansion, the firm also added two new hires to its U.S. team: Cara Buscaglia has joined as head of solutions and Quinn Duffy as partner manager for social networks. The San Francisco office will be led by John Zhao, head of sales – West Coast.
Marketing solutions firm Marketing Werks, based in Chicago, has opened an office in Toronto. Kathy Skube has been named VP, managing director of Marketing Werks Canada and will lead the Toronto office.
Research company earnings/financial news
Stamford, Conn., research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. has reported total revenue of $703.2 million for fourth-quarter 2016, an increase of 9 percent over fourth-quarter 2015.
Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK reported GfK Group sales in fiscal year 2016 were down 3.8 percent compared to last year, according to preliminary figures, reaching approximately €1.48 billion (compared to approximately €1.54 billion last year). Organic growth was minus 1.7 percent.
Nielsen, New York, has reported revenues of approximately $1.7 billion for fourth-quarter 2016, up 2 percent compared to fourth-quarter 2015. Revenues were approximately $6.3 billion for the full year of 2016, up 2.2 percent compared to 2015.
Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass., has reported total revenues of $83.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to $81 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. Research revenues increased 1 percent and advisory services and events revenues increased 7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2015.