News notes
Judge Susan Illston has accepted the terms of a settlement deal between Google, Mountain View, Calif., and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington, D.C., in which Google will pay a $22.5 million fine for circumventing privacy protections in Apple’s Safari browser.
Google was charged with dropping tracking cookies on the computers of Safari browser users who thought they had opted out. The FTC claimed Google had previously told Safari users that the browser’s default block on third-party cookies made it unnecessary for them to actively opt out of Google’s own advertising tracking cookie.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has entered into a settlement agreement with Magic Broadcasting LLC, Panama City, Fla., and Magic Broadcasting Alabama Licensing LLC that resolves the November 2011 lawsuit in which Arbitron alleged that Magic Broadcasting improperly used proprietary or copyrighted Arbitron materials, information and data after the expiration of its license agreement with Arbitron.
The FTC has released a staff report, titled “Facing Facts: Best Practices for Common Uses of Facial Recognition Technologies,” to help companies using facial recognition technologies protect consumers’ privacy as they create new commercial products and services.
Acquisitions/transactions
Diversified Agency Services (DAS), a division of New York communications company Omnicom Group Inc., has acquired London innovation consultancy Promise Corporation. DAS plans to integrate Promise into Boston research company Communispace, which DAS acquired in 2011.
Aegis Group PLC, London, has acquired Benelux marketing and analytics company Netsociety. Aegis will merge Netsociety into its existing search and performance marketing division, iProspect.
Berlin research company SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH has sold its ophthalmic division to Fort Worth, Texas, eye care company Alcon.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company and NM Incite, a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey and Company, has acquired SocialGuide, a New York social TV measurement, analytics and audience engagement company. SocialGuide will be integrated into NM Incite.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC, Austin, Texas, has partnered with Carol Stream, Ill., research company StartSampling to allow Kinesis users to conduct in-depth product testing research with StartSampling and then collect consumer feedback via Kinesis Survey.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has formed a strategic alliance with Singapore research company Informate Mobile Intelligence. Dubbed Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, the alliance covers Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and will study how consumers use mobile devices and consume mobile content.
Integration Marketing and Communications Limited, Nicosia, Cyprus, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, research company Pulse Group PLC have partnered to address how companies measure the effect of their marketing effectiveness and account for their marketing investments.
Association/organization news
ESOMAR, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has elected its council for 2013-14: Dan Foreman, president; Fred John, vice president; Tatiana V. Barakshina; Michael Bendig; Bruno Colin; Pramod Kumar; Luiz Campos de Sá Lucas; Niels Schillewaert; Pravin Shekar; and David Smith. Dieter Korczak will remain on the council as past president for the term.
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association, St. Paul, Minn., has elected its 2012-13 board of directors: Susan Saurage-Altenloh, president; Kendall Nash, vice president; Mark Sumpter, treasurer; Monica Zinchiak, secretary; Susan Abbott; Shaili Bhatt; Manny Schrager; Corette Haf; and Liz Van Patten.
The Chief Marketing Officer Council, Palo Alto, Calif., has launched the Content ROI Center, a strategic interest community dedicated to the evolving discipline of content marketing.
The Promotion Marketing Association, New York, has announced that it will become the umbrella organization for brand activation and be renamed as the Brand Activation Association.
Awards/rankings
Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical has been named one of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards. The Fast 50 program recognizes the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Canada, based on the percentage of revenue growth over five years. Vision Critical ranked 31st, with an increase in revenues of 323 percent from 2007 to 2011.
Separately, Mario Canseco, vice president at Angus Reid Public Opinion, a division of Vision Critical, has been named one of Canada’s 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians.
New York research company Kantar Health has won the Best Poster Presentation Award for its poster on the effects of insulin pump therapy from the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Lawrenceville, N.J., at the ISPOR’s annual European congress.
The American Marketing Association Foundation, Chicago, has named How Cool Brands Stay Hot: Branding to Generation Y by Joeri Van den Bergh and Mattias Behrer the winner of the 2012 Berry-AMA Book Prize for the best book in marketing. This award recognizes books whose innovative ideas have had a significant impact on marketing and related fields and set the standard for excellence.
Steven Cohen of in4mation insights, a Needham, Mass., research company, has been awarded the Next Generation Market Research (NGMR) Disruptive Innovator Individual Award at The Market Research Event in November 2012 in Boca Raton, Fla. The NGMR Disruptive Innovation Awards recognize companies and individuals that have demonstrated outstanding leadership as change agents and made significant contributions to harnessing disruptive innovation to drive research industry progress.
