News notes
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. received notice in April of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of consumers by Chicago law firm Edelson McGuire, alleging that comScore “improperly obtained and used personal information from [users'] computers.” Federal Judge James Holderman certified a class of “all individuals who have had, at any time since 2005, downloaded and installed comScore’s tracking software onto their computers via one of comScore’s third-party bundling partners.” Holderman also certified an additional subclass of “all class members not presented with a functional hyperlink to an end-user license agreement before installing comScore’s software onto their computers.”
ComScore maintains that the suit is factually inaccurate and without merit.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc.'s stockholders have voted to approve Arbitron’s acquisition by New York researcher The Nielsen Company.
Separately, Arbitron has reached a settlement agreement with WKYC-TV Inc., Cleveland, to resolve the legal action brought by Arbitron for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and false designation of origin under the Lanham Act.
Arbitron alleged that WKYC-TV copied and distributed its copyrighted audience estimates without permission and that WKYC-TV improperly used Arbitron’s trademarks to create the false impression that non-Arbitron audience estimates for Internet radio service Pandora were genuine Arbitron products.
Atlanta research technology company ActiveGroup Ventures Inc. closed its doors on April 5.
Acquisitions/transactions
New York call center 1-800 We Answer has acquired New York research company TMR Inc.
New York consulting firm Accenture has acquired ChangeTrack Research, Sydney, Australia.
Seattle research company Blink Interactive Inc. has acquired certain assets of the qualitative research services division of The Gilmore Research Group, Seattle. Blink’s new division has been named Northwest Insights and is being managed by Gilmore’s Donna Glosser.
New York research company Ipsos in North America has agreed to sell its theatrical research division, the Motion Picture Group, to a private investment group.
ASL Marketing LLC, Farmingdale, N.Y., has agreed to acquire certain assets of Student Marketing Group to combine both parties' data content, aggregation and analytics of the youth, young adult and student demographics.
National Promotion Reports, New York, has acquired Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., research company Promodata and its food service industry report Volume-Trak.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Fresno, Calif., research company Decipher Inc. and iModerate Research Technologies, Denver, have partnered to integrate iModerate’s qualitative conversation technology into Beacon, Decipher’s survey software platform. The offering will be available to both companies’ clients.
Research companies Focus Pointe Global, Philadelphia, and Mystery Researchers, Atlanta, have formed a strategic alliance under which each company will market the other’s suite of research services.
Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical and Dentsu Marketing Insight Inc., Tokyo, have partnered to offer insight communities in Japan.
TiVo Research and Analytics Inc. (TRA), New York, has agreed to make data from New York researcher The Nielsen Company available as a parallel resource within TRA’s business intelligence data solution for mutual subscribing clients.
Research companies Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA), Pittsburgh, and IRI, Chicago, have partnered to offer the SymphonyIRI AllScan Convenience Store Tracking Service to the convenience distributor community via MarketView on Demand. MSA will act as the exclusive reseller of MarketView on Demand’s projected consumer take-away data.
Awards/rankings
Karri Bass of Illumination Research, Mason, Ohio, has been named the Small Business Owner of the Year for the State of Ohio for 2013 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Small Business Person of the Year is selected based on growth in sales, increase in number of employees, financial strength, innovativeness of product or service and contributions to community-oriented projects.
Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical ranked fourth in the Branham300 list of top-five Canadian software-as-a-service companies by Branham Group Inc., an Ottawa, Canada, marketing company. Vision Critical has also been identified as the 10th top software company and 60th information and communication technology in Canada.
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), New York, has named the winners of its 2013 Great Mind Awards: Jeff Bander of Sticky, Innovation Award; John Dimling of Nielsen Media Research and Net Ratings Inc., Lifetime Achievement Award; Bob Barocci of the ARF, Lifetime Achievement Award; Claudia Perlich of Media6Degrees, Great Mind Innovation Award; The Palmerston Group and Cole & Weber United’s “Project Butterfly: Escaping the Net” campaign, Quality in Research Award; Aurora University’s “Exploring Uncharted Territories: Addressing the Emerging Hispanic Market” research project, GfK Next Generation Award; and Jenny Vandehey of SMG, Rising Star Award.
