News notes
Following last year’s imprisonment of Karen Forcade of Youth Research, Tampa, Fla., for falsifying data in connection with child safety tests on cigarette lighters made or imported for sale in the U.S. from 1994 to 2005, Joyce Serventi, president of the New Jersey corporation contracted to do the testing for Youth Research, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy. On August 1, Serventi was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.
On August 4 the District of Columbia’s Board of Pharmacy approved revisions to its regulations to broadly exempt market research from Washington, D.C.’s physician payment reporting statute. The decision clears the way for pharmaceutical market research to return to Washington and marks the successful conclusion of a six-month lobbying effort by the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, Port lobbying effort by the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, Port Jefferson, N.Y.
The revisions exempt payments made to health care practitioners for participation in market research from the reporting requirements of the AccessRx Act if the market research is conducted by an independent survey research organization; the pharmaceutical client does not know the identity of the practitioners who participate in the research; and the payments are determined and made directly by the survey research organization.
Johnson City, Tenn., research company Smarty Pants LLC has settled a trademark infringement dispute with SmartyPants Research Services LLC, Washington. Smarty Pants LLC claimed that SmartyPants Research Services LLC violated its prior and superior rights to use the “Smarty Pants” trademark in the field of marketing and market research. According to the terms of the settlement agreement, SmartyPants Research Services LLC has discontinued use of the Smarty Pants mark or likeness in all forms and transferred ownership of eight Web site domains, including SmartyPantsResearch.com and SmartyPants-Marketing.com to trademark owners Smarty Pants LLC.
Waltham, Mass., marketing software company Affinnova Inc. has been awarded its sixth patent for marketing innovation from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C., for its “method and system for predicting personal preferences.”
Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive has announced plans to close its Asian operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai and to reduce its staff in the U.K. by 50 full-time employees, according to a July 20 article in the Rochester Business Journal.
Additionally, Harris Interactive plans to consolidate its leased premises in Norwalk, Conn.; Portland, Ore.; and Brentford, U.K.
Infogroup, an Omaha, Neb., research company, has laid off 140 employees companywide, according to a June 30 report in the Omaha World-Herald.
The GfK Group, a Nuremberg, Germany, research company, has unveiled a new corporate strategy starting January 1, 2012. GfK will focus its businesses and consolidate its portfolio into two new sectors: Consumer Choices and Consumer Experiences. The Consumer Choices sector will focus on market sizing, market currencies and convergent media and sales channels and the Consumer Experiences sector will concentrate on consumers’ attitudes and behavior. The two sectors will deploy new global and regional teams.
Acquisitions/transactions
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. has agreed to acquire AdXpose, a Seattle verification company, for total consideration of $22 million in a primarily stock-based transaction.
Melville, N.Y., research company Verint Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire Dulles, Va., research company Vovici. The companies plan to launch a Verint-Vovici voice-of-the-customer solution.
Cincinnati marketing company Empower MediaMarketing has acquired Cincinnati research company Market Intelligence Group. The combined entity will form Empower’s Market Intelligence Practice.
San Francisco research company Webtrends has acquired Culver City, Calif., research company Reinvigorate to offer analytics for mobile, social and Web channels as a real-time solution.
Washington, D.C., research company M3 USA has acquired Doctors.net.uk, an Oxon, U.K., network of physicians.
Oslo, Norway, research company QuestBack AS has acquired and will merge with Cologne, Germany, research company Globalpark.
London market research network Aegis Group PLC has sold Chicago research company Synovate to Paris research company Ipsos for £525 million.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has acquired Espoo, Finland, research company Zokem Oy. Zokem will operate as Arbitron Mobile, led by Zokem founder and CEO Hannu Verkasalo.
Toronto research company LoyaltyOne has expanded in India with an investment in Mumbai, India, research company Direxions Global Solutions Private Ltd. While financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, LoyaltyOne secured its equity stake for an investment of less than $5 million, with an option to increase its ownership stake and financial investment gradually.
JWT North America, a New York research company, has acquired Lunchbox LP, a Los Angeles research company. Lunchbox will retain its name, operations and staff.
Omaha, Neb., research company Infogroup has sold Princeton, N.J., research firm, ORC International to Lake Capital Management, a Chicago private equity firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
London research company Populus Data Solutions has acquired an 85-seat call center from SPA Future Thinking, a U.K. research company, and signed an agreement with the firm naming it preferred supplier of telephone research services. The call center is based in Newcastle.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has acquired 100 percent of Berkeley, Calif., research company NeuroFocus. NeuroFocus will continue to be led by founder and CEO A.K. Pradeep.
