News31 March 2015

Nielsen and RetailNext announce strategic alliance

The partnership will bring RetailNext’s proprietary in-store analytics to Nielsen’s retail client base.

News31 March 2015

US CEOs 'take customers more seriously'

US CEOs are more likely to run organisations that ‘live and breathe customer experience’ according to a report from Nunwood.

News31 March 2015

Havas Media Group hires new global head of content

Havas Media Group has appointed Damien Marchi as its global head of content.

News31 March 2015

Majority of advertisers now have mobile optimised sites

More than 80% of the top 250 UK advertisers has a mobile optimised site according to a survey from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK ( IAB)

News31 March 2015

WPP's Xaxis buys ActionX

WPP has announced that its programmatic media and tech firm Xaxis has acquired the mobile app and cross-screen targeting platform, Action Exchange ( ActionX).

Opinion30 March 2015

Saving the world, one survey at a time

A good CSR programme can have many positive effects on business, says Ben Hogg. So what can researchers do to help?

News30 March 2015

SPA Future Thinking rebrands

The business intelligence research consultancy, founded in 2010, has rebranded as Future Thinking.

News30 March 2015

TV loses out to mobile and digital in latest GMI

Marketing optimism remains at a high level in March’s Global Marketing Index, with a 0.4 point rise in the headline score.

News30 March 2015

Facts International to support ComRes in general election polling

Facts International will conduct telephone interviews in the run up to the election to support ComRes in voting intention and analysis.

News30 March 2015

Organisational obstacles preventing improved customer experience

New research from the Economist Intelligence Unit claims that organisations are struggling to create a seamless experience for customers, despite it being a strategic priority.

News30 March 2015

Millward Brown hires Bloomfield

Jane Bloomfield, formerly head of innovations at Hall & Partners, has joined the company as brand development director.

News27 March 2015

Macromill expands to SIngapore

Rob Valsler has joined from Millward Brown as managing director to lead the south east Asian team.

News27 March 2015

Nielsen to offer Netflix and Amazon Prime data by mid 2015

The TV audience measurement company has been testing technology that measures Netflix and Amazon audiences by listening to shows via its set-top boxes.

News27 March 2015

EU citizens advised to close Facebook accounts if they don't want to be spied on

The European Commission has warned EU citizens to close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services.

News27 March 2015

Crowd DNA makes new hires

London and Amsterdam-based cultural insights and innovation business Crowd DNA has announced a number of new hires and promotions in its London office.

News27 March 2015

Neuroscience research points to influence of digital OOH on other media

A study by Neuro-Insight has used neuroscience to show how digital out of home positively influences responses to other media.

News27 March 2015

BritainThinks teams with The Guardian for election research

BritainThinks has announced a collaboration with The Guardian looking at undecided voters in five key constituencies in the run-up to the general election in May.

News26 March 2015

Bank customers looking to switch cut in half

Research into people’s attitudes toward their banks has found that consumer confidence has returned with only 12% looking to switch providers.

News26 March 2015

Vision One hires Wood to lead qual team

Victoria Wood has joined the company as director to head up its qualitative, advertising and retail services.

News26 March 2015

Guidelines launched for online research integrity

ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network ( GRBN) have launched new guidelines for brands and marketers providing advice and techniques for ensuring the integrity of sample quality used in online research. 

News26 March 2015

VOD to be worth over £1bn by 2019

Demand for video streaming services in the UK grew 56% between 2013 and 2014 to reach a value of £437m, according to new research from Mintel.

News26 March 2015

Wunderman appoints global chief data officer

Alongside his new role, Gary Laben will remain CEO of KBM Group, Wunderman’s data, insights and marketing technology arm.

Opinion26 March 2015

What Channel 4’s 'Teens' tells us about teenagers’ digital lives

The world of teenagers depicted on Channel 4’s Teens documentary shows a group obsessed with online social comment, but is this an accurate picture or just good telly? By Matthew Nevardis

Feature26 March 2015

Take the test: Does where we live in Britain make us happy?

