News notes

A U.S. District Court judge has set a trial date of September 20, 2004 in Information Resources, Inc.’s (IRI) antitrust lawsuit against A.C. Nielsen Co., The Dun & Bradstreet Corp., and IMS International, Inc., in which IRI is seeldng damages in excess of $1 billion after trebling. The jury trial in this case is scheduled to last between 10 and 16 weeks. In separate proceedings, the Canadian Competition Tribunal and the European Commission already have found that these same practices by ACNielsen were abusive and either prevented IRI from entering markets or artificially raised the costs of doing so, according to an 1RI press release.

Acquisitions

On-Line Communications, Inc. has acquired a 100-seat contact center in Richmond, Va., from Southeastern Institute of Research, Inc. On-Line Communications will retain the current staff and could ultimately employ up to 200 people.

Alliances/strategic partnerships

Cincinnati-based MarketVision Research has announced a partnering agreement with iParenting Media, an independent source for information on parenting and families. IParenting Media operates a collection of online and offline media assets focusing on the family through its entire lifecycle. The agreement combines MarketVision’s research capabilities and Viewpoint Forum’s Internet platform with iParenting’s online community of 1.6 million users.

New York-based WebSurveyEurope and Martin Hamblin GfK. a U.K. health care marketing research firm, have signed a letter of intent under which Martin Hamblin GfK will have immediate access to physicians in Europe and the United States for performing marketing research. Martin Hamblin GtK Global Healthcare will perform questionnaire design, data analysis and develop insights and recommendations for its clients, while WebSurveyEurope will field the studies and provide the data.

In a three-way transaction, Kynetec, a market information firm, has acquired the agricultural and animal health research and information business assets of Promar International. formerly trading as Produce Studies Research. At the same time, Doane Marketing Research, based in Cleveland and St. Louis, has acquired a minority interest in Kynetec, creating a new partnership capable of serving global market research and information management needs.

Irvine, Calif.-based software firm Island Pacific and BIGresearch, Worthington, Ohio. have formed an alliance to provide clients with an endto- end information solution to forecast consumer demand, better utilize assets, merchandise, and develop strategy and market position.

Survey Sampling International, Fairfield, Conn., is partnering with Clad AG to provide access to a pan-European online consumer database.

Dallas-based wireless data collection firm Mobile Memoir has formed a partnership with Dallas-based Common Knowledge Research Services, which also has made a strategic investment in the company. Through the partnership, Mobile Memoir will develop and provide wireless survey and shopper panels based on a segment of Common Knowledge’s Your2Cents online panel.

ACNielsen U.S. has signed Stater Bros. Markets to an information-sharing agreement. Sales data from the 156-store southern California supermarket chain will enhance the coverage of ACNielsen’s Scantrack retail measurement service, and retailer-specific insights from Stater Bros. will be available to manufacturer partners of the chain via ACNielsen’s Account Level Services. The agreement makes ACNielsen Stater Bros.’ preferred provider of syndicated sales information and merchandising software.

Research firm TNS has formed a parmership with CNN and Time magazine to provide consumer opinionbased research across 11 European countries. The. research is designed to provide feedback on current affairs and world issues. The research findings will be featured in CNN programs and in regular news items in the European edition of Time.

Association/organization news

The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has named Larry Hadcock its new executive director. Betsy Peterson, current MRA executive director, will retire at the end of November. Hadcock will begin work at the MRA in early August.

William D. Ratcliffe, president of Millward Brown Goldfarb, has been named president-elect of the Toronto Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Leaders of market research associations from the Americas, Europe and Asia have decided to join efforts initiated by industry leaders during the RELEAS process aimed at strengthening the market research industry. RELEAS (Research Leaders Summit) was a two-year process initiated by ESOMAR and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) in which leaders of market research agencies worldwide and senior researchers working within major international companies decided upon a set of key activities aimed at ensuring that the market research industry will adequately respond to current and future challenges and opportunities. The RELEAS process was concluded in January 2003.

"The concerted industry action that has been decided upon at RELEAS will now include the active support of research associations. This will enable the market research industry globally to speak with one voice and is a major step toward strengthening the position of the market research profession and industry," said Mario van Hamersveld of the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

By joining the initiatives resulting from the RELEAS process, market research associations will support: the Global Legislative Initiative, an effort aimed at representing the interests of market research at the level of national parliaments and other legislative bodies worldwide; the ongoing effort to reviewself-regulation practices and develop new quality standards; the initiatives aimed at optimizing the position and role of market research in client compariles and the efforts to share best practices through GROW, the industry’s Global Research Online Workshop which was established recently.

