News notes
Nuremberg, Germany, firm GfK confirmed in March that, represented by the Supervisory Board, it has initiated civil proceedings against the former CEO of the group, Klaus WŸbbenhorst, and the former CFO, Christian Weller von Ahlefeld, in the District Court NŸrnberg-FŸrth. The firm is seeking to recover damages in relation to tax irregularities in Turkey that the company already announced in January 2013. A first oral hearing took place in the District Court NŸrnberg-FŸrth. Out-of-court negotiations are being conducted in parallel to the ongoing legal proceedings. The ongoing investigation, which is being conducted with external, independent experts in Turkey and Germany, was initiated by the current management board at the end of 2012. In the opinion of GfK, the defendants breached their supervisory duties due to insufficient oversight. During the time period in which the violations occurred and GfK subsequently incurred the damages, WŸbbenhorst was the board member responsible for Turkey and the chairman of the management board of GfK Turkey. Weller von Ahlefeld was the management board member responsible for financial and control systems during that same time period. These developments have no impact on GfK’s Turkish operations and have not affected clients.
Palo Alto, Calif., online polling firm SurveyMonkey is laying off 100 employees or about 13 percent of its workforce, with layoffs primarily coming from its enterprise sales team.
Reston, Va., firm comScore has been certified as a Validated Digital Advertising Assurance Provider through the Trustworthy Accountability Group Anti-Piracy program, which helps keep brands safe from appearing on sites with questionable activity such as pirated content.
Acquisitions/transactions
New York-based research firm Millward Brown has agreed to acquire the business operations of Analytics Quotient, a marketing analytics company based in India. The Analytics Quotient leadership team and its approximately 400 employees will become part of Millward Brown Analytics and continue to be led by Pritha Choudhuri, Analytics Quotient CEO and a company founder.
New York social media marketing firm Clickable has acquired San Francisco-based analytics platform Talkwheel.
Van Nuys, Calif., data collection firm ISA, a sister company of Los Angeles-based research and data analytics firm Lieberman Research Worldwide (LRW), has acquired Austin, Texas, communities platform icanmakeitbetter and its parent company Sentient Services. Both LRW and ISA will offer online communities to their clients. This is the first in a planned series of acquisitions that the LRW group of companies will make related to its decision in 2015 to partner with and take on growth capital from Tailwind Capital Partners. Paul Janowitz, founder and CEO of icanmakeitbetter, and the current management team will continue on in their current roles at Sentient.
Columbia, Md., performance marketing agency Merkle has acquired Comet Global Consulting, a U.K.- based customer solutions firm. This is the third and largest European acquisition in less than a year for Merkle.
Nielsen, New York, has completed its acquisition of Pointlogic, a Netherlands-based software firm. The acquisition further extends Nielsen’s data and planning assets across its Watch and Buy divisions and advances the adoption of Nielsen Total Audience data, including Digital/Total Ad Ratings and Digital/Total Content Ratings around the world. The acquisition provides the opportunity for Pointlogic to strengthen and better leverage the company’s product portfolio.
San Jose, Calif., user experience research platform UserZoom has acquired Mountain View, Calif., research technology company YouEye.
San Antonio-based marketing services firm Harte Hanks has acquired marketing consulting firm Aleutian Consulting Inc., which will operate as Harte Hanks Consulting. Purchase details were not disclosed but Harte Hanks expects this transaction to be accretive to 2016 performance. In conjunction with the acquisition, Harte Hanks has opened a new office in downtown Denver to accommodate Aleutian’s Denver-based consulting staff and Denver-based Harte Hanks employees.
Nielsen, New York, has completed its acquisition of India-based mobile usage measurement firm Informate Mobile Intelligence. The acquisition will help Nielsen enhance its measurement portfolio in the mobile space in markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa. The acquisition’s primary objective is to enable Nielsen’s Total Audience measurement strategy in developing and international markets.