The BBC’s Happiness Test set the nation talking about where they lived, and where they should be living to make them happy. But what of the research behind it? By Iain Carruthers

News25 March 2015

Future Foundation and IPA launch 10-year consumer engagement study

The first phase of findings from The Future of Marketing and Agencies in 2025 has identified four scenarios for consumer marketing and engagement to 2025.

News25 March 2015

Chime reports 10% growth in operating profits with revenue up for CIE

Chime Communications saw like for like operating income grow 6% to £198.9m, profits increase 10% and pre-tax profits rise 6% to £30.1m in 2014.

News25 March 2015

Kinetic and #ogilvychange announce BE planning tool

The Alfresco Labs is an out-of-home behavioural economics planning tool based on 18 months of behavioural change research.

News25 March 2015

People Pattern launches Audience Insight platform

The platform converts ‘unstructured’, public data such as posts, tweets, commentary and reviews, into audience insights.

News25 March 2015

Confirmit partners with Language Connect

New solution will save up to 90% of the cost and time of coordinating translations for market research claims the company.

News25 March 2015

Starcom MediaVest expands PACE panel

Global media comms agency Starcom MediaVest Group ( SMG) has announced the expansion of its consumer knowledge platform PACE panel.

Opinion25 March 2015

#Budget2015 – what next for marketing services & MR?

Sinead Hasson, managing director of Hasson Associates, gives her assessment of where the industry needs to focus in light of the recent budget.

Opinion24 March 2015

Bias in the spotlight: heuristics

In the second of a series of blogs exploring different behavioural economic biases, Crawford Hollingworth looks at heuristics.

News24 March 2015

Join the Dots revenue up 25% for 2014

Consumer insight agency Join the Dots has announced annual revenue of £6.1 million for 2014 – an increase of 25% on last year.

News24 March 2015

Millward Brown launches digital ad copy-testing tool

Brand and media comms research consultancy Millward Brown has released LinkNow for Digital, a copy-testing solution for digital advertising.

News24 March 2015

Global appointments at Havas SE

Fredda Hurwitz and Thiago Bersou have been made global chief strategy officer and global creative planning director respectively for Havas Sports and Entertainment ( Havas SE) based in London.

News24 March 2015

ComRes announces polling partnership with ITV News and Daily Mail

ComRes will conduct seven voting intention polls between now and the general election, with the first results published this week.

News24 March 2015

Digital to reach 48% of total UK ad spend in 2015

A global ad spend report from Carat predicts that digital media spend will reach 48.2% share of the total UK market this year, increasing to a majority share of 51.1% in 2016.

News24 March 2015

Trinity McQueen sees strong growth

Results for the year ending September 2014 show a growth in turnover of 17% to £3.98m.

News23 March 2015

Tonic hires commercial director

Sue Laing has joined the company’s senior management team on a part-time basis.

News23 March 2015

Macromill hires new CTO and CFO

Kuniko Ogawa and Teruaki Kido have joined the consumer insights and marketing analytics solutions company’s global leadership team.

Feature23 March 2015

Measuring experience

Understanding an experience economy requires a different approach to what works in a goods and service market setting, says Noah Roychowdhury of Northstar. This starts with engaging with respondents differently.

News23 March 2015

Twitter looks to increase data sales

The company’s data strategy chief, Chris Moody, has confirmed that it is looking to increase its income from selling data to advertisers.

News23 March 2015

Ford joins ORC International

Kevin Ford has joined from NatCen Social Research as head of markets and products research in Europe.

News23 March 2015

YouGov revenue up 11%

First half revenue recorded as £36.2m, up from £32.6m, and profit before tax reported as £16,000.

News20 March 2015

Vivisum announces pharma product launch optimisation tool

Vivisum has launched Brand Builder, a solution that provides strategic market insight for pharmaceutical brands.

News20 March 2015

Barclays marketer new president of WFA

David Weldon, managing director, brand, reputation citizenship and marketing for Barclays Bank has been appointed as the World Federation of Advertisers’ new president.

News20 March 2015

Mobile spend 'insufficient', says report

Mobile campaigns raise brand awareness, drive sales and increase ROI, but not enough budget is allocated to the channel, according to a report by the Mobile Marketing Association.

