The company fully merges UK’s local media analysis firm Report International and the US-based social media and PR measurement agency KD Paine & Partners into the Salience Insights brand, having continued trading under their own names since being bought in August last year by NGI.

The launch comes as Salience Insight’s CEO Giselle Bodie warned that the global market for media evaluation was facing tough challenges from the increase in social media usage and the pressure to act globally.

She warned that many evaluation providers were struggling to integrate social media analysis into their offer due to both the technical challenges involved and social media’s global scale.

Bodie added: “While new technology, and the steps taken by the industry towards adopting common standards in scale media evaluation are good news for clients, this does not address the fact that social media is no respecter of national borders.”