News notes
The MRA Research Industry Index (RII) jumped from 91 at the close of 2009 to 98 during first-quarter 2010 - the highest index score since the fourth quarter of 2007. The RII, compiled by the Marketing Research Association (MRA), Glastonbury, Conn., is a composite score based on reported changes in business metrics and changes in business owners’ perceptions of the health of their business.
Separately, the MRA announced that the Colorado Pharmaceutical Transparency Act, signed into law by Governor Bill Ritter, includes an amendment proposed by the MRA excluding incentive payments for health care practitioners who participate in marketing research projects. The MRA was also successful in defeating similar bills lacking such an amendment in Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota and Mississippi.
On June 17, 2010, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rockville, M.D., wrote a letter to Richmond, Va., cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris demanding that it surrender all the market research it has conducted or possesses on how consumers react to the firm’s planned changes to Marlboro Lights packaging.
In an effort to evade a new FDA ban on promoting cigarettes as light, mild, or low-tar, Philip Morris has attached onserts to its Marlboro Lights packs stating, “Your Marlboro Lights pack is changing. But your cigarette stays the same. In the future, ask for Marlboro in the gold pack.”
In addition to the onserts, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies are using lighter-colored packaging for light brands and have switched to terms such as gold and silver to replace light and ultra-light.
The FDA has requested all documents referring or relating to any onsert or other written material concerning the marketing or sale of Marlboro in the gold pack or any change in the packaging of Marlboro Lights, including all materials about market strategies, themes, concepts, creative recommendations and dissemination strategies and all documents pertaining to marketing research - qualitative, empirical or otherwise - concerning Marlboro in the gold pack. Such documents include, but are not limited to, any documents relating to consumers’ concerns, beliefs, perceptions, understandings, thoughts or impressions about the marketing or sale of Marlboro in the gold pack; the correlation between the color or word gold and taste; the yields of tar, nicotine or other tobacco constituents; or health risk and product harm.
In June 2010, Denver research firm TAi Companies announced that it has suspended operations in all locations. For TAi business-related inquiries contact Hal Meier at 201-923-5807.
San Francisco research company Quantcast received accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC), New York, for its syndicated online traffic measurement service Quantified Publisher. MRC accreditation certifies that the Quantcast Quantified Publisher program and its supporting processes adhere to industry standards.
Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBS), Coconut Grove, Fla., and Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. have entered into a settlement agreement regarding SBS’s concerns about the impact of the Portable People Meter (PPM) service on minority radio broadcasters. Under the agreement, SBS will resume encoding its broadcast signals for all of its markets that use the PPM radio ratings service, and SBS has extended its contract with Arbitron for the use of PPM ratings in said markets.
Toronto research company Youthography closed its doors for business in May 2010 following the demise of Y Syndicate, its sister advertising business.
2010 marks 15 years in business for Cologne, Germany, research company Skopos.
QSR International, a Doncaster, Australia, research company, will award six grants to academics teaching qualitative research methods in universities in the U.S., Canada and Asia-Pacific. Grants can be put toward NVivo 8 or NVivo 9 software licenses; NVivo training workbooks; and training and consulting services from QSR. For more information or to apply for a grant visit www.qsrinternational.com/news_whats-new_detail.aspx?view=229.
Acquisitions/transactions
New York news Web site The Huffington Post has acquired New York technology startup Adaptive Semantics in a cash deal. Adaptive Semantics will provide JuLiA, a semantic analysis engine already used by The Huffington Post, to help moderate the 100,000 comments published on the blog every day. This is the first acquisition for The Huffington Post; terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
FactSet Research Systems Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has acquired Quincy, Mass., research company Market Metrics Inc.
Chicago consulting company Accenture has agreed to acquire assets from CadenceQuest Inc., an Arlington, Va., customer insights company. The proposed acquisition of the retail sector software assets of CadenceQuest would expand the digital, marketing analytics, retail marketing and merchandising solutions and platforms offered by Accenture’s marketing division Accenture Interactive.
