News notes
In December, Wilton, Conn.-based research firm Greenfield Online, Inc. announced the pricing of its secondary public offering of 6,000,000 shares of its common stock at $18.16 per share on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker SRVY. In the transaction, Greenfield Online sold 4,500,000 common shares, with net proceeds of approximately $76.1 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses; and selling stockholders sold 1,500,000 common shares, with net proceeds of approximately $25.7 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. The selling stockholders granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 900,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.
New York-based Arbitron announced that the program developed to recruit consumers for the Houston market trial of the Portable People Meter (PPM) is delivering positive, initial results in terms of sample performance indicators (SPI), response rate metrics and panel representation at the household level. At the end of the first wave of recruitment, Arbitron achieved a 52.7 household sample performance indicator (SPI). Other response rate measures are in line with the results that Arbitron and Nielsen Media Research achieved during the successful research and development program for PPM response rates that was fielded in 2003 and 2004. These measures are also substantially higher than those achieved by Arbitron in the first U.S. market trial of the PPM in Philadelphia in 2002. The preliminary sample proportionality measures for the installed PPM households are also well in line in terms of race and ethnicity. Household fault rates to date have been under 10 percent and are consistent by race and ethnicity.
Netherlands-based VNU announced that its ACNielsen business unit won a ruling in the antitrust lawsuit by Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) against ACNielsen. The 1996 lawsuit includes claims that ACNielsen unlawfully priced certain customer contracts below cost and “bundled” contracts by offering discounts to customers in countries where ACNielsen faced no competition on the condition that the customer purchase from ACNielsen in markets where it had competition.
In an order issued in December 2004, the court ruled for ACNielsen, determining that the economic analysis on which IRI had relied to establish alleged unlawful below-cost pricing and bundling is inadmissible as a matter of law. The court ruled that IRI’s expert report on liability and damages, to the extent it relied on the improper analysis, can not be presented at trial. Specifically, the court ruled that IRI is barred from arguing that ACNielsen’s pricing practices or discounts were illegal or anti-competitive unless IRI can prove they involved prices below short-run average variable cost, which must be calculated without the inclusion of certain costs designated by ACNielsen as “fixed operations” costs.
The court also ruled that the same standard applies in determining the legality of bundled discounts, with discounts offered in noncompetitive markets subtracted from ACNielsen’s prices in the competitive markets. The analysis relied on by IRI to support the claims of below-cost pricing and bundling impermissibly included fixed operations costs as part of the relevant cost structure.
While there will be further proceedings on this and other issues in the case, VNU stated in a press release that it believes that the court’s rejection of IRI’s arguments seriously impairs IRI’s antitrust claims. VNU believes that IRI’s claims are wholly without merit.
Fifteen U.S. Yellow Pages publishers have joined with research firm Knowledge Networks/SRI, Menlo Park, Calif., to sponsor and develop a syndicated Yellow Pages measurement in early 2005. The service will initially cover over 200 directory distribution areas in more than 90 DMAs, with other markets likely to be added in the future. Interviewing will begin in early 2005, and initial annual measurement of usage and directory share will be delivered in early 2006.
Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. has established a new analytics advisory board. The board’s focus will be on furthering analytics innovation, specifically identifying the existing and emerging analytics applications required to understand and forecast the economics driving CPG and retail businesses. Board members include: Robert C. Blattberg, Polk Brothers Distinguished Professor in Retailing and executive director of the Center for Retail Management, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University; Pradeep K. Chintagunta, Robert Law Professor of Marketing, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago; Sunil Gupta, Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Columbia University; Leonard M. Lodish, Samuel R. Harrell Professor, professor of marketing and vice dean, Wharton West, leader of the global consulting practicum, the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; and Carl F. Mela, associate professor marketing, the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
Acquisitions
Survey Sampling International (SSI), Fairfield, Conn., has acquired online sampling firm Bloomerce Access Panels Europe bv. Based in the Netherlands, Bloomerce has more than one million panel members in Europe. “The time is right for expansion in Europe, with the increasing acceptance of Internet research among the European research industry,” said Terry Coen, SSI vice president and director of sales and marketing. “Use of the Internet for research in the U.K. alone is expected to double in the next 18 months.”
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Atlanta mystery shopping firm Shop’n Chek, Inc. has expanded its worldwide coverage by signing licensing agreements for Canada, Brazil, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The new licensees are Toronto-based Service Metrics Inc. (dba Shop’n Chek Canada); ABACO Marketing Research (dba Shop’n Chek Brazil), Sao Paulo; Service Integrity Pty. Ltd. (dba Shop’n Chek Australia), Sydney; and Tokyo-based Shop’n Chek Japan, K.K.
