News notes
Nielsen, New York, has announced plans to replace paper diaries by installing nearly 15,000 television audience meters in approximately 7,000 homes across the 140 markets that are currently measured by Local TV paper diaries. This is part of Nielsen’s drive to implement universal electronic television measurement in all 210 Local TV markets. The installation of the electronic meters will provide coverage that will address the limitations of solely using set-top-box data for audience measurement in Local TV markets.
Stockholm-based software company Cint has reported that the consumer base in its platform has reached 40 million globally, up from 19 million six months ago. Cint CEO Morten Strand says the company is on track to surpass 100 million registered unique consumers by the end of 2018.
Baldwinsville, N.Y., firm Research & Marketing Strategies Inc. marked its 15-year anniversary on May 5.
Acquisitions/transactions
Essman/Research, the research division of Des Moines, Iowa-based Essman/Companies, which includes Essman/Associates and Essman/Research, has been acquired by State Public Policy Group (SPPG), located in West Des Moines, Iowa. Deborah Stearns, vice president of Essman/Companies and director of Essman/Research, will lead Essman/Research as a division of SPPG. Essman/Research will move from its current location to a new research focus facility adjacent to SPPG’s headquarters. Denise Essman, president and CEO of Essman/Companies, will retain ownership of Essman/Associates.
Research company mTAB, Anaheim, Calif., has expanded its global capabilities through the acquisition of Gamma Associates in the U.K., the establishment of an office in Japan and a partnership with research training firm Analytic Edge in China. Gamma Associates and mTAB will be fully integrated under the leadership of mTAB CEO Alex Gelman.
Private equity fund Stagwell Media LLC has acquired SCOUT, an Atlanta-based marketing communications firm focused on health care and consumer marketing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SCOUT’s leadership team will continue to manage agency operations.
Mobile survey platform Osurv, Los Angeles, has reported that its technology has been acquired by Tan Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Singapore, for an undisclosed sum. Tan Capital Partners plans to integrate Osurv’s technology into the hotels it owns and operates throughout Asia.
U.K. consumer insight agency Join the Dots has undergone a management buyout by its senior management team, led by Managing Director Quentin Ashby and Sales and Marketing Director Graeme Lawrence. The deal sees company founders and previous majority shareholders Pete and Trish Comley reducing their shareholding in the £9.8 million revenue business. Trish will step down as chairman of the company and Pete will remain on the board as a non-executive director along with Ashby and Lawrence. Also taking part in the buyout are Andy Buckley, innovations director; Andy Cumming, head of international; and Adele Mann, operations strategy director.
Sweden-based eye-tracking technology company Tobii has acquired substantially all of the assets of Sticky, a San Francisco-based eye-tracking and emotion measurement platform. Sticky will be integrated with Tobii Pro, the business unit that provides eye-tracking research solutions. Prior to the transaction, Tobii was a minority shareholder in Sticky.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Scottsdale, Ariz., firm JDA Software Group Inc. has partnered with U.K.-based consumer science company dunnhumby. The partnership combines consumer insights via dunnhumby with JDA’s space and category execution solutions to provide a one-stop insight and execution capability. The offering will allow retailers and trading partners to develop and execute shopper-centric merchandising plans with localized assortments, offers and space plans built to drive further automation, sales and growth.
In London, Research Now has expanded its partnership with U.K. loyalty program Nectar. Research Now will manage the Nectar Canvass panel, an online panel of individuals who have opted in to take surveys in return for Nectar points.
U.K. customer science company dunnhumby has formed a partnership with Twitter to help FMCG brands in the U.K. quantify how their investment in Twitter’s targeted advertising impacts sales. Tesco’s active ClubCard users are anonymously linked to Twitter’s active U.K. users, showing the effect of ad exposure on actual sales.
Online payments-as-a-service platform CCBill has joined the National Retail Federation (NRF) as an associate member of Shop.org, a global trade community of online retailers, technology, research and consulting companies. CCBill will contribute to Shop.org’s efforts to promote technology development in the digital marketplace by introducing its ecosystem of merchants, affiliates and integration partners to the NRF community.
