News notes
Facebook has opened a new artificial intelligence (AI) lab in its Paris office. The new team will work with the existing Facebook AI research teams in Menlo Park, Calif., and New York on things like image recognition, natural language processing, speech recognition, machine learning, live translating tools and more. Facebook says it hopes the research will ultimately improve services like news feed, search and photos and allow a new set of ways to connect and share.
The British Polling Council (BPC) in June urged the House of Lords to reject a private members bill being presented by Lord Foulkes on the regulation of opinion polls. The bill proposed that an authority be established to regulate polls of voting intentions for elections and referendums in the U.K. that would be able to specify approved ways for selecting who should be interviewed, how the questions in the polls should be worded and to ban the publication of voting intention polls during an election campaign. The BPC argued that imposing regulatory standards would put at risk the experimentation and competition needed to improve the way polls are conducted. The BPC also said access to the poll results would be confined to those who pay for the polls, like banks and political parties or someone who could find the results on an overseas Web site, leaving the ordinary voter out of the loop.
Amazon has received a mobile security patent for a technology that would allow smartphone users to unlock their devices by holding them up and allowing the device to scan the shape of their ears. The technology, not unlike a fingerprint scanner, uses the device’s front-facing camera to scan the ear and conduct a comparison to an image of the owner’s ear that is already on file. An individual’s ear is as unique as their fingerprint, making the method just as secure as fingerprint scanning. The technology also offers other tasks like adjusting speaker volume based on how close the device is to the ear. Amazon has not stated whether it will use the scanning device on any of its upcoming devices.
Paris firm Toluna celebrated its 15th anniversary in the market research industry in June.
Acquisitions/transactions
Decision Resources Group, a Burlington, Mass., health care analytics company, has acquired Healthcare Business Insights, a health care consulting company based in Greenfield, Wis.
New York out of home (OOH) media firm Kinetic and New York media company GroupM have agreed to buy controlling stake in Paris, France, OOH media firm Poster Conseil.
Clarabridge Inc., a Reston, Va., customer experience management firm, has acquired Engagor, a customer service platform based in San Francisco.
London communications firm WPP has increased its stake in TechEdge, a television audience measurement software firm based in Denmark, from 20 percent to 49 percent.
New York firm Nielsen has acquired Boston consumer neuroscience firm Innerscope Research and has renamed its combined offering as Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience.
Shelton, Conn., firm SSI has acquired MyOpinions in Australia and SmileCity in New Zealand.
Microsoft has acquired Berlin company 6Wunderkinder, developer of the to-do list app Wunderlist. The app will help enhance Microsoft’s cross-platform mobile options.
New York social media management software firm Sprinklr has acquired Washington, D.C., text analytics software company NewBrand.
London media and digital marketing communications firm Dentsu Aegis has acquired majority share in Flemedia, a digital advertising agency based in Bangkok.
San Francisco technology company Quantcast has expanded into Europe following the acquisition of Stockholm digital advertising firm Ad Performance. Quantcast has also opened a new office in Milan, Italy, and has appointed Ilaria Zampori to the newly created role of general manager, Italy.
New York marketing communications brand J. Walter Thompson has acquired a minority stake in WANDA Digital, an independent digital agency based in Turkey.
Chicago firm IRI has become the major shareholder in GIRA Foodservice, a European out-of-home information provider based in France. The new partnership will allow IRI to expand its channel coverage and deliver a range of services, analysis and solutions on the out-of-home market.
Santa Clara, Calif., technology solutions company Hitachi Data Systems has acquired Orlando, Fla., data integration, visualization and analytics company Pentaho.
Los Angeles marketing services company Connexity has acquired PriceGrabber, a retail lead-generation platform and network also based in Los Angeles. Together the combined company will be a source of high-intent shopping leads for retailers and brands.
New York global media investment management company GroupM had acquired Greenhouse Group, a digital media and marketing service based in the Netherlands.
Chicago-based Groupon has acquired Seattle customer experience measurement and analytics platform Venuelabs.
Westlake Village, Calif., firm J.D. Power and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) announced an agreement under which J.D. Power will acquire NADA’s Used Car Guide business, a source of used-vehicle values. The transaction is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2015 and is subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Warsaw, Poland, Internet research company PBI (Polskie Badania Internetu) has commissioned GfK to provide online audience measurement in Poland, supplying a currency for digital advertising starting in January 2016. The contract will run for four years.
New York-based digital audio advertising firm TargetSpot will use Nielsen’s PRIZM segmentation data to apply data targeting across its platform.
The Media Development Authority of Singapore has commissioned GfK to provide total audio-visual audience measurement currency for Singapore. The contract will run for three years, with a two-year renewal option.
Mobile app Foursquare has partnered with Uber and mobile deep-linking startup Button to integrate Uber into the Foursquare app. This new partnership allows Foursquare users to choose a destination using the app and be given the option to travel there using Uber. Users will also be able to select the type of vehicle they prefer.
