News notes
ComScore, Reston, Va., has been granted accreditation by the Media Rating Council for Sophisticated Invalid Traffic detection and filtration of desktop and mobile Web traffic.
Acquisitions/transactions
New York-based private equity firm Kohlberg & Company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the ownership interest in Los Angeles-based researcher MarketCast. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Newtown Square, Pa., firm Research America has added Clarkston, Mich., research firm Intellitrends to its corporate family of research companies. Intellitrends will continue to operate under its own trade name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Research America Inc. Intellitrends founders Marlene and Keith Stone will transition to senior consulting roles within the company.
Google, Mountain View, Calif., has acquired Milpitas, Calif., eye-tracking company Eyefluence.
Newtown Square, Pa., firm Research America Inc. has acquired Cincinnati-based firm Repass Research and Strategic Consulting. The Repass staff in Cincinnati will remain in place and will continue to serve the firm’s client base.
U.K. digital marketing agency Fat Media has acquired London-based research firm Ronin Development Corporation.
IBM, Armonk, N.Y., has acquired the Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) division of Oakland, Calif., digital customer experiences firm Fluid. The acquisition includes the XPS solution, a dialogue-based product recommendation platform developed by Fluid that uses IBM Watson to personalize customer experiences and improve product discovery. The XPS solution and key members of the XPS team will become part of IBM iX (Interactive Experience).
Great Neck, N.Y., research company Lieberman Inc. has acquired FRC Research, a New York-based company specializing in the CPG category.
Columbia, Md., marketing agency Merkle has acquired Axis41, a Salt Lake City-based digital agency focused on customer experience. This is Merkle’s first corporate acquisition since joining the Dentsu Aegis Network in August 2016. Axis41’s staff of more than 170 employees will join the Merkle team.
W2O Group, a San Francisco-based network of digital, marketing and communications firms, has acquired Marketeching Solutions LLC, a New Hope, Pa., research and social listening consultancy focused on health care and life sciences. Marketeching will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of W2O Group and will be operated independently by Founder Kevin Johnson, who will remain president and report to Paul Dyer, president of W2O Group’s Analytics and Insights practice.
MM-Eye, a U.K.-based research firm for the automotive industry, has been acquired by U.K. marketing communications agency hps group. MM-Eye will remain a separate business with no changes in staff or location.
The boards of directors of Paris-based researcher Ipsos and LT Participations have approved terms and conditions of a merger project between the two firms. LT Participations was created in 1988 by Didier Truchot, founder, chairman and CEO of Ipsos, and his partner, Jean-Marc Lech, with the purpose to control Ipsos. Following the death of Lech in 2014, Truchot assumed sole control of LT Participations on a temporary basis, and thus of Ipsos. LT Participations is currently 52.2 percent held by Truchot and his company, DT & Partners, 35.8 percent by Sofina and 10.4 percent by FFP Invest, with the remainder being held by group managers. In September 2016, 144 Ipsos executive managers and senior managers created Ipsos Partners SAS, which used funds to take – via a capital increase – a 19 percent stake in the share capital of DT & Partners and secure a long-term role of the company as Ipsos’ reference shareholder.
Flower Mound, Texas, marketing solutions firm Ivie & Associates has acquired Dallas-based digital strategy agency BuzzShift.
Melville, N.Y., customer engagement optimization firm Verint Systems Inc. has acquired OpinionLab, a Chicago-based voice of the customer listening solutions company. Through the acquisition, Verint will extend its Customer Engagement Optimization portfolio to include the ability to measure and act on digital customer experiences in-the-moment.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Chicago-based researcher IRI and Research Now, Plano, Texas, are expanding their relationship to create a data set for the CPG industry. The capability combines 1.1 million of Research Now’s consumer panelists with IRI’s purchase-based data assets and predictive models, which provide insights into consumer motivations, psychographics, life stage and lifestyle characteristics, shopping behavior and media habits.
Methodify, the research automation platform of Toronto-based digital innovation company Delvinia, and Canada-based research firm element54, have partnered to offer a new research methodology on the Methodify platform. The AdTrack Express solution, developed by element54, allows marketers and researchers to optimize their brands’ creative and media investments with in-market customer feedback and normative targets across key success benchmarks.