Constant Contact Inc., a Waltham, Mass., e-mail marketing software company, has acquired Menlo Park., Calif., social media e-mail management company NutshellMail to enhance its marketing and online survey tools for small businesses and nonprofits.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has acquired the technology portfolio, patents and trade name from San Mateo, Calif., research company Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI). The offering will operate under the name Audience Measurement Technologies Inc. The technologies acquired include IMMI’s cell phone-based technology, which is designed to capture consumer cross-platform media usage.
Port Washington, N.Y., research firm The NPD Group has acquired LGI Network, a Randolph, N.J., research company. The acquisition will combine LGI’s retail point-of-sale information on fine watches and branded jewelry and NPD’s sales tracking of fashion watches and other accessories. LGI will continue to operate independently for the first two years.
El Segundo, Calif., research company iSuppli has acquired Screen Digest, a London subsidiary of Adams Media Research, Monterey, Calif. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
InsightExpress, a Stamford, Conn., research company, has partnered with Seattle research company Meteor Solutions to combine Meteor’s influential brand advocates identification with InsightExpress’ ad effectiveness measurement through AdInsights, its ad effectiveness solution.
International panel companies Authentic Response, New York; e-Rewards/Research Now, Dallas; Global Market Insite Inc., Bellevue, Wash.; Survey Sampling International, Shelton, Conn.; Toluna, Dallas; and uSamp, Encino, Calif., have formed a partnership with Westport, Conn., technology development firm Imperium to create an Imperium Category Exclusion (ICE) user group - open to any panel services company - intended to improve sample quality. As a respondent takes an ICE client survey, validation data can be used to exclude those who have recently participated in similar surveys, helping to eliminate potential respondent biases.
Insight Marketing Systems, a Melbourne, Australia, research company, and Cambridge, Mass., research company MarketSight have formed an alliance to allow research buyers to access and analyze research results online using an integrated Web-based solution developed by the two firms.
Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC, an Austin, Texas, research firm, has made an agreement with Moscow research company Online Market Intelligence LLC (OMI) giving OMI exclusive software and hosting reseller rights to all Kinesis products in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Association/organization news
The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has announced the recipients of its 2010 volunteer awards. Jane Rosen of Nichols Research was awarded the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award; Marisa Pope of Jackson Associates Research received the Distinguished Service Award; Alice Butler of M/A/R/C Research received the Award of Excellence; and Damon Jones of Burke, Inc. was awarded the Betsy J. Peterson Award. The Southwest Chapter of MRA was given the Chapter of the Year Award.
Awards/rankings
The American Marketing Association, New York, has named Tom H.C. Anderson, founder and managing partner of Stamford, Conn., research company Anderson Analytics LLC, to its inaugural Four Under 40 list of marketing research industry leaders.
Research companies Interviewing Service of America, New York, and Phoenix Multicultural, Los Angeles, together have been awarded the 2010 Asian American Advertising Federation Market Researcher of the Year Award for their work on the second edition of the Asian American Marketing Report.
Carol Hanley of Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has been named one of Radio Ink’s 50 Most Influential Women in radio.
New accounts/projects
Rentrak Corporation, a Portland, Ore., research company, has expanded its contract with Schurz Communications, Mishawaka, Ind., extending Rentrak’s StationView Essentials measurement services to the South Bend, Ind., and Springfield, Mo., markets.
Separately, Rentrak has signed a contract with Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, ABC affiliate WFAA, to provide StationView Essentials to The Belo Corp. television station.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has secured a two-year extension to its contract with Television Audience Measurement Ireland, Dublin, through August 2017.
Additionally, Redwood Shores, Calif., ad management firm Rocket Fuel Inc. has opted to use aggregated consumer purchase data from Nielsen with the goal of improving the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns. Rocket Fuel will use offline sales data to create model groups of consumers with specific brand affinities to optimize the campaigns to reach look-alikes based on specific brand attributes.
Lanham, Md., software company Vocus’ public relations management platform has been selected by the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minn., for media relations, relationship tracking and the monitoring of news and social media.
London research company Verve has been appointed to build, manage and run Bristol, U.K., mobile technology company Orange’s Better Together customer panel.