Rhinebeck, N.Y., marketing services firm Phoenix Marketing International has acquired Sterling Research Group to expand its existing customer experience offerings. The division has been branded Phoenix Sterling and will be run by Leslie Martin, managing director. Sterling’s offices will remain in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Media organization The New York Times Company has acquired HelloSociety, a Santa Monica, Calif., digital marketing agency and portfolio company of start-up incubator Science Inc. The acquisition will integrate HelloSociety’s tools, talent and approach into the service suite of T Brand Studio, the Times Company’s content agency. The acquisition was an all-cash transaction that closed on March 11.
Media and digital communications company Dentsu Aegis Network, London, has acquired digital data analytics firm Cardinal Path, which is co-headquartered in Chicago and Vancouver.
San Francisco-based app intelligence platform App Annie has acquired San Francisco app marketing data company AppScotch. This is App Annie’s third acquisition in two years.
Quincy, Mass., digital solutions firm Propel Marketing has acquired Cambridge, Mass., marketing platform ThriveHive.
Alliances/strategic partnership
New York-based media brand Viacom and Reston, Va., firm comScore have formed a multi-year partnership for cross-platform measurement, marking the first cross-platform deal for the newly-merged comScore and Rentrak. Viacom will have access to comScore’s set of cross-platform measurement tools and demographic capabilities, which span the linear TV, video-on-demand, digital and over-the-top environments. In turn, the data will be translated by Viacom’s proprietary suite of Vantage advertising products and available for use as a currency for transacting, providing value to marketing partners by delivering a complete view of the consumer in the industry.
San Jose, Calif., firm Adobe and Reston, Va., firm comScore have formed a global strategic partnership to provide new insights into the media consumption behaviors of digital audiences. The partnership will deliver cross-device audience measurement of video and ad content, providing insight into consumer viewing behaviors for better media planning and buying. Through the partnership, comScore is incorporating new Adobe Certified Metrics, standardized digital census data built on the Adobe Platform and powered by Adobe Analytics, into its Cross Media, Audience and Advertising Product Suites. In addition, Adobe will integrate comScore audience data, including demographics, for Adobe Marketing Cloud customers.
GfK, Nuremberg, Germany, and Singapore-based audience data firm Eyeota have formed a partnership, making GfK’s regional purchasing power data available to advertisers in the United Kingdom and Europe, allowing them to tailor their online advertising to specific income target groups by region. Eyeota will protect consumers’ privacy by providing only anonymous user profile data linked with separate, region-based statistical target group data. With Eyeota’s data digitalization capability, media buyers can access digital audience information the same way they do for offline media. The partnership consolidates several GfK data sets in one single source, enabling advertisers to tailor their pan-European campaigns on a regional basis for their online target audiences.
Shelton, Conn., research firm SSI and AccorHotels, a France-based hotel operator, have launched Club Opinions, a new loyalty rewards program. The initial phase of the program targets Le Club AccorHotels loyalty members in Australia, Brazil, China, Germany and the United States. Le Club AccorHotels will provide SSI and its clients access to international business travelers and Le Club AccorHotels members who enroll in the Club Opinions program will earn points by participating in surveys and sharing their opinions.
Association/organization news
In a note to members updating them on the proposed merger of the two organizations, CASRO and MRA indicated that their respective boards of directors have agreed to a letter of intent to accelerate planning to combine their resources. Detailed information will be provided to members over the next few months so that all members in good standing can be well-informed to vote regarding the establishment of this new association. While CASRO and MRA are committed to continuing their own services, events and initiatives throughout 2016, the boards and staffs also will be working to develop the framework and member benefits for the new association.
CASRO representatives met in March with leaders from Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Austria and other nations in London at the TC225 Meeting on Market Opinion and Social Research to discuss updating the ISO 26362 access panel standard. Also on the agenda was the new draft ISO standard for digital analytics and Web analyses.
Awards/rankings
The American Marketing Association Foundation has named Cait Lamberton, associate professor of business administration and Ben L. Fryrear Faculty Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, as the recipient of the 2016 Erin Anderson Award. Lamberton received the award at the AMA Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference in Las Vegas. Recipients are chosen based on the impact of their research publications and on the degree to which they exceed expectations in mentoring doctoral students and junior faculty members.
The American Marketing Association, N.Y. Chapter has selected the following as 2016 inductees to its Marketing Hall of Fame: Bob Greenberg, founder, chairman/CEO of New York digital agency R/GA; John Hayes, former CMO of American Express and marketing strategist/author Al Ries.