News20 March 2015

Revenues flat for BrainJuicer in 2014

Online market research agency BrainJuicer has reported revenue growth of 1% to £24.65m for the 2014 financial year, although its pre-tax profits rose 21% to £4.29m.

News20 March 2015

Hounsell to lead sales and marketing at eDigitalResearch

Former research director Kat Hounsell, who joined the company in 2006, has been appointed sales and marketing director.

News20 March 2015

FocusVision buys Research Reporter

Research tech company FocusVision has acquired Insight Marketing Systems, the company behind research management tech platform Research Reporter.

News19 March 2015

SSI to acquire MRops assets

Survey Sampling International ( SSI) has entered an agreement to purchase the majority of assets of MRops.

News19 March 2015

‘Good storytelling should be in the service of good ideas’ author Sebastian Faulks told Impact 2015

English novelist Sebastian Faulks told delegates at Impact 2015, that while thorough research is a must, the reader should feel they are “discovering something, not having it rammed down your throat”.

News19 March 2015

Research Now acquired by private equity firm

Court Square Capital has completed its acquisition of the company for an undisclosed sum.

News19 March 2015

Schlesinger Associates makes senior appointment

Patty Altman has joined the company from Ipsos ASI as senior vice president of Strategic Development.

News19 March 2015

'The market research industry is lagging behind', says former Camelot CEO Dianne Thompson

Former Camelot chief executive Dianne Thompson told delegates at Impact 2015 that the UK’s market research industry is lagging behind other marketing disciplines, a point echoed by her fellow panellists.

News19 March 2015

Fishing and cooking – how to make online samples fit for purpose

The rise of online research raises big questions about sampling error and the reliability of survey findings, Impact 2015 heard yesterday.

News18 March 2015

A manifesto for change in market research

The current research paradigm is not suited to entrepreneurialism, so market researchers must “take a walk on the wild side”, and create a manifesto for change, according to speakers at Impact 2015.

News18 March 2015

Unlocking the secrets of decision making

The way consumers make decisions on everything from buying sex to choosing a domestic gas supplier came under the spotlight at Impact 2015.

News18 March 2015

'Qual researchers must walk tall in the land of machines'

At a time when researchers are obsessed with technological innovation, emotional intelligence is what sets qualitative researchers apart, says Peter Totman of Jigsaw Research.

News18 March 2015

Reshaping reputations - how emotional engagement can drive the bottom line

Social and emotional engagement are playing an increasingly important role in brand reputation and driving profit margins, according to panellists at Impact 2015.

News18 March 2015

Understanding minds essential to successful military strategy, general tells Impact 2015

The need for strong, long-term strategy on international affairs is stronger than ever – and market researchers have a role to play in mapping the “human terrain” of geopolitics, General Sir Richard Shirreff said.

News18 March 2015

'I'm the Kim Kardashian of data' proclaims Brendan Dawes at Impact 2015

Artist, designer and self-confessed data geek Brendan Dawes told delegates at Impact 2015 how information can be used to create physical objects of beauty that take on a life outside the PC screen.

News18 March 2015

Research as recovery: stories of change

Researchers from Rethink Mental Illness, Marie Stopes International and the BBC on how not only the findings, but the act of conducting research, can make a difference.

News18 March 2015

UK heading for 'car crash' General Election says Tory pollster Andrew Cooper

‘We’re heading towards a car crash of an election result’ reckons Tory pollster and ex David Cameron strategist Andrew Cooper

News18 March 2015

Rise of the machines – technology transforming research

Artificial intelligence, social media measurement and virtual reality promise to transform consumer insight, Impact 2015 heard.

News17 March 2015

Seizing the social opportunity

The rise of social media creates a wealth of opportunity for brands to boost advocacy and their bottom line – but there are pitfalls watch out for.

News17 March 2015

Fresh approaches to predicting new product success

The current era of risk and opportunity requires researchers and clients to take a fresh approach to new product development, meeting volatility and complexity with a willingness to trial new techniques and abandon those that aren’t working.