Additionally, New York research company EyeTrackShop was named the recipient of the 2012 NGMR Disruptive Innovation Award in the Research Concept Development category for making its eye-tracking technology actionable and accessible.
Finally, Fox Broadcasting Co., Beverly Hills, Calif., in collaboration with San Francisco research company trueAnthem, won in the Thought Leadership Category for their efforts in rethinking and defining measures for evaluating social media marketing efforts.
Kristin Luck of Decipher Inc., Fresno, Calif., received two awards at the annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Luck was a Gold Stevie Award winner in the Women Helping Women category, recognizing her work as the founder of the Women in Research networking group for women in the market research industry. She also received a Silver Stevie Award for Female Executive of the Year in the business services category for her role as president of Decipher.
Separately, Decipher has received a 2012 Best in Biz Award in the Most Socially/Environmentally Responsible Company of the Year category. The Best in Biz award program is an independent business awards program judged by members of the press and industry analysts.
AOL, New York, and its market research partners, BBDO, New York, and InsightsNow, Corvallis, Ore., were named the winners Encino, Calif., research company uSamp's EXPLOR Award for their “Seven Shades of Mobile” research. The awards honor technology innovation in marketing research.
Waban, Mass., research company Temkin Group has launched the Customer Experience Excellence Awards to recognize organizations for their efforts in becoming more customer-centric.
New accounts/projects
London survey software company Merlinco has signed a representative agent contract for all of Montréal research company Voxco's software in the U.K and Ireland.
New York research company Ipsos MediaCT has been commissioned by Radio Joint Audience Research, London, to extend and expand its Radio Listener Panel for another year.
Roy Morgan Research, Melbourne, Australia, has selected Melbourne, Australia, research company Effective Measure’s Insight platform for its Web audience data measurement system.
Market Publishers Ltd., London, has signed an agreement with Daedal Research to distribute and sell Daedal Research reports online.
Johnsonville Sausage, Sheboygan Falls, Wis., has adopted Cincinnati research company ThinkVine's marketing-mix optimization software.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
New York research company Millward Brown has opened an office in Cairo, Egypt. Praveen Abraham will lead the operation.
Rotterdam, Netherlands, research company MetrixLab has opened an office in Shanghai, China.
Cambridge, Mass., research company MarketSight LLC, has opened an office in London.
Van Nuys, Calif., research company SoapBoxSample, part of the Interviewing Service of America, has opened for business. The company is online at www.soapboxsample.com.
Lisa Mills and Kathy Burklow have launched Sprout Insight, a Cincinnati research and consulting company. The company is online at http://sproutinsight.com.
Andera and Volker Gadeib have launched SmartMunk GmbH, an Aachen, Germany, research company. The company is online at www.smartmunk.com.
Ci Research, Cheshire, U.K., has changed its name to Mustard and unveiled a new corporate image. The company is online at www.mustard-research.com.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group has formed its Global Innovation Practice.
Fresno, Calif., research company Decipher Inc. has dubbed its London-based business Decrypt. All of Decipher’s activities within the U.K. will operate under this name. The company is online at http://decryptresearch.co.uk.
Perception Research Services International has relocated its headquarters from Fort Lee, N.J., to Teaneck, N.J. All phone numbers and e-mail addresses will remain the same.
Additionally, PRS has relocated its Singapore office to Samsung Hub.
Research company earnings/financial news
Pentaho Corp., Orlando, Fla., has raised $23 million from existing investors to expand its interest in big data.
Sample Answers Ltd., Middlesex, U.K., achieved over £1 million in 2012 revenue for the first time in three years.
Confirmit, Oslo, Norway, announced a 20 percent increase in third-quarter 2012 revenue over third-quarter 2011.
Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y., reported a 12 percent fall in revenues to $33 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013.
ComScore Inc., Reston, Va., announced third-quarter 2012 revenue of $64.3 million, an increase of 9 percent over the third quarter of 2011.
Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn., reported results for third-quarter 2012. Total revenue was $374.4 million, up 8 percent compared to third-quarter 2011. Net income was $31.4 million, an increase of 3 percent over the prior-year period.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2012, total revenue was $1,141.1 million, an increase of 10 percent over the 2011 period. Net income was $107.1 million, an increase of 17 percent over the same period in 2011.
The GfK Group, Nuremberg, Germany, achieved a sales increase of 9.8 percent to 1,096.8 million euros in the first nine months of 2012.
Voxco, Montréal, posted record revenues in the first quarter of its 2012-13 financial year.
Ipsos, Paris, reported revenues of 1,277.5 million euros for the first nine months of 2012, a 51 percent increase over the first nine months of 2011. In the third quarter alone, revenues totaled 440.6 million euros.