The Advertising Research Foundation, New York, announced the winners of the 2016 David Ogilvy Awards, which celebrate the role of findings that inspire great advertising. The Grand Ogilvy Award was given to NestlŽ Lean Cuisine for its #WeighThis campaign. The following campaigns were all Gold winners: In the Big Data category: Big Data Decisions Drive Lifecycle Marketing by Warner Bros. Pan. In the Creative Effectiveness category: #WhoWillYouHelp by Ontario Women’s Directorate. In the Cross-Platform category: United We Grill by Kingsford Charcoal. In the Innovation category: “Flying Ragweed” and “Green Fields” by Ragwitek and Grastek. In the Media category: Boeing Innovation Series by Boeing. In the Mobile category: The Impact of Native Mobile Video Ads on Key Brand Metrics by Opera Mediaworks and comScore. In the New Audiences category: Finish It by truth. In the Social Media category: #WeighThis by NestlŽ Lean Cuisine.
Belgium-based researcher InSites Consulting has received the GOR Best Practice Award for its Insight Activation Studio SaaS solution by the German Online Research Association. The award recognizes the best of innovation in research.
Magid Abraham, chairman and co-founder of Reston, Va., firm comScore, received the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Great Mind Awards series. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant and fundamental contributions to the research industry.
Jupiter, Fla., research firm Quick Test/Heakin announced that it was a contributing agency to two Shopper Marketing Effie (SME) Awards, which were presented at the Path to Purchase Institute’s Shopper Marketing Summit Awards Celebration in March. In the Multi-Brand Shopper Solution category, Walmart and Starcom MediaVest Group won a Silver SME for “Chosen by Kids,” along with contributing agencies Shopper Events, The Martin Agency, OneKreate and Quick Test. And in the Seasonal/Event category, Walmart and Starcom MediaVest Group won a Gold SME for “Chosen by Kids,” with contributing agencies Shopper Events, The Martin Agency, OneKreate and Quick Test. Quick Test provided respondent recruiting, event staffing and management for the event, interviewing 1,000+ children for the kid-curated Top Toys list.
New accounts/projects
Nielsen, New York, and Studio City, Calif., media production company Crown Media Family Networks have expanded their relationship to provide advertisers new services. The additional service licenses include N-Score, Nielsen Buyer Insights and Nielsen Catalina Solutions’ AdVantics Rx, powered by Crossix. These new capabilities enable Crown Media to provide agency and advertising clients with greater insights into their audience and deliver a value proposition that turns viewing data into revenue metrics.
India-based research and analytics firm Cross-Tab Group has signed a multi-year mandate worth up to $25 million with London-based researcher Kantar Group. In accordance with the agreement, Cross-Tab would operate as the strategic outsourcing partner for Kantar in India for a period of four years. Cross-Tab Group will also launch a dedicated services, innovation and incubation facility in India exclusively for Kantar, which will provide a range of services including testing new technologies and methodologies and developing technology-based solutions for automation and value addition. The firm has started hiring more staff for the new facility.
Nielsen, New York, and Capitol Broadcasting Co., Raleigh, N.C., have signed a renewal agreement for Nielsen’s local television measurement service. The agreement provides Capitol Broadcasting with continued access to Nielsen local TV ratings and renews its licenses to Nielsen Scarborough and Nielsen Local TV View (NLTV). Scarborough provides stations with local market qualitative insights into consumers’ consumption, lifestyle, shopping and media habits. With NLTV, local stations can analyze viewing within and across their coverage area. Additionally, NLTV enables Capitol Broadcasting to create custom trade areas to better understand its target audience as well as customized audience samples by key characteristics.
