News notes
Fine Research, a Latin American fielding agency, in collaboration with researchers Confirmit and Reckner Healthcare, have launched an initiative to assist victims of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti. Over 2,800 doctors in the Americas were surveyed about the preparedness of these countries for a natural disaster. For every completed survey, the equivalent of a blanket and a drum of water was donated to hurricane victims through Save the Children mission in Haiti.
Acquisitions/transactions
Dentsu Aegis Network, London, has acquired Shanghai-based e-commerce firm Bluecom Group. Bluecom will become part of Dentsu Aegis Network’s digital agency Isobar China Group and will be rebranded as Isobar Commerce. Patrick Deloy and Florian Legendre, managing directors of Bluecom, will join the Isobar leadership team.
Data-as-a-service company DataMentors, Tampa, Fla., has acquired Red Bank, N.J., marketing data provider V12 Group. The combined company will rebrand under the name V12 Data and will be led by DataMentors’ CEO Anders Ekman.
Teaneck, N.J., information technology firm Cognizant has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mirabeau BV, an Amsterdam-based digital marketing and customer experience agency. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With the close of the acquisition, about 260 specialists from Mirabeau will become a part of Cognizant’s Digital Business practice.
Port Washington, N.Y., information services firm The NPD Group has signed an agreement to acquire research and data analysis agency Counter Intelligence Retail (CiR). CiR will operate as Counter Intelligence Retail, an NPD Group Company.
In early December, private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. launched a voluntary public tender offer for the shares of Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK for an offer price of €43.50 per share. GfK Verein will remain majority shareholder of GfK with a stake of 56.46 percent. The Management and Supervisory Boards of GfK are supportive of the offer and, subject to their review of the offer document, intend to recommend that GfK shareholders accept the offer.
W2O Group, a San Francisco-based network of marketing and communications firms, has acquired Morristown, N.J., marketing agency Sentient Interactive. Adam Cossman, Sentient president and co-founder, will serve as chief digital officer of W2O Group.
Sterling, Va., information services firm Neustar Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital in a transaction valued at approximately $2.9 billion. The transaction is expected to close no later than the end of the third calendar quarter of 2017 and is subject to approval by Neustar’s shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Nielsen, New York, has entered into an agreement to purchase Gracenote, a provider of media and entertainment meta data. With the transaction, Nielsen will acquire the data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for video, music, audio and sports content. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017. Gracenote will operate as a business unit within Nielsen and will continue to operate from its headquarters in Emeryville, Calif.
Marketing communications company Grey Group, New York, has acquired Canada-based health care and consumer agency Tank. Tank will retain its name and become part of Grey Group Canada. Marc Lanouette, president of Tank, will become CEO of Grey Group Canada.
MMGY Global, a Kansas City, Mo., travel and hospitality marketing firm, has acquired Myriad Marketing, a Los Angeles-based integrated marketing firm. The merged organization also adds Spring O’Brien, a Myriad company specializing in travel and hospitality.
Customer engagement company LiquidHub, Philadelphia, has acquired India-based data management and analytics solutions firm Annik. The acquisition of Annik will add 1,000 professionals to the LiquidHub team, including Rahul Sahgal, president and CEO, and Sandeep Bhatia, COO.
Vibes, a Chicago-based mobile marketing platform, has acquired Miami-based mobile marketing and digital solutions company Red Fish Media. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Red Fish’s founder and president Matt McKenna will join Vibes as the vice president of sales.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Canada-based customer intelligence platform provider Vision Critical and Australia-based business intelligence and media firm RFi Group have formed a strategic relationship. RFi Group has become a value-added reseller for Vision Critical and will deliver insight communities powered by the Vision Critical Sparq platform to the financial services sector in Australia and New Zealand.
Nielsen, New York, and St. Louis-based product data refinery platform Label Insight have formed a strategic alliance that combines Nielsen’s market measurement and Homescan Consumer Panel data with Label Insight’s product attributes to help CPG companies and retailers make more informed data decisions and grow sales by understanding product trends and creating better personalization for wellness consumers. The two firms will develop and maintain a CPG industry retail and consumer measurement capability incorporating food, beverage and non-food ingredients, nutrients and U.S. government regulated product attributes.
Potomac, Md., firm Full Circle Research Co. has formed a partnership with Cannabiz Consumer Group, a research firm focused on the cannabis industry. The two companies will provide an omnibus, CannaBus, which will allow clients to ask custom questions or conduct micro-surveys to better understand issues and interests important to them without the cost of an entire custom research study.
Chicago-based researcher IRI has formed an alliance with e-commerce intelligence firm Clavis Insight, Boston, to allow consumer packaged goods marketers to track and assess a brand’s holistic online and offline performance to identify and capitalize on e-commerce growth opportunities. Clavis Insight’s online channel analytics will be integrated with IRI’s E-Market Insights service.
Consumer loyalty programs provider Maritz Motivation Solutions, St. Louis, has partnered with The Wise Marketer Group, a firm that provides loyalty marketing news, research and education to marketing professionals. The partnership aims to enhance collaboration with marketing executives on research, intelligence and best practices to improve the results of customer loyalty programs.
