News notes
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has reached a $7 million legal settlement with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union Pension-Annuity Trust Fund regarding an April 2008 case alleging that Arbitron misled investors about the rollout of its Portable People Meter service.
Separately, Arbitron agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a lawsuit with the Attorney General of the State of California, the Los Angeles City Attorney and the San Francisco City Attorney, in which Arbitron was alleged to have underrepresented black and Hispanic listeners in California, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington, D.C., has released Protecting Consumer Privacy, a report in which the FTC reaffirms its support for the development of a browser-based do-not-track online data collection opt-out.
Acquisitions/transactions
Twitter, San Francisco, has acquired social media analytics company Hotspots.io for an undisclosed sum. Hotspots’ staff will join Twitter’s revenue engineering team.
Cambridge, Mass., research company Kantar Retail has agreed to acquire a minority interest in GME FZ LLC, a Dubai, United Arab Emirates, management consultancy.
Washington, D.C., research company Penn Schoen Berland has acquired London research company First Movies International.
Montreal research company Voxco has acquired Paris research company Sypiens to develop mobile applications for its Acuity4 Social, Acuity4 Survey and Command Center solutions.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Miami research company Geoscape and Scarborough Research, New York, have partnered to integrate Scarborough’s PRIME Lingo data resources with the Geoscape Intelligence System. Geoscape subscribers who opt for the PRIME Lingo option will have access to all Scarborough studies, as well as Geoscape’s Hispanicity segmentation.
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. has partnered with data management company i360 to launch i360 Segments, which combine’s i360’s voter data with comScore’s audience segmentation tool Segment Metrix 2.0.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company and New York brand protection company AdSafe Media have agreed to integrate AdSafe’s ad safety ratings, contextual analysis and viewability measurement into Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings.
Paris research company Ipsos and Doha, Qatar, business group Darwish Holding have partnered to open an Ipsos office in Doha, dubbed Ipsos Qatar. Elie Nawar will serve as managing director.
New York research companies BuzzBack and EyeTrackShop have partnered to combine methodologies to allow marketers to evaluate packaging and communications.
Awards/rankings
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association, St. Paul, Minn., has selected a qualitative research study by Layla Shea of Upwords Marketing Solutions and her client, The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, to receive the Qually Award. The award recognizes and promotes excellence in qualitative research on an international level.
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), New York, has announced the winners of the 2012 David Ogilvy Awards, which celebrate the extraordinary and/or creative use of research in the advertising development processes of research firms, advertising agencies and advertisers. Among the winners are Bank of America; Budweiser; Comedy Central; Procter & Gamble’s CoverGirl, Olay and Vick’s; and ConAgra’s Hunt’s, Tassimo and Verizon.
Additionally, the ARF has honored Paris research company Ipsos with two Gold awards and one Quality in Research. For a full list of ARF Great Mind Awards winners visit www.thearf.org/great-mind-12.php.
New accounts/projects
Stockholm, Sweden, research company Cint has expanded its panel exchange platform OpinionHUB in Asia-Pacific with the addition of several partners, including Nepa in Sweden; Tudou in China; and STAR TV Network in India.
Burger King Corp., Miami, Fla., has selected St. Albans, U.K., research company SMG to launch Guest Trac, a U.K. customer experience tracking program.
London research company UKOM has chosen Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. as UKOM’s partner for online media measurement in the U.K. The three-year contract begins in 2013.
Stamford, Conn., research company Repucom International has added Boston research company Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight platform to its client offering.
U.K. TV network ITV has renewed its custom panel contract with Surrey, U.K., research company EasyInsites. ITV has also expanded its Viewback panel to source from and represent viewers of ITV’s daytime programs.
Richmond, Va., farm supply and service cooperative Southern States Cooperative has selected Herndon, Va., research company Vovici’s enterprise feedback management solution to collect customer loyalty data.
Monterrey, Mexico, research company Inmega Investigacion de Mercados has become Montreal research company Voxco’s exclusive distributor of Acuity4 Social in Mexico.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
The Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), an Istanbul, Turkey, research network, has expanded to include ORB in the U.K.; Marktest in Portugal; Motivation in the Netherlands; Romir in Ukraine; PSRC in the Philippines, Infosearch in Thailand; Joshua in Singapore; SRGB in Banglades; and GSC Research in Mozambique.
Palo Alto, Calif., research software company SurveyMonkey has opened an operation in Brazil and named Rodolfo Ohl country manager.
New York research company GroupM has introduced its innovation unit GroupM Next. The division is online at www.groupmnext.com.
Princeton, N.J., research company ORC International has opened an office in Singapore.
Researchers Sean Case, Matthew Ronco, Baillie Buchanan and Carl Sayres have opened Research For Good in Redmond, Wash. The company’s mission is to provide reliable, high-quality respondents while supporting registered charities and not-for-profits by making donations with every survey complete. The company is online at www.researchforgood.com.
Atlanta research company Infosurv Inc. has relocated its office to 980 Hammond Drive, Suite 720, Atlanta. All other contact information will remain the same.
New York research company Millward Brown has opened offices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Lagos, Nigeria.
Miami research company IBOPE Zogby has renamed itself IBOPE Inteligência.
Steve Henke, former president of 20|20 Research, Nashville, Tenn., has launched Harpeth Marketing, a Franklin, Tenn., research consulting firm. The company is online at www.harpethmarketing.com.
Buffalo Communications, a Vienna, Va., public relations company, has launched a research division called Buffalo Strategy Services. Michael Lengel has been appointed to lead the operation.
Elkins Park, Pa., language services company CETRA Language Solutions has opened an office in Limerick, Ireland. CETRA Ireland Ltd. will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CETRA Inc.
Discovery Research Group, Salt Lake City, has launched Focalytic, a Midvale, Utah, research company. Focalytic is online at www.focalytic.com.
Research company earnings/financial news
The Nielsen Company reported first-quarter 2012 revenue growth of 3 percent and net income of $25 million, compared to a net loss of $(181) million in first-quarter 2011.
Tobii Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, has closed a $21 million funding round with investors Intel Capital, Amadeus Capital, Investor Growth Capital and Northzone Ventures. The funding will be used to continue R&D investments in core technology and to take eye-tracking and gaze interaction to mainstream computers and other mass-market applications.