News28 September 2012

E-Rewards and Kiva team up

US— Micro-lending website Kiva, a non-profit organisation that aims to alleviate poverty in developing countries through donations, has appointed E-Rewards as its exclusive market research partner.

News26 September 2012

42 Market Research launches Russian and Polish panels

DUBAI— Online healthcare research agency 42 Market Research has launched new panels in Poland and Russia, bringing the total number of countries it operates in to 35.

News31 August 2011

Innovid scoops funding for video analytics push

US— Video technology firm Innovid has secured $9.5m in a round of funding led by Sequoia Capital with contributions from existing investors Genesis Partners and T-Venture.

News31 August 2011

Apple clears Pureprofile app for iPhones

US— Online survey company Pureprofile has received Apple approval for its iPhone app that allows members to take surveys and manage their profiles through their smartphone.

News31 August 2011

Rob Holston to head Symphony Analytics

US— Retail researcher SymphonyIRI has named former Coca-Cola director Rob Holston to lead its analytics division as executive vice president.

News31 August 2011

Engage Research hires behavioural economics leader

UK— Former Harris Interactive consultant Colin Deller has joined Engage Research to lead the firm’s new product development and behavioural economics proposition.

News31 August 2011

BuzzLogic names chief financial officer

US— R. Brian Gibson has been appointed chief financial officer at BuzzLogic, an online media firm that uses social media monitoring technology to place targeted adverts.

News31 August 2011

Tpoll launches online focus group service

UK— Tpoll has expanded its qualitative offering with the launch of an online focus group tool, Tqual Live.

Feature31 August 2011

Questioning the nature of research

Research is undeniably important, says Rory Sutherland, but it needs to be “significantly improved” in light of what neuromarketing and behavioural economics teaches us.

News30 August 2011

Shopper researcher PRS in South American partnership

US— Packaging and shopper researcher Perception Research Services ( PRS) has announced a strategic partnership with Latin American research agency Provokers.

News30 August 2011

EU data group says behavioural ad guidelines fall short

BRUSSELS— European data protection watchdogs have declared ad industry codes on online behavioural targeting to be insufficient to meet the requirement that web users give “informed consent” before being tracked.

News30 August 2011

CoreLogic looking at sale, strategic alternatives

US— Analytics and outsourcing firm CoreLogic has hired financial advisors to explore options to improve shareholder value, including a possible sale.

News30 August 2011

Co-operative Group appoints insight director

UK— The Co-operative Group has appointed Neil Carden in the new role of director of insight and planning.

News30 August 2011

Ipsos/Synovate deal clears US anti-trust authorities

US— Ipsos’s acquisition of Synovate has the go-ahead from US anti-trust authorities, with the Federal Trade Commission granting early clearance of the deal yesterday.

Feature30 August 2011

The quest for talent

Kadence International’s Indonesian office went to unusual lengths to source talent from neighbouring India. Managing director Vivek Thomas explains the difficulties faced in recruiting for research roles in emerging economies.

News30 August 2011

Harris names interim tech, ops and panel head

US— Former TNS and Opinion Research man Todd Myers has been appointed interim head of technology, operations and panel at Harris Interactive, according to a regulatory filing.

News30 August 2011

Ipsos OTX MediaCT appoints VP of syndicated services

US— Former GfK man Mark McLaren has been appointed vice president of syndicated services at Ipsos OTX Media CT.

News26 August 2011

Editor's note

It’s a Bank Holiday in the UK on Monday, so no updates until Tuesday. See you all on the 30th.

News26 August 2011

Authentic Response adds TrueSample panel cleaning

US— Online data collection firm Authentic Response has signed up to use MarketTools’ TrueSample online panel cleaning technology to remove fake, duplicate and unengaged respondents from its samples.

News26 August 2011

Itracks launches new feedback and social media tools

CANADA— Itracks, an online qualitative software provider, has developed an advertising and logo design feedback tool called Reality Check and added a social media research offering.

News26 August 2011

People on the move

The latest appointments and promotions in the global market research and consumer insight industry. This week: CMI, RS Consulting, DunnhumbyUSA, Zing Insights, Fairfax Media, Knotice, MMR Research, 1HQ and AMS.

News26 August 2011

FTC urged to take tough line on 'super cookie' use

US— Consumer rights groups want the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) to take a tough line on companies that attempt to get round people’s online privacy choices using ‘super cookies’ that are hard to find or delete.

News26 August 2011

Interim Harris CFO Narowski gets retention bonus

US— Harris Interactive is to pay a $60,000 retention bonus to interim chief financial officer Eric Narowski.