News17 March 2015

Storytelling, segmentations, and the subconscious

Speakers from Unilever, EE and Chime Insight and Engagement shared their thoughts on going beyond insight delivery at the MRS Annual Conference: Impact 2015.

News17 March 2015

'Give data back to the people', panel tells Impact 2015 audience

Personal data should be wrested from the control of businesses and given back to consumers, according to a panellist speaking at today’s ( 17 March) Impact 2015 conference.

News17 March 2015

'This is a leadership moment for the market research profession,' says Unilever's Polman

Unilever CEO Paul Polman has issued a challenge to the market research profession to provide the insight needed to galvanize social change.

News16 March 2015

Verto Analytics hires Hooven as SVP of Sales

Robert Hooven was formerly senior vice president of Sales at comScore’s M:Metrics division.

Opinion16 March 2015

The Eternal Optimist

Craig Scott started his medical research company at the end of last year; several months in he shares his tips for clients and agencies working together.

News16 March 2015

MRS Delphi Group launches consumer privacy report

The Market Research Society think tank’s report has revealed that just one in ten UK consumers feel in complete control of their personal data remaining private.

News16 March 2015

Online survey growth mirrors mobile access increase

The UK, US and Canada has seen the highest proportion of survey access via mobile devices, according to a white paper from FocusVision.

News16 March 2015

Surveypal secures $1m investment

The online customer survey platform has received a $1m extended seed investment for expansion into North America.

News16 March 2015

Smartphones biggest digital platform for newsbrands

Newsbrands reached 22.4 million people on smartphones in January this year according to comScore’s mobile audience measurement system Mobile Metrix, the equivalent of 78% of the total smartphone audience.

Opinion13 March 2015

Fit-for-purpose sampling in the digital age

Chair of the ESOMAR professional standards committee, Adam Phillips, discusses trustworthy online sampling ahead of a debate on that topic at the MRS Annual Conference, Impact 2015.

News13 March 2015

Countdown to MRS Annual Conference, Impact 2015

The MRS Annual Conference, Impact 2015, takes place next week, with keynote speakers Paul Polman, General Sir Richard Shirreff, Sebastian Faulks and Brendan Dawes.

News13 March 2015

The NPD group promotes Bush to US president role

Tim Bush takes on the role of group president Americas following Michel Maury’s expanded group president Europe and Asia Pacific role.

News13 March 2015

GfK grows margin despite drop in sales

2014 saw the company’s sales decline by 2.8% to €1.45m, but its margin grew from 12.1% to 12.3%.

News13 March 2015

Majority of younger voters want to vote online

Sixty per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds want the opportunity to vote via online channels according to YouGov research.

News13 March 2015

ComScore makes ad effectiveness appointments both sides of the Atlantic

David Shiffman has been appointed as senior v-p marketing solutions in US and Duncan Trigg as v-p of advertising effectiveness in UK.

Opinion12 March 2015

Talking about my Generation X

Brands need to be ready for the ticking toxic time-bomb that is Generation X because they will refuse to follow the stereotypes of 55+ behaviour says Andrew Wiseman.

News12 March 2015

Good content strategy requires risk-taking

Marketers need to learn how to fail and be nimble if content strategy is to be at the heart of marketing said two leading marketing directors.

News12 March 2015

Attention lost from TV ads 'can be regained online'

Results from a new ethnographic study suggest that attention lost from TV ads can be regained by ads on digital platforms.

News12 March 2015

Future is about people data not big data says Unilever's Mathieu

Unilever’s global senior vice-president of marketing, Marc Mathieu said data science will change the way marketing is done, as he discussed the changing marketing landscape at yesterday’s ISBA conference.

News12 March 2015

Verve adds to its board following investment

Geoff Westmore and Neil Brown have joined the Verve board following an investment by London-based Subito partners.

News12 March 2015

Facebook opens its data firehose

The launch of topic data, an analytics tool developed with DataSift, will allow a select group to access Facebook’s data for marketing insights.