The AOL Consumer Analytics & Research Group has partnered with data visualization and reporting software firm Dapresy, Boston, and used its visual business intelligence tool to create the AOL Insights Center dashboard tool.
Professional services company Accenture, New York, has expanded its strategic alliance with San Francisco-based omnichannel personalization firm RichRelevance to strengthen the capabilities of Accenture Interactive and boost the personalization services it delivers to clients. As part of the expanded relationship, Accenture Ventures has made a minority investment in RichRelevance.
Columbus, Ohio, business intelligence solutions firm Prosper Insights & Analytics and think tank Fung Global Retail & Technology, New York, have expanded their strategic alliance to include a co-branded Amazon Shopper Intelligence service. The service combines Fung Global Retail & Technology analysis and commentary with input of U.S. shoppers from Prosper.
In Wilton, Conn., researcher Toluna has announced a strategic partnership that will provide increased access to patients for survey research. Toluna’s Healthcare Practice, which has provided access to physicians, pharmacists, nurses and medical professionals and ailment sufferers, will now have increased access and approach to hard-to-reach patient segments.
Association/organization news
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is rebranding and repositioning to become the Data & Marketing Association, coinciding with its 100th anniversary. DMA has also elected Michael McLaren, executive global group director at Merkle, as chairman of the board; Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, global privacy officer emeritus at Acxiom, as vice chairman; Steve Wagner, group president – marketing services at Experian, as secretary; and Steve Froehlich, senior vice president, national direct marketing at ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, as treasurer. Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of Cision; Luci Rainey, senior vice president, consumer marketing at Comcast; and Cory Treffiletti, vice president of marketing and partner solutions at Oracle Data Cloud, have been elected to the DMA board.
The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) will become part of the American Marketing Association (AMA), giving MENG members access to AMA member benefits. Additionally, MENG and eligible AMA senior marketing executive members will be invited to join a new AMA Executive Circle, which will develop programming and produce content for executive marketers.
Awards/rankings
Mike Kelly, CEO of the Americas for health care research and consulting firm Kantar Health, New York, has received the 2016 R.R. Fordyce Award from the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group.
PlayFULL Insights, a qualitative research application co-created by Karen Lynch and Siri Lynn, received the 2016 Next Gen Market Research Disruptive Innovator Award, which recognizes companies and individuals that have demonstrated leadership as change agents and made contributions to drive research industry progress.
New York-based research consultancy Benenson Strategy Group (BSG) received the top prize in the audience segmentation category for its work with the Automobile Association (AA) at the Data Storytelling Awards ceremony, a Marketing Week event. BSG’s winning entry, The Watershed Moment: Segmenting for Transformation, was based on the segmentation work conducted by its U.K. office that helped the AA understand the new consumer landscape and connect with its members.
Oslo, Norway, research solutions firm Confirmit has expanded its recognition program to include the Young Market Researcher Awards program, which will highlight and reward the work of 20 market researchers who are in their twenties and helping to grow and evolve how researchers analyze data and provide insight.
Alpharetta, Ga., online sample provider P2Sample has been ranked a fastest-growing company on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. P2Sample grew 213 percent during this period.
U.K. video insight firm Voxpopme has been named the Midlands finalist for professional services firm KPMG’s Best British Mobile Startup 2017 competition. KPMG will take Voxpopme, along with three other finalists from London, Bristol and Leeds, to the Mobile World Congress in February. The four finalists will showcase their businesses to judges and investors for the chance to be named Best British Mobile Startup 2017.
New accounts/projects
San Francisco-based financial services company Bank of the West and Costa Mesa, Calif., researcher J.D. Power have signed a multi-year agreement. Under the agreement, Bank of the West will leverage J.D. Power’s customer data analytics platform to deliver insights about customer needs and how customers want to engage across the bank’s digital and physical channels.