San Francisco-based social media analytics company Socialbakers has become a data partner with New York-based statistics company Statista. Socialbakers will supply Statista with social media data pertaining to Twitter and YouTube, giving Statista customers access to data around fan growth, engagement, interactions and content posts.
New York-based data management platform Lotame has formed a partnership with San Francisco-based research company Survata to create Segment Validation, which provides a universal “ratings currency” for digital advertising. The partnership also allows for tracking and measurement of survey responses, which can be combined with other first-, second- and third-party data segments via the Lotame DMP. Marketers, agencies and publishers can conduct segment validation and audience profiling as well as custom segment creation.
New York-based marketing technology company Tapad has partnered with Reston, Va., consumer intelligence firm Resonate. Through the partnership, Resonate will leverage the Tapad Device Graph to better understand its mobile app audiences and provide brands with a more direct connection to their intended consumers.
In New York, research agency Kantar Millward Brown has partnered with location data firm Cuebiq to help marketers measure the offline ROI of their advertising. The partnership will provide a new tool that integrates geolocation and campaign effectiveness capabilities to evaluate a campaign’s ability to drive audiences to key physical locations.
In London, Research Now is partnering with Air Miles in the Middle East to launch research panels in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. The partnership will allow Air Miles Middle East members to participate in research surveys by enrolling in the Air Miles Voice Panel. In return, members will receive rewards for their participation in surveys with Air Miles. The partnership will also provide researchers access to a sample of customers across the region.
Association/organization news
ESOMAR has named the following as U.S. Ambassadors: Fiona Blades, president and chief experience officer, MESH Experience, New York; Simeon Chow, director, consumer and marketplace insights, Altria Client Services, Richmond, Va.; John DeBiasio, partner, Russell Research, East Rutherford, N.J.; Carol Glasheen, vice president, IDC, Boston; Camille Nicita, president and CEO, Gongos, Auburn Hills, Mich.; Joanne Robbibaro, senior vice president, general manager, LRW, Los Angeles; Juan Carlos Sanchez, VP audience insights and analytics, Sony Pictures TV, Miami; and Brett Sciotto, president and CEO, Aimpoint Research, Columbus, Ohio.
The American Marketing Association (AMA), Chicago, has appointed Jeremy Van Ek as chief operations officer and Jennifer Faris Severns as chief experience officer. They will also serve on AMA’s executive committee.
The Social Media Research Association (SMRA) has formed to develop best practices for privacy to measure and responsibly use social media as a source for insights and marketing efficiency. The association will focus on social media analytics, social listening and brand reputation management. The founding board of advisors include: Kathy Doering (SMRA founding president), Ann Michaels & Associates Ltd.; Seth Grimes, Alta Plana Corporation; Tom Anderson, Odin Text; Michael Lieberman, Multivariate Solutions; Dan Foreman, Hatted; Annie Pettit, FMRIA; Vivek Shivpuri, Prelytics; Imran Anwar, Cloud 9 Global Inc.; Lane Mann, Phoenix Marketing International; Jim Matorin, Smartketing; and Mark Michelson, (SMRA executive director), Association Advisors.
The American Marketing Association, Chicago, has announced its 2017 Fellows, recognizing members who have made contributions and gained prominence in the field of marketing research. The 2017 honorees include: Ajay Kohli, professor of marketing and chair at Georgia Institute of Technology; V. Kumar, director of the Ph.D. program in marketing, Georgia State University; John G. Lynch, Jr., Ted Anderson professor of marketing, University of Colorado-Boulder; and Christine Moorman, T. Austin Finch professor, sr. of business administration, Duke University.
Awards/rankings
Los Angeles nonprofit organization Women in Research has released its Top 10 Female MR Entrepreneurs list: Fiona Blades, MESH Experience; Roz Calder, Needscope; Dianne Hessan, C-Space; Rana el Kaliouby, Affectiva; Janet Kosloff, InCrowd; Kristin Luck, Luck Collective and Shelley Zalis, TFQ (co-founders of OTX); Roseanne Luth, Luth Research; Deborah Mattinson, Britain Thinks; Leslie Townsend, Cannabiz (founder of Kinesis); and Kristi Zuhlke, Knowledge Hound.
