Today's top stories
ForeSee to analyse npower's mobile and web user experience
UK— Energy provider npower has hired customer experience analytics firm ForeSee to analyse and measure the experience of customers using its website and mobile apps.
CEB buys employee insights firm Valtera
US— Executive research and advisory services firm Corporate Executive Board (CEB) has acquired Valtera, an employee insights specialist.
Esomar publishes guide to commissioning neuroscience
NETHERLANDS— Esomar has brought out a guide outlining ‘36 questions to help commission neuroscience research’.
Ex-Nielsen MD partners with Majestic MRSS to launch Indian firm
INDIA— Majestic MRSS boss Raj Sharma and a former Nielsen director Sarang Panchal have launched a new agency, MRSS India.
AMI division grows but Rentrak posts loss
US— Rentrak almost doubled the number of TV stations signed up to its local market audience measurement product, StationView Essentials, in the third quarter of fiscal 2012, helping the company’s Advanced Media and Information (AMI) division reach $9.9m in sales.
Wikipedia data analysis platform gets $5m investment
US— WibiData, a company whose data management and analysis platform is used by Wikipedia to understand the behaviour of its contributors, has raised $5m in venture capital funding.
Incite makes three new appointments
UK— Research consultancy Incite has added three new faces to its team, including Neal Game who joins the firm as a principal.
News analysis
Kantar Media boss on tracking online word of mouth in China
Last week Kantar acquired Chinese social media monitoring firm CIC. Research spoke with Kantar Media CEO Jean-Michel Portier to hear how researchers are dealing with the rapidly evolving social media landscape in China.
Q&A: Rentrak's Exact Commercial Ratings
Chief research officer Bruce Goerlich responds to reader questions about the company’s new measure of commercial viewing.
What the Facebook FTC settlement means for market research
Privacy, control, consent. Three words that sum up the Federal Trade Commission’s demands of Facebook. Three words researchers can’t avoid.
What I learned from Philip Gould
Deborah Mattinson shares lessons from the life and career of New Labour strategist Philip Gould, a pollster who aimed high and whose work made a difference.
From the magazine
Whatever next?
Visualising what tomorrow will bring is crucial to what researchers do. But it’s also notoriously difficult. Robert Bain takes a look at the business of prediction.
Are we there yet?
John Gambles of Quadrangle and David Smith of DVL Smith have each chalked up 25 years in market research. James Verrinder asks them to reflect on how far the industry has come and where it’s heading.
The trolley and the IV
Violence is always a problem in A&E departments, and never more so than at Christmas. Robert Bain meets the ethnographers who went to see for themselves.
Question design
Scotland’s big question
As the Scottish National Party plans a referendum on Scottish independence, Ruth Stevenson of Ruthless Research wonders whether they’re asking the right question.
Neuroscience
We have ways of making you talk
A group of scientists say they’ve found a way to tell what word someone is thinking of by studying their brain waves. It’s a trick that market researchers wouldn’t mind mastering, writes Bronwen Morgan.
Gamification
Taking MR to the next level
Rajat Paharia, founder of gamification firm Bunchball, talks to Brian Tarran about how to inject life into the research experience.
The client view of 2012
Spending plans
Monique Drummond of Relish Research hears from research buyers about their priorities and expectations for the year ahead.
Research communication
Who are you talking to?
Talking to an uninterested audience is like addressing an empty room. Either way, no one’s listening. Richard Young hears from researchers who are learning the languages ot other disciplines to make their insights heard.