New Brunswick, N.J., firm Keller Fay Group has collaborated with New York firm Nielsen to create Word of Mouth Influencer Segments, a solution that allows advertisers to reach audiences most likely to boost their marketing efforts. The new service combines consumer activity, as measured by Nielsen, with consumer conversations about products, services and brands from Keller Fay’s Talk Track, the company’s ongoing study of word of mouth.
Austin, Texas, ad management company Sizmek has partnered with Redwood City, Calif., online-to-offline marketing firm Retailigence. The partnership will enable brands to incorporate real-time and offline shopping data into media on all screens to drive in-store foot traffic and purchases at brick-and-mortar locations.
The sports division of Portland, Ore., research company Rentrak has signed a branded entertainment agreement with the Canadian Basketball League (CBL). The CBL will use Rentrak Branded Entertainment to evaluate the value of advertising displayed on the LED billboards during games.
U.K. analytics firm Datasift and U.K. social analytics platform Pulsar have partnered with Facebook to offer anonymized and aggregated Facebook topic data to brands and businesses.
Yahoo is partnering with third-party measurement companies to bring independent viewability and fraud measurement for display and video advertising on Yahoo-owned and -operated properties and media purchased across its programmatic buying platform. This partnership allows advertisers running campaigns with Yahoo to choose from a variety of measurement solutions for greater transparency into campaign performance to ensure appropriate return on advertising spend, brand safety and ad effectiveness.
Veterans Florida, a corporation founded to encourage military service members and veterans to relocate to Florida, has contracted Tampa, Fla., firm Study Hall Research for two separate national research studies.
Netherlands online publishers VINEX and Dutch audience research firm Stichting KijkOnderzoek have expanded the contract with Kantar Media to measure all online viewing behavior in the Netherlands.
Boston mobile loyalty rewards platform SessionM and Rhinebeck, N.Y., research firm Phoenix Marketing International are partnering on product offerings that reduce market research costs while increasing the scale, scope and quality of data.
Ontario, Canada, firms Health Connexions and Ascentii are partnering to offer the RoleFit Survey, a cloud-based system that helps employees find job candidates with more speed and better accuracy.
Mountain View, Calif., social media analytics company NetBase is partnering with Twitter to enable NetBase to work with Twitter to integrate fully with the social media platform, to release new products more efficiently and to offer more detailed and actionable brand intelligence.
New Delhi research and consulting firm 6Wresearch announced a research engagement with TP-LINK, a networking products company based in China. The engagement will allow 6Wresearch to assist TP-LINK in identifying opportunities and strategies to expand its market share in India.
London fashion trend insight and analysis firm WGSN announced a joint venture with China Textile Information Center to drive business growth in the Chinese market.
Chicago firm Information Resources Inc. and Leesburg, Va., firm GuestMetrics have increased data collection from restaurants and bars in the U.S. by 50 percent for a total of more than 15,000 on-premise locations. The two companies aim to offer a comprehensive view of the shopper, with point-of-sales data being gathered for the on-premise channel.
Association/organization news
The Marketing Research Education Foundation, an independent foundation aiming to give children worldwide a quality education, gave San Diego, Calif., school Old Town Academy a $5,000 grant to train teachers in project-based learning and common core subjects.
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) will again offer its Young Professionals Grant (YPG) program in 2015, providing up to 10 grants. The YPG program aims to attract young qualitative research professionals to enhance their skills through engaging with QRCA members. Up to 10 young professionals will attend QRCA’s 2015 annual conference in Orlando, Fla., this October.
The Marketing Research Association, Washington, D.C., has appointed the following to its board of directors: Vaughn Mordecai of bChannels as chairman; Ted Donnelly of Baltimore Research as immediate past chairman; Dan Womack of Aflac as vice chairman; Scott Baker of Schlesinger Associates as treasurer; Rob Stone of Market Strategies International as secretary and David W. Almy of MRA as ex officio. Also appointed: Ivy Boehm of Chico’s FAS, Tim Hoskins of Quester, Ginny Kevorkian of Beacon Health Systems and Kathryn Korostoff of Research Rockstar as newly elected directors at large; Jim Bryson of 20|20 Research Inc. and Keith Malo of Valpak Direct Marketing Systems Inc. as continuing directors at large.
The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and the Marketing Research Association (MRA) filed a joint comment to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which voted and later approved new rules and regulations implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act on June 18. CASRO and MRA asked in the letter that the FCC limit the use of the term “robocall,” clarify the definition of an autodialer, establish a bright line rule regarding reasonable opt-out and establish a clear standard for notice of wireless number reassignment. The two firms later released a separate comment on the approved rules that broaden restrictions on autodialed calls to cell phones without differentiation or caller intent. CASRO and MRA said this ignores the TCPA’s original purpose to curtail telemarketing calls, makes research less accurate, increases costs and invites more class-action lawsuits against researchers. Both associations said they urge the FCC to refocus on measures that would protect consumers by expanding the agency’s enforcement to deter and punish illegal and abusive telemarketers instead of harming research businesses.
A new association is being established in Canada in hopes of enhancing the quality of public opinion research. The Canadian Association of Public Opinion Research aims to bring greater professionalism, transparency and accountability to the industry. The new group will only be open to individuals and they will be required to adhere to a code of professional ethics and practice and be subject to peer oversight. The founding board includes pollsters, political science academics, a lawyer and members of the media. The new organization will be based out of the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and hopes to be up and running in time for the federal elections taking place in October. Darrell Bricker, global head of Ipsos Public Affairs, is the group’s chairman elect.