News11 March 2015

Customer insight critical to success says Vodafone's Fielding

Daryl Fielding, outgoing director of brand marketing at Vodafone, warned marketers of the importance of having an overarching insight and that they risked failure without it.

News11 March 2015

Turton appointed as head of Automotive for TNS USA

TNS has appointed current global development director for TNS Automotive, Andy Turton, as head of Automotive for the Americas.

News11 March 2015

Consumer choice 'influenced by looking up or down'

Consumers choose different products when looking up versus down, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

News11 March 2015

Clicked launches UK wearables tracker

Digital research agency Clicked has launched a wearable technology syndicated tracking study, covering the UK market.

News11 March 2015

GfK invests in YouEye

YouEye, established in 2011, has a technology platform that analyses and integrates various forms of data.

Feature11 March 2015

Real men moisturise

Despite minimal marketing spend and insight investment, men’s skincare brand Bulldog has grown significantly from its challenger brand beginning. Founder Simon Duffy talks to Ben Bold about how it started and what comes next.

Opinion10 March 2015

Apple Watch will prove a winner

With its sleek design, huge budget and eager consumer-base, M&C Saatchi Mobile’s James Hilton thinks the Apple Watch will be an innovation to appeal to multiple markets.

Opinion10 March 2015

Bias in the spotlight: system 1 and 2

In the first of a series of blogs looking at different behavioural economic biases, Crawford Hollingworth discusses the two modes of thinking: system 1 and 2.

News10 March 2015

Sthanunathan urges companies to think of people not consumers

Unilever’s senior vice-president, consumer and market, Stan Sthanunathan has said that for brands to truly understand their market they must consider people as human beings rather than just consumers.

News10 March 2015

TNS BMRB appoints Hayward as head of research

Bruce Hayward had led the quantitative research division at TNS BMRB since 2009.

News10 March 2015

UK TV ad revenue reaches £4.91bn

Total TV advertising revenue in the UK increased by 6% in 2014 to reach a record high of £4.91bn, according to full year revenue figures provided by Thinkbox.

News10 March 2015

WPP to acquire stake in Swedish internet TV service

The group has agreed to acquire a minority stake in FlowNetwork, a new ‘over-the-top’ television service.

Opinion9 March 2015

10 questions insight managers must ask about ad effectiveness

Detailed understanding of how and when people multi-screen is vital for ad effectiveness says Millward Brown’s Amanda Phillips.

News9 March 2015

In-home connectivity remains low priority

Being able to connect with other devices in the home remains a fairly low priority for consumers according to a YouGov report into connectivity.

News9 March 2015

Twitter TV activity 'signals high engagement'

A study from Nielsen suggests that increases in Twitter conversation during live programming signal high engagement among the general viewing audience.

News9 March 2015

WPP reports record annual profits

Advertising giant WPP has reported a 12% rise in 2014 pre-tax profits to £1.45 billion and revenues up 4.6% to £11.53bn.

News9 March 2015

Audit of Mediacom Australia reveals forged campaign reports

An investigation of the media agency finds staff had deliberately faked campaign reports for three of its biggest clients for at least two years.

News6 March 2015

OnePoll acquires 2Brewarded

OnePoll, a research provider for the PR industry, has acquired London-based panel provider 2Brewarded.

News6 March 2015

Vision Critical continues Australian expansion

The company has announced the opening of an office in Melbourne and a new Sydney location.

News6 March 2015

Instagram introduces carousel ad format

Picture social media site Instagram has announced it is introducing a carousel ads as a way for brands to share more images with followers.

News6 March 2015

Kantar and IRI form data partnership

Kantar Shopcom and IRI will integrate their retail purchase data, national consumer panel data and point-of-sale transaction data.

News6 March 2015

Acxiom expands Twitter data partnership

Data and analytics firm Acxiom has expanded its global data partnership with Twitter to build the social media company’s advertising capabilities.

News6 March 2015

BDRC turnover and profits up for 2014

Market research company BDRC Group has reported turnover up 17.8% to £24.5m and gross profits up 19.4% for the financial year to end of September 2014.

Opinion5 March 2015

The real secret life of four year olds – or just good TV?