The ARF’s President’s Award winners were Crystal Barnes, Nielsen; Kelle Coleman, Nielsen; Justine Faeth, ESPN; Lauren George, CBS; Tamara Hood, Viacom Media Networks; Leah McTiernan, Ipsos; Frances Quattrocki, comScore Inc.; Kyle Rondeau, Arbitron Inc.; Becarren Schultz, Ameritest; Nicole Tomei Zwolinski, GfK; Kelly Weikes, Millward Brown; and Jill Wiltfong, Ipsos.
Additionally, the ARF named the winners of the 2013 ARF David Ogilvy Awards, which honor the most innovative, successful and promising advertising research programs: Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You Mom” campaign, Grand Ogilvy Award; ConAgra Foods’ Slim Jim “Man Medicine” campaign, Ogilvy Grand Award for Research Achievement; and The Clorox Company’s “Stronger Stand Against Waste” campaign for Glad, Research Innovation Award.
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit has announced the winners of its 2013 Achievement in Customer Excellence Awards, which recognize companies with outstanding feedback programs and commitment to increased customer, employee and partner satisfaction. A full list of the 45 winners is available at www.confirmit.com/ace-awards.
IModerate Research Technologies, Denver, and Washington, D.C., data services company Catalist won the 2013 Pollie Award from the American Association of Political Consultants, McLean, Va., for best use of technology during the 2012 campaign for their Voter Insider product.
Andrea Schrager of Secaucus, N.J., research company Meadowlands Consumer Center Inc. has been named one of New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business by NJBIZ. The award honors New Jersey’s most dynamic women in business who have been making headlines in their field.
New accounts/projects
Paris research company Ipsos has been awarded an additional year’s contract to track Italian radio audiences using MediaCell, its mobile radio audience measurement system.
The National Association of Pension Funds, London, has selected the London division of Princeton, N.J., research company ORC International to provide a benchmarking portal reporting tool for its annual pensions survey.
The city of Surrey, B.C., has selected Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical to create an online forum open to Surrey residents and business owners. The forum is designed to encourage public engagement and more diversity of opinion on city issues.
Atlanta research company CMI has adopted Westport, Conn., research company Imperium’s suite of security, verification and data quality options.
U.K. data processing bureau Framework has adopted the Beacon survey software platform for its survey programming and reporting needs from Decrypt, the London branch of Fresno, Calif., research company Decipher Inc.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
New York research company GroupM has launched GroupM Multicultural. The division will be led by Gonzalo Del Fa.
Theory House, a Charlotte, N.C., shopper marketing and advertising agency, has opened for business. Research will be among its offerings. Theory House is online at www.theoryhouse.com.
Montreal research company Voxco has launched Semeon Analytics, a Montreal social media monitoring and analytics company. The company is online at www.semeon.com.
Q Research Software, Sydney, Australia, has opened an office in New York at 116 West 23rd St., 5th Floor. Steven Kawalek will lead the operation.
Wellington, New Zealand, research company Information Tools Ltd. has relocated its London office to Soho Square.
Research company earnings/financial news
The Nielsen Company, New York, reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2013. Revenues increased 3 percent to $1,376 million. Net income grew 36 percent to $34 million.
Ipsos, Paris, reported first-quarter 2013 revenue of 359.6 million euros, a 5.3 percent decrease from the same period in 2012.
EasyInsites, Surrey, U.K., reported first-quarter 2013 revenue growth of over 40 percent compared to 2012.
RDA Group, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., announced 2012 revenue of $19.1 million, up 9 percent over 2011.
Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass., announced its intentions to repurchase up to $130 million of its common stock at $32-$36 per share.
WorldOne, New York, has secured $35 million in funding commitments from Deerfield Management Company.