Awards/rankings
Bernard Jaworski has won the AMA Marketing Strategy SIG’s 2015 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Market Strategy Research.
Auburn Hills, Mich., research firm Gongos Inc. and General Motors, Detroit, accepted the award for excellence for client-partner collaboration in the first annual Market Research in the Mobile World (MRMW) North America Conference and Awards Gala in New York in May. MRMW recognizes companies and individuals for important findings in mobile market research.
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), New York, announced that David Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corporation and president of CBS Vision, has won this year’s Erwin Ephron Demystification Award. The award honors those with the ability to communicate complex insights and lead organizations through challenging scenarios, effectively translate creative ideas into action and promote the advancement of analytical leaders in organizations.
The following awards were presented at the MRA Insights and Strategies Conference in June: the Volunteer of the Year award was given to Elizabeth Merrick, MBA candidate at the University of Florida, and Tim Hoskins, president of Quester, for excellence in service to the MRA over the past year; the Meritorious Service award was given to Ken Roberts, president of Cooper Roberts Research, and Shelley Zalis, CEO of Ipsos OXT, for leadership and dedication resulting in great contributions to the research industry; the Impact award was given to Jack MacKenzie, president of Magid Generational Strategies at Frank N. Magid Associates, for vision and leadership that led to positive impact in the research industry; and the Honorary Lifetime Membership award was given to Steve Schlesinger, CEO of Schlesinger Associates, for a lifetime commitment to the MRA and the research profession.
Merrill Shugoll, president of Bethesda, Md., firm Shugoll Research, was among the shortlist of recipients for the 2015 Brava! Awards presented to 40 of Greater Washington’s top women business leaders by Washington SmartCEO.
New accounts/projects
n U.K. technology and consumer analytics firm RealityMine has been chosen by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) to undertake the Children and Teens’ Measurement project, which aims to give a comprehensive view of cross-platform, digital and mobile measurement of content and ads among children and teens aged 2 to 17. The project, which includes TiVo research TV viewership data, will be the first to use a router meter for a whole-home view of Internet content consumption combined with passive metering, audio fingerprinting content recognition and advanced behavioral analytics.
TNS Research Surveys, part of London firm TNS, has been awarded a five-year contract for a new radio audience and currency measurement survey for the National Association of Broadcasters South Africa. Other firms that were also shortlisted for the survey include GfK, Ipsos, AC Nielsen and Ask Afrika.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Qualtrics, a Provo, Utah, survey software provider, has opened new European headquarters in Dublin, adding 100 new jobs.
SIS International Research, New York, has opened an office in Frankfurt, Germany.
Eindhoven, Netherlands, software company CMNTY has opened a new office in New York.
Prague, Czech Republic, research firm MEDIARESEARCH has changed its name to Nielsen Admosphere, as well as its logo and other brand elements. The agency became a member of Nielsen holdings after AC Nielsen Netherlands acquired 51 percent stake in MEDIARESEARCH.
U.K.-based financial services research firm Bdifferent has opened a new office in Singapore.
Stockholm research, consulting and IT firm Nepa has expanded into qualitative online research and has appointed Sigrid Wiklund as head of qualitative research.
Redwood City, Calif., global audience technology company YuMe is expanding into the Chinese digital advertising market with two new offices in Shanghai and Beijing and partnerships that span its suite of advertising solutions, including Connected TV, online and mobile advertising and third-party measurement and verification services. YuMe will partner with firms including Shanghai data solution provider AdMaster, third-party advertising firm Miaozhen Systems, based in Beijing, Nielsen-CCData and others.
New York managed analytics firm Ugam has expanded its technology team to more than 30 business analysts, architects and developers.
Boston-based Communispace has changed its name to C Space. Promise Communispace and Jigsaw International, the agency’s European and Asian consultancies, will also operate under the name C Space.
Regina Corso, a former employee at Harris Interactive and head of The Harris Poll for eight years, has started her own full-service research company, Regina Corso Consulting, which will focus on research specifically designed for public release.
Mark Penn, senior executive at Microsoft and co-founder and CEO of research firm Penn Schoen Berland, has formed the Stagwell Group LLC, an investment advisory company that will invest in advertising, research, data analytics, public relations and digital marketing services.
Austin, Texas, research firm Latin Field has opened a new focus group facility and call center in Mexico City.
Ruby Cha Cha U.K., an arm of the Australia boutique research and planning consultancy Ruby Cha Cha, is re-branding to Kubi Kalloo.
Research company earnings/financial news
London communications firm WPP reported revenue of £3.776 billion for the first four months of 2015, up 8 percent from last year.
Berlin, Germany, mobile survey startup Dalia Research announced the closing of a seven-digit seed round, led by Wellington Partners, a venture capital firm based in Munich, and the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, based in Berlin. Existing angel investors, including Berlin venture capital firm WestTech Ventures, also participated in the round.