Additionally, Nielsen and GfK MRI, a New York research company, have each acquired 25 percent of Media Behavior Institute, a New York research company, to support the launch of USA TouchPoints, a cross-media research service.
Finally, Nielsen has acquired Marketing Analytics, an Evanston, Ill., research company. Marketing Analytics’ 52 employees will join the Nielsen team and Nielsen will acquire all other assets including software and ongoing client projects. Marketing Analytics will be rebranded as Nielsen Marketing Analytics. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
New York research company StrategyOne has acquired Rochester, N.Y., research company PluggedIN. The firm will operate as StrategyOne, including a PluggedIN Communities team.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group has acquired Bangkok, Thailand, research company MarketWise. GfK has also increased its stake in Long Beach, Calif., data company Etilize to 75 percent. GfK Retail and Technology has completed a 100 percent acquisition of market research company GfK-MEMRB Marketing Services in Cyprus. In addition, GfK Retail and Technology Baltic has established a retail panel in Belarus.
Menlo Park, Calif., research company Knowledge Networks (KN) has acquired Garcia Research Associates (GRA), Burbank, Calif. GRA will maintain its home office in Burbank and allow KN access to its operations center in Tijuana, Mexico.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Exmovere Holdings Inc., a McLean, Va., biomedical engineering company, has partnered with Luth Research, San Diego. The agreement provides ways to develop and implement physiology-based questions and analysis using Exmovere’s algorithms and methods of emotion detection.
Chicago research company Synovate has integrated its global analytic and strategic business units Marketing Management Analytics and Synovate Management Analytics. The single unit will be branded as MMA.
Atlanta research company AboutFace Consulting Corporation has joined the Customer Experience Professionals Association, a Wakefield, Mass., trade group.
India outsourcing company WNS has renewed its contract with London research company Kantar.
Sands Research Inc., El Paso, Texas, and Brain Intelligence Neuro-Consultancy Ltd., Beijing, have partnered to establish a neuromarketing alliance in China and globally.
Research companies Survey Sampling International, Shelton, Conn., and Opinionology, Orem, Utah, have received regulatory approval to unite under the SSI brand.
Research companies nViso, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Gordon & McCallum, Sydney, Australia, have partnered to implement nViso’s emotional response technology in the market research sector.
Association/organization news
The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), Port Jefferson, N.Y., and ESOMAR, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, have partnered to develop an online sample quality standard.
Additionally, CASRO has drafted its Social Media Research Guidelines to provide an ethical framework for research work performed within the formats, behavior systems, terminologies and varied privacy expectations of the social media space.
The Market Research Association, Washington, D.C., has welcomed amendments made to the Safe Data Act, a data security bill that threatened to give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington, D.C., wide-ranging powers over the definition of personal information. The revision prevents FTC rulemaking authority on data minimization provisions.
Awards/rankings
Harris Kaplan, CEO of Healogix, a Horsham, Pa., research consultancy, has been honored as one of the PharmaVOICE 100, an annual list from PharmaVOICE magazine of the most inspiring people in the life science industry.
Encino, Calif., research company uSamp has been named one of the best places to work in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. USamp was ranked fifth of 75 finalists in the medium-size companies category, which includes businesses with 25-to-249 employees. Companies were evaluated based on workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics and according to a survey that measured the employee experience.
Steven H. Cohen, co-founder and partner of Needham, Mass., research company In4mation Insights, has been named the recipient of the 2011 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award from the American Marketing Association, New York. The award recognizes Cohen’s contributions and dedication to the ongoing advancement of marketing research practice.
Research companies The Pert Group, Farmington, Conn., and Vision Critical, Vancouver, B.C., made their inaugural appearance in the 2011 Honomichl Top 50 Report of the top 50 revenue-generating marketing research firms operating in the U.S.
Digital Research Inc., Kennebunk, Maine, has won the Gazelle Company of the Year Award from TechMaine: The Technology Association of Maine. The award honors the company’s contributions to the state’s technology sectors.
New accounts/projects
Frankfurt, Germany, online retailer OTTO and The BBC, London, have adopted Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc.’s Digital Analytix platform.
Chicago research company SymphonyIRI Group has been selected by Walmart, Bentonville, Ark., to introduce Customer Advantage, a next-generation, Web-based shopper insights and collaborative planning platform. The platform will be powered by SymphonyIRI’s Liquid Data technology and analytics.
London research company TNS has been awarded the Flash Eurobarometer contract by the European Commission and European Parliament. This is a four-year contract with a potential budget of 60 million euros.
Cambridge, Mass., research company Crimson Hexagon has selected the United Talent Agency (UTA), Beverly Hills, Calif., for representation and has added the agency to its client roster. UTA will advise the firm on business development in the entertainment and media sector as part of Crimson Hexagon’s expansion strategy.