U.K. insight consultancy Firefish and PayPal have won the Best Client-Supplier Collaboration Award at the MRMW Awards 2017 in Chicago. Firefish was recognized for its work with PayPal on generating insight that helped in developing PayPal’s new global positioning.
U.K. researcher Vision One has won the Recommended Agency Register’s (RAR) Best Market Research Agency Award 2017. The RAR awards are based on client recommendations and reviews of their agencies, with satisfaction scores used as a measurement for success. Ratings are collected for criteria such as creativity, effectiveness, strategic thinking, value for money and client service.
Madeline Doering, Mingyan Zhang and Meghan Adams from Loyola University Chicago have won GfK’s Next Generation Competition, which encourages undergraduate students to design and execute research and data analysis on issues for brands and marketers. The winning team looked for a correlation between co-branding and loyalty programs in the fashion industry in an age of omnishopping. Through a survey and a mobile simulation game, they found a lack of customer attention to co-branding campaigns while shopping online, compared to higher engagement while shopping in-store. The team receives a $1,000 cash prize and a visit to GfK’s New York City headquarters.
Canadian marketing and research consultancy Sklar Wilton & Associates took first place at the Great Place to Work awards ceremony held in Toronto, winning the award for Best Workplaces in Canada for Small Companies.
Mario X. Carrasco, co-founder and principal of Burbank, Calif., firm ThinkNow Research, has been awarded the 2017 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award on behalf of the Los Angeles District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Oslo, Norway-based researcher Confirmit has announced the winners of the 2017 Confirmit Achievement in Customer Excellence (ACE) Awards, which recognize Confirmit clients who demonstrate innovation in their voice of the customer programs. Some winners of the Judges’ Choice Award include: Ally Financial and Philadelphia Insurance Companies in the Business Impact category; Canon Solutions America, LexisNexis and Survey Sampling International with Orange in the Innovation category; and W5 with eir Business in the Insight through an MR Agency category. A full list of winners can be found on Confirmit’s Web site.
New accounts/projects
Nielsen, New York, has been named to Google’s Marketing Mix Model Partner program, allowing Nielsen to collect Google advertising impression and spend data directly from Google. Collectively, this combines Nielsen’s marketing mix modeling capabilities and Google’s media data, giving advertisers the ability to measure the ROI of their digital investments and understand the drivers of ROI to improve returns year-over-year.
Boston-based consumer insights firm Crimson Hexagon has expanded its participation in the Twitter Official Partnership program, giving the firm complete access to Twitter data products and streams. Crimson Hexagon is also collaborating with Twitter’s product team to bring new co-developed solutions to market and working to identify new ways that Twitter data can help brands and agencies.
Baldwinsville, N.Y., firm Research & Marketing Strategies Inc. has been granted conditional approval from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to conduct the CAHPS for Merit-based Incentive Payment System Survey for the 2017 performance period survey administration. The survey measures 12 key domains of beneficiaries’ experiences of care.
In London, researcher Toluna was named the official survey partner for Cannes Lions 2017. The partnership ran throughout the International Festival of Creativity between June 17-24 in Cannes, France. Toluna’s digital insights platform QuickSurveys was used to administer surveys and provide reporting and insight to attendees.
Oslo, Norway-based researcher Confirmit has been chosen by Naperville, Ill., food distributor KeHE Distributors to power its voice of the customer program. KeHE selected the Confirmit Horizons platform to replace an ad hoc survey tool and allow the company to build a customer experience initiative. Rollout will begin with an online customer relationship survey to help KeHE deliver customer experiences across its distribution network.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
After 14 years as head of marketing for Plymouth, Minn., restaurant chain Davanni’s, veteran researcher Tim Huberty has restarted his own firm, St. Paul-based Huberty Research and Marketing.
Montreal-based voice of the customer solutions firm iPerceptions has consolidated its Audience Recognition and Audience Optimization solutions under the Datacratic brand. Datacratic was acquired by iPerceptions in October 2016 and now operates as an iPerceptions company. The move creates two separate brands: iPerceptions, which maintains its focus on voice of the customer solutions, and Datacratic, which focuses on audience data solutions for digital marketing campaigns and Web site personalization efforts.