Japan-based panel and survey software firm dataSpring has partnered with an online points-based rewards community to expand its panel coverage in Hong Kong. DataSpring’s proprietary platform, surveyon Partners, will be leveraged to recruit, engage and manage panelists from the partner’s community.
Amsterdam-based behavioral data firm Wakoopa has formed a partnership with Japan-based firm GMO Research, bringing GMO Research into the Wakoopa Hub network. Through the partnership, Wakoopa Hub will extend its reach to the Asian market, including Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.
Aimia, a marketing and loyalty analytics company that owns and operates Aeroplan, a coalition loyalty program, has partnered with online data collection company AskingCanadians to manage the Aeroplan Panel, a proprietary panel of Canadian Aeroplan members. On behalf of Aimia, AskingCanadians will manage the Aeroplan Panel as an online research community. In addition to participating in ongoing Aeroplan research, respondents will be able to participate in projects for AskingCanadians clients.
Stamford, Conn., digital media intelligence company Tru Optik has partnered with Port Washington, N.Y., researcher NPD Group to bolster its entertainment market information and analytic solutions offering. Through the partnership, NPD will have access to Tru Optik’s first-party data set on the consumption of movies and video games via over-the-top TV and connected TV.
Association/organization news
The QRCA has announced the winners of its 2017 Young Professionals Grant program: Caitlin Homstad, The Research Partnership, Philadelphia; Sarah Brown, Kelton, Los Angeles; Russell Edwards, Precision Dialogue and University of South Florida Applied Anthropology Ph.D. candidate, Tampa, Fla.; Rebecca Fowler, FedEx Services, Memphis, Tenn.; Bernadette Lockamyeir, Consumer Insights, Rochester, N.Y.; Jennifer Myers, Ipsos RDA, Macomb, Mich.; Brandon Richard, The Link Group, Durham, N.C.; Keith J. Romer, The Garage Group, Cincinnati; Daniela Rubio, independent consultant, San Francisco; Kelsey Segaloff, Chadwick Martin Bailey, Boston; Nathalia Vega, Blackstone Group, Chicago; and Ashleigh Williams, C+R Research, Chicago. The recipients were awarded passes to attend the QRCA’s Annual Conference in Los Angeles in January.
Awards/rankings
Margie Kupfer, vice president of marketing for mobile marketing services firm 3Cinteractive, Boca Raton, Fla., has been named one of the Mobile Women to Watch 2017 by Mobile Marketer. The list recognizes 25 executives set to make a difference in 2017 for the mobile advertising, marketing and media industries.
The Confirmit Horizons platform from Oslo, Norway, research solutions firm Confirmit has been named a 2016 Customer Experience Innovation Award winner by media company TMC’s CUSTOMER magazine.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Research firm Reality Check Consulting has opened a Latin America headquarters in Miami to provide research and consumer insights to clients in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. The new office will be headed up by Managing Director Andrea Lima.
Lightspeed, headquartered in Warren, N.J., has opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and has appointed Lindsay Dominguez as client development lead to manage local client relationships for the firm’s Malaysian presence.
Supply-chain managed solutions firm OSI Creative, Irvine, Calif., has opened a new office in Seattle to serve the Pacific Northwest area. The new facility will provide local representation for clients in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Nancy Rodriguez, account manager for the Seattle office, will handle the day-to-day operations.
India-based research agency MRSS India has added a social research practice to its list of services and has appointed Srikant Patel as head of social research practice.
National Research Corporation, Lincoln, Neb., has rebranded as NRC Health.
Uber, San Francisco, has acquired New York-based AI research start-up Geometric Intelligence and has created Uber AI Labs, a new division dedicated to research in machine learning and artificial intelligence that will be directed by Gary Marcus, Geometric’s founding CEO. The 15 members of Geometric Intelligence will become part of the AI Labs team.
Market research language and translation service firm GlobaLexicon, London, has opened a new office in Chicago to extend coverage across all North American time zones and increase the capacity of its team. The company has also made several new hires, including in Germany, Belgium and Spain, and has continued the expansion of its in-house linguist team.
Arlington, Texas, research firm Decision Analyst has launched a new company, Symmetric, allowing research agencies and companies to acquire samples from Decision Analyst’s consumer and business-to-business panels. Jason Thomas has been named president of Symmetric and Mauricia Wills has been named executive vice president.
Research company earnings/financial news
Video analytics firm Big Sofa, London, has reported that its shares have begun trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. The company raised approximately £6.1 million by way of a placing of and subscription for new ordinary shares at 17 pence per share to fund its U.S. operations.
Audience measurement company Verto Analytics, San Francisco, has reported a 300 percent increase in month-to-month revenue and has hired Jay Imus as vice president of East Coast sales. Additionally, the firm has rolled out its services in markets outside the U.S. and has opened offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore and Frankfurt as hubs for business development, marketing and sales.