Maritz Research, St. Louis, has adopted Westport, Conn., research company Imperium’s RelevantID digital fingerprinting technology for fraud prevention.
Stockholm, Sweden, research company Cint has added the National Union of Students and Student Beans in the U.K. and the W5 Student Panel in Ireland to its student panel base.
Additionally, U.K. research company Snap Surveys as implemented Cint Direct Sample for access to six million panelists worldwide.
London research company Kantar has adopted San Francisco research company MarketTools Inc.’s TrueSample platform as its validation solution for all U.S. online consumer survey-based research.
Walmart, Bentonville, Ark., has selected New York researcher The Nielsen Company to receive and analyze sales information from Walmart’s U.S. stores. The agreement marks Walmart’s return to the consumer packaged goods industry’s information-sharing model.
CNN, New York, has renewed its five-year partnership with ORC International, a Princeton, N.J., research company, on the CNN|ORC International poll.
Harmon Research Group, Ananheim, Calif., has selected Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC, an Austin, Texas, research company, as its survey software platform.
Scarborough Research, New York, has extended its relationship with Starcom MediaVest Group Inc. (SMV), Chicago, and ZenithOptimedia (ZO), London, to help guide local media planning, buying activities and communications planning projects for SMV and ZO.
Additionally, SMV and ZO have renewed their multi-year ratings and software contract with Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. The contract provides access to the monthly reports in all Portable People Meter markets, data reports for all diary markets, as well as RADAR, Nationwide and TAPSCAN Web services.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit has opened a subsidiary in Cologne, Germany. The division is online at www.confirmit.com/de.
Framingham, Mass., research company Kadence International has opened 55 more offices across India.
Leger Marketing, a Montreal, Quebec, research company, has launched Leger Analytics, a division dedicated to statistical and modeling consulting. Chuck Chakrapani, president of Leger Marketing’s Toronto office, will lead the division.
Lightspeed Research, Warren, N.J., has expanded its presence in Hong Kong and moved into new office space in the city’s Quarry Bay section.
Boston research company Compete expanded its research into Europe, beginning with the U.K. and France.
Farmington Hills, Mich., research company Morpace Inc. has opened an office in Shanghai, China, naming Tong Zhou as research director.
Ipsos ASI, New York, has launched Ipsos ASI Digital to address brand and advertising development.
The Pert Group, a Farmington, Conn., research company, has established a London office at One Fetter Lane, Suite 5.14.
Encino, Calif., research company uSamp has opened a London office as part of its expansion into Europe.
Research company earnings/financial news
Nunwood, Leeds, U.K., recorded a 13.4 percent rise in sales for the first half of 2011, compared to the same period last year, and global revenues of over $9.5 million.
Affinova, Waltham, Mass., announced record sales for fiscal year 2011. Overall sales grew at a rate of 44 percent.
The GfK Group, Nuremberg, Germany, increased sales by 8.3 percent to 660.1 million euros in the first six months of 2011. There was a significant increase in adjusted operating income of 16.8 percent to 83.9 million euros, compared with the first six months of the previous year.
The Nielsen Company, New York, reported second-quarter revenue of $1,396 million. Revenues for the first half of 2011 increased 9 percent to $2,698 million.
Ipsos, Paris, achieved organic growth of 6.3 percent in the first half of 2011.
BrainJuicer Group PLC, London, achieved first-half 2011 revenue approximately 25 percent ahead of the prior-year period.
Arbitron Inc., Columbia, Md., reported second-quarter earnings that doubled from a year earlier. Net income was $7.6 million on $95.7 million in revenue for the three months ended June 30, compared to net income of $3.8 million on $88.3 million in revenue for the same period in 2010.
Rentrak Corporation, Portland, Ore., announced financial results for the full year ended March 31 and first-quarter ended June 30. Consolidated revenues for fiscal 2011 rose to $97.1 million from $91.1 million for fiscal 2010. Operating loss for fiscal 2011 was $2.6 million, compared with $0.9 million for fiscal 2010. For first-quarter 2012, consolidated revenues were $22.4 million, compared with $24.6 million for first-quarter 2010. Operating income was $246,000. Net income was $399,000, compared with $87,000 for the prior-year period.
Kantar, London, has made a strategic investment of $3 million for a minority stake in Affectiva Inc., a Waltham, Mass., provider of tools and technology that measure emotional responses of consumers.
ComScore Inc., Reston, Va., has signed a $50 million revolving credit agreement with Bank of America N.A., Charlotte, N.C. The two-year deal also includes a $10 million sublimit to support standby letters of credit.