MarketPublishers.com, Limassol, Cyprus, has been authorized to distribute and sell research reports from Renub Research, Bangalore, India.
Cincinnati consumer packaged goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) has made Stockholm, Sweden, research company Tobii Technology Inc. a preferred partner for scaled virtual market research solutions. The agreement will also enable Tobii to collaborate with P&G on Tobii product innovations. P&G will use Tobii solutions for package and shelf testing globally.
New York research company Luminosity has completed its U.S. Boomerang Consumer Study, which focuses on young adults called who have returned home to live with their parents, using the SODA Mobile Access Platform from Vancouver, B.C., research software company Techneos.
MRDC Thailand, a division of London research company MRDC, has been appointed a reseller for Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit.
New York media company WPP/Group M has signed a multiyear contract for Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc.’s Portable People Meter and diary radio ratings services across all markets.
Bellevue, Wash., research company Global Market Insite Inc. has been selected by Sony Music UK, London, to deliver interactive online surveys in conducting artist research.
Dallas research company e-Rewards Inc. has adopted San Francisco research company MarketTools Inc.’s TrueSample validation platform for e-Rewards’ clients. As part of the agreement, e-Rewards will use TrueSample as additional validation of its e-Rewards and Valued Opinions panels in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical has opened an office in Barcelona, Spain. Eva Laparra has been appointed to lead the office.
Echo Stats Research, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has launched a new product development division, led by Elizabeth Wallings.
San Francisco research company EmSense has opened its European headquarters in central London.
New York research company WorldOne Inc. has opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil.
Ipsos, a Paris research company, has launched the Ipsos Social Research Institute to improve its global understanding of social policy and research methods.
New York research company Hall & Partners has opened an office in Singapore. The office will be headed up by managing partner Hilary Lee.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), New York, has formed the IAB Multicultural Council, which replaces the former IAB Hispanic Committee. The Council has also released its U.S. Latinos Online: A Driving Force report. The report can be found at www.iab.net/us_latinos.
Encino, Calif., research company uSamp has opened an office in Trumbull, Conn., and formed a project management team in India.
Research company earnings/financial news
Rentrak Corporation, Portland, Ore., announced financial results for fiscal fourth-quarter 2010 and the full year ended March 31, 2010. Consolidated revenues increased more than 12 percent to $25 million for the fourth quarter, driven primarily by strong growth in the company’s Advanced Media Information (AMI) division. Gross margin improved to $10.4 million; gross margin in the company’s AMI division totaled 73 percent of AMI revenues. Operating expenses were $10.6 million. Operating loss was $0.2 million versus operating income of $1.8 million. Net income totaled $0.2 million, or $0.02 per diluted share.
Consolidated revenues were $91.1 million for fiscal 2010 versus $95 million for fiscal 2009. AMI revenues rose 57 percent to $19.8 million from $12.6 million for fiscal 2009. Operating loss was $0.9 million, compared with operating income of $5.2 million in 2009. Net income was $0.6 million, or $0.05 per diluted share.
Intel Capital, Santa Clara, Calif., invested $10 million in True ROI Accountability for Media, New York. The investment is part of an $18.2 million Series C round lead by Intel Capital, which includes participation from existing investors Arbitron Inc., Columbia, Md., and WPP, Dublin, Ireland.
Nielsen Holdings BV, New York, has announced plans to sell up to $1.75 billion in shares in an initial public offering, according to a June 3, 2010, report in The Wall Street Journal. Nielsen plans to use proceeds to repay debt and for other purposes, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
WPP Digital, New York, has made a strategic investment in Ace Metrix, Los Angeles. In connection with the investment, WPP and Ace Metrix will partner to provide marketers with access to in-market television advertising performance metrics.
Cardinal Value Equity Partners, Greenwich, Conn., sold nearly 2 million shares (over half of its holdings) of Infogroup, Omaha, Neb. Cardinal was one of the investors that filed a shareholder lawsuit questioning the way Infogroup founder Vinod Gupta used company money to support his lifestyle.
USamp, Encinco, Calif., closed a $10 million Series C round of financing, lead by OpenView Venture Partners, Boston.