News notes
A jury in an Omaha, Neb., federal court has awarded data and marketing solutions company Infogroup $53.6 million and found that former CEO Vinod Gupta and his company Database101 (DB101), as well as its various divisions – AtoZdatabases, Infofree and DatabaseUSA – violated various federal laws and contractual obligations. Gupta and DB101 were found liable on all seven counts including infringement of Infogroup’s database copyright and trademarks, unfair competition, false advertising and breach of various contracts.
SVMK Inc., parent company of San Mateo, Calif., firm SurveyMonkey, has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. SurveyMonkey has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SVMK.
The board of directors for Nielsen, New York, has expanded the scope of its strategic review of its Buy segment to include a review of strategic alternatives for the company and its businesses. The expanded review is being led by James Attwood, executive chairman of the board, and includes an assessment of options, including continuing to operate as a public, independent company; a separation of either Nielsen’s Buy or Watch segment; or a sale of the company. Nielsen says there can be no assurance that the review will result in a specific transaction or other alternative and has not set a timetable for completion of the review.
Acquisitions/transactions
Market research company Macromill Inc., Tokyo, has recently acquired U.S.-based research agency Acturus, purchased neuromarketing company Centan and procured of a 51 percent stake in Tokyo Survey Research from Hakuhodo.
Research companies Schlesinger Group, Iselin, N.J., and Shapiro+Raj, Chicago, have agreed to transition the Shapiro+Raj qualitative fieldwork practice to Schlesinger Group. Susan Stanicek of Shapiro+Raj’s qualitative fieldwork practice, along with her team, will continue to service clients and their projects as Schlesinger Group employees. Stanicek has been appointed VP, client solutions for Schlesinger Chicago.
Nielsen, New York, has completed its acquisition of SuperData Research, a digital games market intelligence company. Intelligence provided by SuperData will enhance the capabilities of Nielsen Games and Nielsen Esports. The acquisition will give clients greater access to global market intelligence around digital video gaming use, sales and audiences.
Stamford, Conn., research company Gartner has sold its CEB Challenger Sales Training business to Marlin Equity Partners. Challenger provides a suite of professional skills development, intelligence and workflow solutions that are underpinned by the research-based Challenger and Effortless Experience sales and marketing methodologies. Additionally, analytics solutions firm Explorance has agreed to acquire Metrics That Matter (MTM), which is being divested from Gartner. MTM provides learning and development data and analytics solutions for the corporate market.
Los Angeles-based consumer insights company MarketCast Group has acquired Turnkey Intelligence, a sports research and advisory firm headquartered in the Philadelphia area. Turnkey Intelligence will work in collaboration with Fizziology, a social media analytics and insights firm acquired by MarketCast last year, to provide sports and brand clients with sponsorship and fan experience insights.
Chicago-based research consultancy Shapiro+Raj has acquired its creative partner Wygant & Co., a strategic ideas agency based in Baltimore. Wygant & Co. Principal Jeffrey Wygant will join Shapiro+Raj as senior vice president of strategic ideas.
Paris-based communications company Havas Group has invested in Miami-based multicultural agency Republica. The agency will be renamed Republica Havas and will remain headquartered in Miami, with expansion plans to other U.S. markets including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The agency will continue to be led by Republica Chairman and CEO Jorge A. Plasencia, President Luis Casamayor and their executive team.
Paris-based researcher Ipsos has successfully completed the merger clearance per the agreement with Nuremberg, Germany, research company GfK to acquire four global divisions of the GfK custom research business: customer experience; experience innovation; health; and public affairs. The acquisition was announced on July 30 and was conditional to mandatory clearances from relevant anti-trust authorities in the 26 countries that are in the scope of the agreement with GfK.
Market and customer insights company Maru Group, London, has acquired Lissted, a social listening software. The software allows users to identify key influencers in relevant online communities, gain real-time insights from social media conversations and engage with targeted clients and customers. It will be integrated into Maru and enhance the company’s capabilities.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Market research company Macromill Inc., Tokyo, has formed a strategic partnership and capital alliance with W&S in Southeast Asia.
Staples Center and Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles are joining forces with analytics firm E15 to launch a voice of the customer program to measure all aspects of the guest experiences at both venues. The program will allow Staples Center and Microsoft Theater to better understand what is important to guests and respond to and improve their experience.
Los Angeles-based research platform Fuel Cycle has formed a strategic partnership with UX insights company UserZoom. UserZoom’s platform, which allows organizations to conduct usability tests, will be coupled with Fuel Cycle’s online research communities, providing UX insights to UserZoom customers. The partnership allows Fuel Cycle clients to use various UX methodologies to optimize the UX of any digital product at any stage.
San Francisco-based research technology platform AYTM (Ask Your Target Market) has formed a partnership with Michigan State University and its Master of Science in Marketing Research (MSMR) program at the Eli Broad College of Business. AYTM will join the MSU MSMR advisory board and sponsor student access to its survey platform and global panel.
London-based researcher YouGov and U.K. software company RealityMine have signed a three-year global agreement for RealityMine behavioral data to be integrated into YouGov’s data products and custom client projects. The agreement allows YouGov Profiles to report consumers’ video usage across mobile, tablets and PCs as well as Web and app usage metrics, allowing media planners to target Netflix and Amazon Video users based on their actual viewing behaviors and media owners to gain insights into impact of SVOD on their audiences and distribution channels.
