Viga appoints Van Schalkwyk as marketing director

Van Schalkwyk (pictured) was previously head of customer marketing at Betsson Group based in Malta, and prior to that he worked at Research Now.

In his new role, he will initially focus on expanding Crowdology, the platform behind Viga Audience Access tool. The aim is to build the UK’s largest double opt-in permission-based access panel and then roll the brand out globally.

At Research Now Van Schalkwyk expanded the agency’s online panels across 14 markets globally in an 18 month growth period, including building a loyalty programme of more than 100 global retailers.

Van Schalkwyk said: “I wasn’t looking to get back into market research. But with the opportunity of driving Viga’s growth and at the same time disrupt the online panel industry, the decision was easy to make.”

Viga launched in October this year and now has a staff of 13.