Wilton, Conn.-based Greenfield Online, Inc. reported that GfK Custom Research Inc., Minneapolis, has signed a new agreement appointing Greenfield Online as its exclusive supplier of full-service Internet survey research services and sample research data, subject to certain limited exceptions. The companies have worked together since 2001. The agreement with GfK-CRI has an initial term ending on December 31, 2005 and it will automatically renew for successive one-year periods unless cancelled by either party prior to the expiration of the current term. During the term, Greenfield Online will provide GfK-CRI with Internet-based survey services, which include the programming and hosting of surveys, as well as survey respondents from its panel of survey takers. As a client partner, Greenfield Online will also provide to GfK-CRI a dedicated project team and customized sales and marketing support services to enhance customer service.
Association/organization news
The ESOMAR Council for 2005 to 2006 has been elected. José Wert Ortega, corporate affairs director of Grupo BBVA in Spain, is the new ESOMAR president until December 31, 2006. Frits Spangenberg, managing director of Motivaction International in The Netherlands, is ESOMAR’s new vice president. Both were elected unopposed. In addition, following a ballot of all ESOMAR members worldwide, the following eight council members were elected: Paulo Pinheiro de Andrade (Brazil); Laurent Flores (France); Siegfried Högl (Germany); Clara Origlia (Italy); Wlodek Daab (Poland); Ann Margreth Hellberg (Sweden); Sue Nosworthy (U.K.); Gunilla Broadbent (U.S.). Outgoing President Fredrik Nauckhoff will remain on the council in an ex-officio capacity for the subsequent two-year term. Outgoing council members are Jacqueline Aglietta, Eugênia Paesani, Adam Phillips and John Kelly (ex-officio).
Awards/rankings
Winston-Salem, N.C.-based AllPoints Research has been awarded a Fast 50 award by The Business Journal. The award was given based on the 40 percent revenue growth that AllPoints has achieved over the past year.
New accounts/projects
Arbitron Inc., New York, has signed a four-year license agreement with Clear Channel Radio to provide the company with radio ratings and software services through the fall 2008 survey. The agreement also renews existing contracts for Scarborough and other local market consumer information services. Clear Channel also renewed its agreements with Arbitron for Premiere Radio Networks, KMG Consolidated Radio Sales and Clear Channel Traffic. Clear Channel is Arbitron’s largest radio ratings subscriber and represented approximately 21 percent of Arbitron’s revenue in 2003.
Research firm TNS has been awarded a three-year contract to monitor and evaluate the communications performance and brand health in Tourism Australia’s key source markets across America, Europe and Asia Pacific. This followed a competitive tender among four global research groups. The purpose of the program is to support Tourism Australia in its key role in increasing consideration of Australia as an international tourist destination.
Heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar has chosen Perseus SurveySolutions/EFM as its enterprise software solution for feedback management.
BBC Audience & Consumer Research awarded a new contract for measuring audience reaction for Television and Radio programs to GfK Group in the U.K. The new three-year contract runs from April 2005 and will deliver a faster system of measuring audience response to television programs on all terrestrial TV, selected non-terrestrial TV programs and selected radio programs. Key elements of the new service are: replacing the current paper-and-pencil postal method with an online method that allows respondents to log on either at work or home and rate the previous night’s programs on not only appreciation but also other key criteria; data for each program will be available 36 hours after broadcast, an improvement on the 16-day turnaround under the current system; an increase in panel size from the current 3,000 to 15,000 adults, and a separate panel of 1,500 children.
Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI and Shell International Exploration and Production B.V. have agreed to expand their relationship and implement a comprehensive agreement under which Shell and all its affiliates worldwide can access all of ESRI’s software products. The global agreement allows Shell to deploy and support ESRI software throughout its organization. The enterprise solution comprises ESRI’s full line of software including the ArcGIS family of desktop and server products.
The Federated Group, an Arlington Heights, Ill., sales and marketing agency serving the private brand grocery industry, has selected Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. as its preferred syndicated marketplace insights provider.
Castrol has commissioned U.K.-based research firm ESA to conduct a national point of sale and promotions audit in stores of U.K. retailer Halfords. ESA’s researchers will visit 100 Halfords stores across the U.K. to carry out an audit of Castrol display points in-store. The aim of the research will be to establish whether Castrol products are correctly displayed, as well as whether the specified point-of-sale and promotional material is present.
New companies/new divisions/ relocations/expansions
Rochester, N.Y.-based research firm Harris Interactive Inc. has added the Harris Interactive Marine Industry Research program, a division of the automotive and transportation research group, which will provide insight into customer preferences and buying behaviors for bass boat, small and large runabout, cruiser, coastal fishing, pontoon, ski and wakeboard boat and personal watercraft manufacturers.
Millward Brown has launched a new global unit - Millward Brown Optimor - focusing on maximizing the total returns from brand and marketing investment. The unit is led by newly-appointed executive vice president Joanna Seddon.
Leon Tyler Marketing Research has moved to a different suite in the same building. The firm’s address is now 4501 Park Glen Rd., Suite 303, St. Louis Park, Minn., 55416-4875. Phone and fax numbers and e-mail address remain the same.