Stockholm-based music streaming service Spotify and Nielsen, New York, have expanded their relationship to include the adoption of Nielsen Brand Effect across Spotify in the U.S., Germany, Canada, Mexico, U.K., Spain, France, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. This will allow marketers to measure and optimize their national advertising on Spotify and gain a better understanding of how their ads resonate and affect brand lift with their target audience.
Provo, Utah, software firm Qualtrics has expanded its strategic partnership with research company Kantar to provide employee experience insights by combining Qualtrics’ Employee Experience solution with Kantar TNS’ consulting service and experience.
Reston, Va., firm comScore has formed a partnership with Adobe that allows marketers to achieve more relevant advertising via contextual targeting through Adobe Advertising Cloud. The pre-bid targeting solution uses comScore’s proprietary technology to help brands reach customers in more appropriate environments without the use of cookie-based information.
Association/organization news
The Insights Association, Washington, D.C., has named new members to the board of its international chapter. Raj Manocha, executive vice president of Delvinia, will serve as chair. Joining him are Peter Costa, vice president of client services at Protobrand, and Anne Brown, CEO of Gazelle Global Research Services.
The Marketing Research Education Foundation (MREF) added two to its board of directors: Susan Waltman, Ipsos global president, and Tim Urmston, founder and CEO of Seek Company. The addition of Waltman and Urmston brings the total number of MREF board members to seven.
Barbara Murrer, senior director of marketplace insights for Levi Strauss & Co., has been named chairperson of the board for the Advertising Research Foundation. She succeeds Jed Meyer, director, brand measurement for Google, who has held the position since 2016.
Costa Mesa, Calif., research company J.D. Power has joined The Internet of Things Consortium as a strategic participant. The consortium is a business development association for the Internet of things ecosystem.
Awards/rankings
Los Angeles-based nonprofit Women in Research (WIRe) announced a shortlist of 11 finalists for the WIRe Best Places to Work Award, which aims to raise awareness for companies promoting diversity in the workplace. The shortlist of finalists, in alphabetical order, are: BuzzBack; C-Space; EMI Research Solutions; FreshMinds; Greenberg Strategy; Hall and Partners; Jigsaw Research; Kantar; Orchidea Research Group; SKIM; and Watermelon Research.
The Behavioural Recruitment service by U.K. research company Liveminds has won the Market Research Society Operations Award for best support service.
Canada-based customer intelligence software firm Vision Critical has named its 2018 Visionary Award winners. The awards recognize companies that demonstrate customer-centric decision-making and using intelligence to improve performance in product innovation, customer experience and marketing. The winners include: Red Bull, Marketing Visionary Award; Jam City, New Community of the Year Award; VMware, Product Innovation Award; Twitch, Business Transformation Award; and Cleveland Clinic, Customer Experience Award.
New accounts/projects
U.K.-based online survey panel Panelbase will be sponsoring the fieldwork for the second Project Beauty survey, which will provide insight into how Britons feel about beauty. The survey will be completed this autumn from a sample of over 2,000 respondents.
DISH Media Sales has selected Nielsen, New York, to provide digital measurement on Sling TV and data segments for addressable advertising across DISH TV and Sling TV inventory. Additionally, DISH Media Sales will allow marketers to tailor their advertising using Nielsen Buyer Insights and Nielsen Catalina Solutions across DISH TV and Sling TV to deliver ad viewership based on consumer purchasing behavior.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
University College Oxford in Oxford, England, has established a research center for blockchain research under the leadership of Professor Bill Roscoe. Roscoe, along with a group of experts, is working to improve the efficiency of blockchain mining and trust models, to build new models of privacy and escrow in the blockchain and to create models of fair exchange to support secure blockchain-based exchanges.
The National Centre for Social Research, based in London, has launched its new methodology and innovation hub, led by Director of Methods Gerry Nicolaas. The hub will provide best practice advice, facilitate innovation in social research methods and develop methodologies that are embedded within the practice of conducting social research.
Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is investing around USD $1 billion to open its first data center in Asia. The company says it expects the 11-story building, located in Singapore, will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy and will incorporate a StatePoint Liquid Cooling system, which minimizes water and power consumption.
London-based research company Euromonitor International has expanded its research capability to 20 additional countries, bringing its total coverage to 100 countries.
U.K. research consultancy FreshMinds has rebranded as Decidedly.
Belgium-based multisensory research consultancy Haystack has opened a new office in New York, commercially led by insights professional Baileigh Allen.
Research Now SSI, based in Plano, Texas, has added employees in Romania, the Netherlands and Bulgaria and has moved to new locations in each city to accommodate current and future growth. In Timisoara, Romania, the company has added 54 new employees, primarily in data processing, survey programming and panel support, bringing the total number of employees there to 160. In Rotterdam, Netherlands, the company has added eight employees in project management, sales and finance for a total of 56. In Sofia, Bulgaria, 28 of the total 50 employees are new hires that have been made since the beginning of the year, predominantly in project management.
Research company earnings/financial news
Enterprise feedback management company Questback reported a 270 percent increase in new U.K. license sales and 38 percent growth in U.K. revenues for the first half of 2018 under the guidance of John Wilkinson, the recently appointed general manager for the U.K.