Boise, Idaho, grocery chain Albertsons Companies has selected Chicago-based researcher IRI as its preferred partner for point-of-sale data, consumer panel insights and strategic growth initiatives to support joint business collaboration. Under the agreement, IRI will become Albertsons Companies’ preferred insights provider of category hierarchy and geographies data, which will help the grocer create a single source of truth for shopper and market information. IRI will also facilitate collaboration between Albertsons Companies and its manufacturer partners. For Albertsons’ manufacturer partners, the partnership provides access to data sets from the 18 banners that make up Albertsons Companies for increased ability to drive growth.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK is further developing the setup of the North America business. The business currently consists of two separate sectors, which are being more closely combined under the One GfK strategy. The result will enable GfK to offer its range of services in North America in a more integrated manner. Gary Cofer has been appointed as the new lead for the joint North America business. Following similar integration in other countries, GfK is bringing both the Consumer Choices and Consumer Experiences sectors in North America closer together. Previously, GfK’s North America business was led by David Krajicek (for the Consumer Experiences sector) and Tom Dailey (for the Consumer Choices sector). Krajicek has been member of the management board of GfK since the beginning of the year and Dailey is taking over a global leadership role in GfK’s Operations.
Norwalk, Conn., analytics and data management firm Marketing Management Analytics has opened a new office in London. The office will be led by Managing Director of EMEA Nigel Foote.
Branford, Conn., firm Touchstone Research Inc. is expanding its Youth & Family qualitative in-person and online services to cover key geographic regions across the United States.
Piscataway, N.J., research solutions and data collection firm Azure Knowledge Corporation has opened a new office in London. The firm also has plans to set up offices in Moscow, Sao Paulo and Shanghai in the future.
Chapel Hill, N.C., firm FGI Research & Analytics (FGI) and Greensboro, N.C., marketing services firm Web Decisions Group (WDG) have merged to form Data Decisions Group, which will offer services such as consumer data and lists, customer panels and insight communities, research and analytics (segmentation, descriptive, predictive) and more. Mike Hail, CEO of WDG, will assume the same role at Data Decisions Group. David Wilson, CEO of FGI, will serve as president and COO, David Schneider will serve as EVP, business development and Dino Fire will serve as chief science officer.
London-based communications group WPP’s Data Alliance is expanding into Indonesia to meet demand from local agencies and clients to leverage data, with a focus on social, e-commerce and mobile. Indonesia is the fourth major market to launch Data Alliance, following India, Sub-Saharan Africa and North America. The Data Alliance Indonesia chapter is being championed by GroupM’s Mindshare, MediaCom, Maxus and MEC, Kantar Worldpanel, Millward Brown and TNS, as well as OgilvyOne, Grey, JWT and Kinetic. Data Alliance Indonesia will be led by Country Head Wijaya Santoso and will be aligned with WPP’s Data Alliance headquarters in New York.
Englewood, Colo., data and analytics firm IHS and London-based financial information services firm Markit have agreed to combine in an all-share merger valued at $13 billion to form IHS Markit, an information, analytics and solutions firm. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each company. The new firm will be headquartered in London and have certain key operations based in Englewood, Colo. IHS shareholders will own approximately 57 percent and Markit shareholders will own approximately 43 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. Jerre Stead, IHS chairman and CEO, will assume the role of chairman of the board of directors and CEO of IHS Markit. Lance Uggla, chairman and CEO of Markit, will be president and a member of the board of directors. The board of directors of the combined company will be comprised of 11 members, with IHS designating six members (including the chairman) and Markit designating five members (including the lead director) from their current boards.
Research company earnings/financial news
Crimson Hexagon, a Boston-based social media analysis software provider, has raised $20 million in growth equity financing in a round led by Sageview Capital. The funding enables the firm to add capabilities to its solution while also expanding its global sales and marketing team and infrastructure.
Columbia, Md., marketing agency Merkle has reported net revenue of $435 million, a 14 percent increase over 2014 revenue of $382 million.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., mobile video insights and technology company NAILBITER Inc. has reported revenue growth of 178 percent in Q4 2015, its first quarter-on-quarter performance.
U.K.-based pharmaceutical and consumer strategic marketing group Cello Group plc has reported £157.3 million in revenue for 2015, a decrease from £169.9 million in 2014. Gross profits were up 7 percent to £86.7 million compared to £81 million in 2014.
U.K. research agency BrainJuicer released its financial results for the year ending December 31, 2015. Revenue grew 2 percent (3 percent in constant currency) to £25.18 million compared to £24.65 million in 2014. The firm also saw 4 percent gross profit growth to £20.25 million compared to £19.41 million in the previous year.