GfK Entertainment, Germany, has been commissioned to compile aggregated digital sales transactions of movies and television programs for 17 countries. Under the agreement with The Digital Entertainment Group, GfK Entertainment will produce separate country analyses for the Internet video-on-demand and electronic sell-through distribution channels, letting subscribers compare titles and genres for different formats and allowing them to plan their distribution, merchandising, marketing and digital strategies.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Lake Havasu City, Ariz., loyalty agency All Digital Rewards has opened an additional California office in Irvine.
The Customer Data Platform Institute has launched to help bring awareness of customer data platforms to marketers. The Institute, managed by Swarthmore, Pa., marketing technology and analysis firm Raab Associates, includes a library of white papers, surveys, evaluation guides, case studies and product information; a daily newsletter and blog; a public forum for marketers and industry experts; and directory of industry vendors. The Institute was founded by David Raab and will include an advisory board of marketing practitioners and sponsor experts.
U.K.-based professional services firm Maru Group has rebranded its community insights research division as Maru/Matchbox, a sector-focused consumer intelligence firm. The company has been operating as MARU/VCR&C since being acquired from Vision Critical in April 2016. Additionally, voice of the customer firm Maru/edr has launched a North American business in New York following continued investment from Maru Group. Maru/edr North America will be led by Ted Chen.
London-based insight consultancy Firefish has launched Insider, a new insight communication and activation agency that will offer solutions for communicating, activating and embedding research insight within the wider business. The new venture will be led by John Sayers, who previously headed up the firm’s in-house insight film unit Firefilms.
Customer experience consulting firm Walker Information broke ground on a new headquarters facility on the north side of Indianapolis. Real estate developer PK Partners and Walker partnered to invest $11 million in the new 54,000-square-foot building. Walker expects to complete the move by the end of 2017, relocating from its current facility. The company is also expanding its range of services and consulting capabilities.
The Integrated Media Research Center (IMRC), an online resource for cross-discipline marketing knowledge, has been launched by a consortium of marketing agencies and professionals representing organizations involved in different aspects of marketing, including direct marketing; research; media planning; data analytics; advertising; and the U.S. mail. Collectively, these executives form the IMRC board of advisors. The IMRC Web site includes an archive of research and case studies on best marketing practices and is designed to encourage an ongoing discussion among marketers about the most effective use of different marketing channels.
Digital transformation platform Publicis.Sapient, part of communications firm Publicis Groupe, has merged digital agencies SapientNitro, Boston, and Razorfish, Seattle, to form SapientRazorfish.
IBM, Armonk, N.Y., has launched its Watson IoT Consulting Solutions practice to give clients guidance on managing industry-specific IoT adoption challenges. The practice will include a network of consultants, data scientists and design and security experts across IBM Watson IoT headquarters in Munich and in eight other IBM IoT centers across Asia, Europe and the Americas. The first priority industries include automotive, electronics, industrial products, insurance, retail, telecommunications, transportation and buildings.
Andrew Reid, founder and president of corporate innovation for Canada-based customer intelligence platform provider Vision Critical, has launched VC LABS, a new start-up focused on developing software applications that will extend the value of insight communities. Reid will leave the executive team at Vision Critical but will continue to be a significant shareholder and active board participant.
Research company earnings/financial news
Paris-based researcher Ipsos reported revenue of €431.7 million for third-quarter 2016, up 0.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Facebook, Menlo Park, Calif., reported revenues of approximately $7 billion for third-quarter 2016, a 56 percent increase year-over-year. Daily active users were 1.18 billion on average for September 2016, an increase of 17 percent year-over-year.
Stamford, Conn., researcher Gartner Inc. reported total revenue of $574.1 million for third-quarter 2016, an increase of 15 percent over third-quarter 2015.
Stamford, Conn., technology insights and advisory services company Information Services Group reported revenues of $51.9 million for third-quarter 2016, compared with $51.4 million in the prior year, an increase of 2 percent in constant currency.
In the first nine months of 2016, GfK Group, Nuremberg, Germany, reported sales of approximately €1.08 billion, reflecting a decline of 1.7 percent. The Consumer Choices sector achieved growth of 5.4 percent, while Consumer Experiences reported a decline of 7.4 percent.