The Channel 4 documentary may make entertaining viewing but how much does it tell us about what goes on in four year olds’ minds?

News5 March 2015

Muscroft replaces Needham as CEO of Face

Face, part of Cello Signal Group, has announced a number of senior changes across its regional offices.

News5 March 2015

Toombs moves to qual and comms role at TNS BMRB

TNS BMRB has appointed new heads of qualitative and communications research – Ben Toombs will be head and Caitlin Connors deputy head.

News5 March 2015

MRS announces main board election results

Crispin Beale and Danny Russell announced as joint chair designate; Richard Drury and Nick North join the board.

News5 March 2015

Verve adds iBeacon tech to community panel app

Panel research company Verve has added Apple’s iBeacon bluetooth-based location technology to its Community Panel app to extend its retail research opportunities.

News5 March 2015

Research Now expands client development team

The company has hired five new members to its client development team, including Kris Baker and Bart Roselli, across a number of US locations.

News5 March 2015

Nielsen buys eXelate

Nielsen has acquired data and tech company eXelate for an undisclosed amount.

News4 March 2015

GfK and ForwardKeys team up for travel insight

Market research firm GfK and travel intelligence provider ForwardKeys have announced they will partner on travel and hospitality industry data and insight.

News4 March 2015

TNS BMRB makes Peters MD

Mark Peters, TNS BMRB’s director of research, has been promoted to managing director.

News4 March 2015

MMR expands to India and South Africa

The food, beverage and household and personal care research specialist has opened offices in Mumbai and Durban.

Opinion4 March 2015

Survey sensitivity

Exploring attitudes to religion requires a careful approach. ScotCen’s Anna Marcinkiewicz describes how cognitive interviewing can inform appropriate survey design.

News4 March 2015

Adelphi Research rebrands

Healthcare market research company Adelphi Research has refreshed its corporate brand and positioning.

News4 March 2015

Instantly and Vistar Media OOH measurement deal

Audience measurement company Instantly has partnered with mobile location-based platform Vistar Media to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns across out-of-home media.

News3 March 2015

B2B International expands its UK base

The company has expanded its UK headquarters to make room for new recruits as it accelerates its global growth strategy.

News3 March 2015

BA retains 'top consumer brand' title

British Airways has emerged as the UK’s top consumer brand for the second year in a row, according to the latest Consumer Superbrands survey.

News3 March 2015

Millennials choose digital over social for retail promotions

A new report suggests that millennials favour traditional digital channels over social media for retailer promotions and offers.

News3 March 2015

New White House privacy bill 'too vague to endorse'

The White House released the long-awaited draft comprehensive privacy bill, intended to operationalise the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, on Friday.

News3 March 2015

Doran takes Sainsbury's Bank insight role

Sainsbury’s Bank has hired Mick Doran as its new head of customer insights and innovation.

News3 March 2015

Smart watches to overtake health trackers in wearables market

Global sales of health and fitness trackers reached 13.5 million in 2014 compared with four million smartwatch sales according to data from GfK.

Opinion2 March 2015

Evaluating viral

In the first of a new series of video blogs looking at different methodologies for video content evaluation, Ian Forrester, Unruly’s insight director shares his thoughts with UM London’s Michael Brown.

News2 March 2015

Fair Data wins innovation award for MRS

The Market Research Society’s Fair Data initiative has won the innovation award for 2015 at the Association Excellence Awards.

News2 March 2015

Global Marketing Index (GMI) up in February

The Global Marketing Index ( GMI) rose 0.4 points to reach a value of 58.1 for February, the second month in a row it’s increased.

News2 March 2015

Landy takes top UK role at Ipsos Connect

Liz Landy, currently managing director of Ipsos MediaCT, will take the UK CEO role of the new Ipsos business Ipsos Connect.

News2 March 2015

Bilendi acquires Springboard UK access panel

The company has signed an agreement with Vision Critical to acquire the UK access panel activities of Springboard UK.

News2 March 2015

Simpson Carpenter hires Higgins for new comms research department

Communications strategist Kirsty Higgins has joined from Kiosk to form the new dedicated comms team.