Branded Research, San Diego, has introduced its new Branded Insights Department, headed by Kristen Miles. The company will provide clients with custom insights solutions and focus on market segmentation, gaining insights about habits and tastes within specific demographics to provide data to clients and for Branded Research white papers.
Research Partnership, based in London, is expanding its U.S. operations across the West and East Coasts. Director Tom Winter has relocated from London and is opening a new office in San Francisco, while Director Rachel Howard is opening a new office in New York. Winter is supported by Associate Director Birgit Eschmann and Research Manager Will Simpson. Michelle Toennies, senior research executive, and Rebecca D’Orazio, research executive, are both relocating from the Philadelphia office and two local graduates will join the team in June. Howard is supported by Fara Mboge, head of business development, syndicated and tracking services, and Alyssa Pritchard, senior research executive. Two local graduates will also join the New York team in June.
U.K.-based research agency The Source has opened an Australian office in Melbourne, led by Matt Swinson as managing director, who relocated from the London office.
CourtLynn Enterprises Inc. has launched Griffin Wilds, a new market intelligence arm based in Woodbridge, N.J., that works with digital research platforms to create products that uncover key motivators of customers. Senior leadership for Griffin Wilds includes Courteney Wilds as managing partner and Katherine McKeithen as senior associate.
Waban, Mass., research and consulting firm Temkin Group has launched the Customer Experience (CX) Institute, a new division that offers online customer experience training for organizations. The CX Institute will initially offer corporate training, allowing organizations to license training for employees, and individual training.
Warren, N.J.-based researcher Lightspeed has opened a new office in Bangkok. Benchawan Phumphuengsri has been appointed client development manager and will manage local client relationships and operations across Thailand. Lightspeed has also appointed Anis Teh as client development manager in Malaysia.
The Southeastern Institute for Research, Richmond, Va., has rebranded, officially changing its name to SIR and creating a new brand identity that it says represents its evolution from a research-only business to a strategic consulting firm with research capabilities.
Data and analytics firm Ugam, New York, has opened a new office in Chicago to support the company’s growth.
Philadelphia-based branding agency Finch Brands has expanded its market research practice with the launch of FinchSight Research Communities. The expansion will be led by Chief Innovation Officer Tom Finkle. The proprietary platform will offer features like surveys, ideation sessions, live chats, focus groups and journals.
Armonk, N.Y., research firm VeraQuest has relaunched with a new focus on generating low-cost custom research. Specifically, the firm uses survey testing, soft launch and fraudulent respondent detection systems and handles all programming, sample acquisition and field management responsibilities.
Research company earnings/financial news
Nielsen, New York, reported revenues of approximately $1.53 billion for first-quarter 2017, an increase of 2.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016. The company also announced that its board of directors approved an increase in the company’s quarterly dividend of 10 percent to $0.34 per share.
Columbia, Md., marketing agency Merkle reported a net revenue of $560 million for 2016, a 28.7 percent increase over its 2015 revenue of $435 million.
For the first quarter of 2017, Paris-based researcher Ipsos reported revenue of €390.1 million, up 0.8 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016.
India-based researcher MRSS India reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 46.3 million for the year ended March 31, up 146 percent from last year.
For the first three months of 2017, Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK reported a decline in sales and income. In organic terms, consolidated sales were down 2.7 percent, with sales totaling €352 million. Adjusted operating income amounted to €21.6 million, compared to €32.1 million the prior year.
Research software firm Dapresy, headquartered in Sweden, has received support from a new investor, Nordic private equity fund Verdane Capital IX. Funding from the investment will be primarily used for development and support activities for its Dapresy Pro software, which allows users to create and deploy online dashboard reporting solutions for market research and customer experience management.
Seattle-based videoconferencing platform Discuss.io has closed $5.025 million in Series A funding led by Unilever Ventures and Pereg Ventures, bringing the firm’s total funding to $6.35 million. The company says the funding will be used to innovate its platform and expand its engineering and sales teams.