The leaders of research associations also agreed to join WIN, the World Industry Network. WIN is a flexible platform created as a follow-up to RELEAS which is scheduled to bring together market research associations andbusiness leaders at alternating annual meetings. The inaugural WIN meeting on May 22-23 in Brussels was facilitated by ESOMAR, EFAMRO (the European Federation of Associations of Market Research Organizations) and the ARF.

Awards

Greenwich, Conn.-based NFO WorldGroup has been named International Vendor of the Year by TGI Friday’sInc., parent company of T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants and a division of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide. NFO WorldGroup has provided business insight to T.G.I. Friday’s international division since 1999.

New accounts/projects

Clear Channel Outdoor, a division of Clear Channel Worldwide, has selected Arbitron Inc., New York, to supply it with local market consumer information and software services in all U.S. markets served by Clear Channel Outdoor.

Separately, Arbitron Inc. announced that America Online’s Radio@ Network has subscribed to, and will now be measured in, Arbitron’s Interuet Broadcast Ratings.

BankFinancial will use SPSS Inc.’s PredictiveMarketing solution to help it acquire and retain customers and improve marketing efficiency.

New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions

Bonnie Sargent has opened Field Research Services at 1519 Virginia St., St. Paul, Minn., 55117.

A new research firm, African Response, has opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. Beatrice Kubheka has been named managing director of the firm.

FastChannel Network will open its sixth full-service NorthAmerican office in late July in Los Angeles.

A new firm, Advanced Focus, specializing in recruitment services for qualitative and quantitative focus groups and IDIs, has opened at 330 W. 58th Street, 16 J, New York, N.Y., 10019.

Youth research firm Twentysomething has opened an office in Mexico. Twentysomething/Mexico is headquartered in Mexico City.

New York-based Scarborough Research has launched its Custom Analytics Group, which will specialize in integrating corporate marketing data with Scarborough’s consumer research. 

Company earnings reports

Revenue for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31 in the research operations of Catalina Marketing decreased approximately 34 percent compared to the fourth quarter of the prior year. For the fiscal year ended March 31, revenue for Catalina Marketing Research Solutions decreased approximately 2 percent from fiscal year 2002. Catalina Marketing Research posted a nominal loss for the quarter and contributed approximately $0.02 per diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31.

For the three months ended March 31, New York-based FIND/SV compared to a net loss of $473,000, or ($0.05) per share, in the comparable quarter of the prior year. This compares favorably to the net loss of $520,000, or ($0.05) per share, in the fourth quarter of 2002. Revenues for the quarter improved 1.1 percent to $5,102,000 as compared to $5,044,000 in the same quarter in the prior year.

For the three months ended March 31, the company had operating income (income exclusive of interest expense and other income) of $5,000. These results compare to an operating loss of $207,000 in the fourth quarter of 2002, and an operating loss of $674,000 in the comparable quarter of the prior year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31 was $322,000 as compared to a loss of $169,000 in the comparable quarter of the prior year. The company’s reported first quarter performance is exclusive of the results of Guideline Research Corporation, which was acquired on April 1.

Paris-based Ipsos Group’s revenues for first quarter 2003 came in at EUR 118.6 million, up 9.5 percent on the first quarter of 2002. At constant scope and exchange rate, the firm’s Q1 revenues rose by 8.6 percent. Ipsos’ first quarter revenue performance was driven by contrasting trends in terms of organic growth, changes to the scope of consolidation and exchange rates. The consolidation of companies acquired in 2002 generated 15 percent revenue growth. However, currency effects reduced these revenues by 14 percent when translated in euros. At constant exchange rates, Ipsos’ revenues for the first quarter of 2003 were
up 22 percent to EUR 134 million.

Over the quarter, most currencies showed much weaker average exchange rates against the euro compared with the first quarter of 2002. This was particularly apparent in Latin America (-43 percent), North America (-23 percent for U.S. dollar and -13.5 percent for Canadian dollar) and the U.K. (-8.5 percent). This downtrend began in spring 2002, but has only a very limited impact on the Group’s margins, as most of its operating expenses are also denominated in local currencies.

Ipsos-ASI, the company that measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, achieved record growth. Ipsos also posted a revenue increase in marketing research and customer satisfaction measurement. The media research business returned to slightly positive growth, while opinion research suffered temporarily from an unfavorable basis of comparison, as revenues in early 2002 were boosted by the run-up to the French and Brazilian elections.

A geographical breakdown of the evolutions in activity shows similar trends to 2002. Despite the persistence of a strongly unfavorable impact in exchange rates, North America (41 percent) and Latin America (7 percent) account for almost half of the Group’s overall revenues. Europe has seen a steady start to the year and the company foresees continued improvement.