News notes
U.K. language services firm Language Insight has been awarded the ISO 27001:2013 accreditation, the Information Security Management Systems standard.
Information and health care services firm QuintilesIMS, Danbury, Conn., has changed its name to IQVIA.
Lieberman Research Worldwide, Los Angeles, has joined the Paradigm for Parity coalition and has pledged a commitment to gender parity in corporate leadership by 2030.
Aimpoint Research, Columbus, Ohio, has been certified as a Veteran Owned Small Business by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Acquisitions/transactions
Philadelphia-based data collection company Focus Pointe Global (FPG) has acquired Marina del Rey, Calif., research company Trotta Associates. The acquisition will add a third Southern California location for FPG and a focus group facility in Los Angeles. FPG plans to transition its current Santa Monica, Calif., location to the new facility during the first quarter of 2018. The management team will continue to be led by FPG’s CEO Laura Livers.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Germany-based research consultancy 2x4 has formed a strategic partnership with Netherlands-based research software firm Nebu. The partnership will cover two-way software reselling, product integration and provisioning of services and support.
Stockholm-based software company Cint and San Mateo, Calif., company SurveyMonkey have formed a strategic partnership to expand SurveyMonkey Audience globally. SurveyMonkey Audience will provide access to Cint’s Insights Exchange in over 100 countries and the ability to conduct market research in 16 languages.
Denver-based researcher GutCheck has partnered with U.K. video insights firm Voxpopme. The companies will combine GutCheck’s online research platform, which will capture a target audience’s video responses, with Voxpopme’s video analytics platform, which will process and organize the video data, to give clients a video solution that captures customer feedback across any device.
Association/organization news
The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), based in Toronto, has launched an independent inquiry into underperforming and conflicting election polling results published during the municipal elections in Calgary in fall 2017. The MRIA says it wants to know what information and data pollsters publicly released to support their polling results and whether industry standards for public opinion research were met.
The Insights Association and the American Association for Public Opinion Research have filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission, stating the need for greater clarity when defining marketing research and marketing for purposes of compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
The Insights Association, Washington, D.C., has formed a partnership with nonprofit organization Women in Research (WIRe). The partnership will provide WIRe members with discounts on Insights Association events, certification programs and first-year memberships. The Insights Association will work toward WIRe’s 50/50 speaker goal by instituting an anonymized vetting process for proposals received from its calls for speakers.
The Insights Association, Washington, D.C., has appointed Hilary Fischer as director of chapter engagement, a newly-created position. The association has also launched an initiative to increase support for its chapters in 2018, including a new chapter funding strategy and the Insights Association Chapter Partnership Agreement, which defines resources, training and tools the association will provide to chapters.
The Insights Association, Washington, D.C., has made recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission, stating that non-telemarketing calls to a cell phone using an autodialer should be legal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act if there is an existing business relationship or if the calls are free to the recipient.
Awards/rankings
Dave Lundahl, founder and CEO of Chicago-based research consultancy InsightsNow, has been awarded the 2017 Industry Change Agent of the Year by the Next Gen Market Research Group and Women in Research.
Golden Valley, Minn., mystery shopping and consulting firm Secret Shopper received the MSPA 2018 Elite Award from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association.
Waban, Mass., research company Temkin Group has announced the winners of its Customer Experience Excellence Awards. The six winners are AARP, insurance company Allianz, debt settlement firm Century Support Service, home care provider Nurse Next Door, energy company Reliant and Sage.
New accounts/projects
Princeton, N.J., organization Mathematica Policy Research has selected and implemented Confirmit Horizons from Oslo, Norway, research technology firm Confirmit as its new computer-assisted interviewing software system for data collection projects.
Indianapolis-based media planning and buying agency EchoPoint Media has signed a new measurement agreement with Nielsen, New York, for local television ratings and qualitative insights. As part of the renewal, EchoPoint will increase the number of markets for which it uses Nielsen Local TV currency ratings for its media buys to 49 designated market areas.
Stamford, Conn., research technology firm FocusVision has become a research provider for Bentonville, Ark., retailer Walmart. FocusVision’s Decipher solution will centralize Walmart’s online research operations to reduce research spend for Walmart U.S. and will provide integrated customer feedback.
New York researcher BuzzBack has signed a three-year renewal agreement with Oslo, Norway, research technology firm Confirmit to continue using the Confirmit Horizons platform to support its research and insight activities.
In New York, iHeartMedia has signed a multi-year agreement with Nielsen for radio ratings services for all Portable People Meter and radio diary-measured markets.
SKO, a television audience measurement service in the Netherlands, has renewed its contract with Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK for 2018. GfK and SKO will work together on a number of innovation projects, including data on viewing video across all devices, as well as watching other services through TV.
Nonprofit organization Veterans Florida has engaged Study Hall Research, Tampa, Fla., for a third year to undertake primary research aimed at evaluating the job search needs and opportunities for service members post-separation as they make the transition to civilian employment.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Focus group facility Fieldwork Atlanta has announced a new expansion and remodel that includes a double-sized conference suite with respondent seating for up to 90 and client capacity of 35. All five conference suites have been updated and now feature HD recording.
Complete Research Connection has opened the Atelier, a new creative space at its Columbus, Ohio, facility. The space includes six televisions, boardroom and living room layouts and games to assist in conducting creative meetings like new product concept development.
U.K.-based translation company Language Insight has opened an office in New York to serve its clients in the U.S. The company says it also has plans to expand into Singapore.
The Insight Lab, owned by research agency Brädo Creative Insight in affiliation with Schlesinger Associates, has opened a research facility in downtown St. Louis. The facility includes two suites: The Clark Room, a usability lab that provides technology for evaluating and optimizing digital assets across multiple devices; and the Soulard Room, a focus group studio that includes a client room with a lounge equipped with HD cameras.
Owl Solutions, a Rochester, N.Y., research programming and fieldwork consulting company, has been launched by Michael Wildt, Leo Ladyzhensky and Victor Ochkovskiy. The company aims to provide health care research companies and consultancies with survey programming solutions designed to improve survey quality, reduce timelines and costs and yield better data outcomes.
Prague-based research company response:now has launched in the United States and has appointed Frederick Barber as managing director of North America.
Boston-based retail intelligence firm Survey.com has opened a new operations center in Charlotte, N.C. The company plans to hire 25 full-time employees at the new location in the next six months and will grow its product and service offerings, as well as the number of independent field agents, through the first quarter of 2018.
U.K. scientific and medical communications network Porterhouse Medical Group has launched Porterhouse Insights, a research, insight and evidence consultancy that will offer solutions to biopharmaceutical companies. The consultancy will be led by Fabrice Allum.
Research company earnings/financial news
Nielsen, New York, has reported revenues of approximately $1.64 billion for the third quarter of 2017, up 4.5 percent compared to the third quarter of 2016.
Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., has reported total revenues of $80.4 million for the third quarter of 2017, compared with $77.4 million for the third quarter of 2016.
Facebook, Menlo Park, Calif., has reported third-quarter 2017 revenues of approximately $10.3 billion, up 47 percent compared to the same time last year.
Study Hall Research, Tampa, Fla., has reported that for the first nine months of the year, revenue increased by 11.3 percent over the same period in 2016.
Reston, Va., consumer intelligence firm Resonate has raised $8 million in growth capital. The company will use the funding to accelerate go-to-market activities, with an expansion in its sales efforts targeting B2C brand verticals and agency partners. The investment will also go toward its consumer intelligence platform and will add new customer-facing mobile and location-based analytics.
India-based researcher MRSS India has reported a standalone net profit of Rs. 4.51 crore for the half-year ended Sept. 30.