News26 August 2011

ResponseTek and Synovate form customer experience partnership

US— Synovate has struck a deal with customer experience technology firm ResponseTek to combine its insight services with the latter’s feedback management and analysis platform.

News26 August 2011

Research Panel Asia taps Data100 China panel

CHINA— Research Panel Asia ( RPA), a Tokyo-based company, has struck an alliances with Beijing’s Data100 Market Research to draw on the latter’s panel for international and domestic work.

News25 August 2011

Nielsen's O'Grady and GfK's Love join MBI board after investment

US— GfK MRI president and CEO Kathi Love and Nielsen’s EVP of media audience measurement Matt O’Grady have taken seats on the board at the Media Behaviour Institute ( MBI) after their respective firms each acquired a 25% stake in the company.

News25 August 2011

ComScore sued over 'secret' tracker software downloads

US— ComScore has been sued by two web users who accuse the firm of using “deceitful tactics” to disseminate its web audience measurement software.

News25 August 2011

Hall & Partners forges South African partnership

SOUTH AFRICA— Hall & Partners has struck a licensing agreement with South African marketing consultancy Yellowwood that will see the firm’s Engager tool made available throughout Africa.

News25 August 2011

Pureprofile to add iPhone app, Facebook integration

US— Pureprofile, which runs websites where people can sign up to take part in surveys, is days away from launching an iPhone app that will allow its members to answer questions and build their profiles on the move.

News25 August 2011

Simpson Carpenter makes four hires

UK— Simpson Carpenter has announced a quartet of new starters: Ryan Howard, Kate Parsons, Daniel Curl and Ewan Bleiman.

Opinion25 August 2011

The campaign for fruitful error

Businesses must legitimise and encourage failure in a way that generates genuine innovation and eliminates the fear of the unknown, says Anthony Tasgal. After all, “to err is human”.

News25 August 2011

Gross revenue up 8.4% in first half, says Synovate

UK— Synovate “performed well” in the first half of 2011 with gross revenue up 8.4% to £269.7m, parent company Aegis said today. Operating profit rose 14.9% to £5.4m.

News25 August 2011

Synovate innovation director Jan Hofmeyr to rejoin TNS

SOUTH AFRICA— Synovate’s innovation director Jan Hofmeyr is leaving to join TNS with a brief to apply behaviour change thinking across the company’s brand, stakeholder, social and political work.

News24 August 2011

MMA names global executive team

US— Synovate-owned Marketing Management Analytics has named a new global executive team.

News24 August 2011

'Not a researcher': De Maagt leaves InSites Consulting

BELGIUM— Polle de Maagt has left his role as marketing consultant at MR agency InSites Consulting to work as an independent digital and social media consultant.

News24 August 2011

Channel 4 hunts new head of audience research

UK— Channel 4 is looking to appoint a new head of audience research and insight as the broadcaster implements its “viewer engagement strategy”.

News24 August 2011

Research Rockstar launches survey assessment service

US— Research Rockstar has launched an online assessment tool that it says will help survey designers create better questionnaires when using DIY research services.

News24 August 2011

Football, rugby and golf wins for IFM Sports Marketing Surveys

UK— In a hat trick of contract wins, IFM Sports Marketing Surveys ( SMS) has been named the official research agency for the Rugby World Cup, the Football Association of Wales ( FAW) and the Solheim Cup.

News24 August 2011

Tech industry publisher Ziff Davis acquires Focus Research

US— Ziff Davis, on online media company that provides information about the technology sector, has acquired Focus Research, an online agency that serves IT vendors.

News24 August 2011

WPP reports insight revenue up 1.3%

UK— WPP’s consumer insight division has posted a 1.3% increase in revenue for the first half of 2011, with performance impacted by slower growth in the US, UK and Japan in the second quarter.

News23 August 2011

O'Brien returns to lead Ipsos Understanding UnLtd

US— Marilyn O’Brien has rejoined Ipsos Understanding UnLtd as chair and CEO of the qualitative research division after spending the last year in a group wide global strategic advisory and client management role.

Feature23 August 2011

Time to rewrite the rules of research?

In their efforts to protect research from regulatory straitjackets and public opprobrium, are research associations leading the industry up a dead end?

News23 August 2011

Altus out, Ellis in as CEO at ImpactRx

US— ImpactRX has a new CEO, Gregory Ellis, taking over from Richard Altus ( pictured) who leaves the firm four months after it was bought by the parent company of retail researcher SymphonyIRI.

News23 August 2011

Adobe's Tarkoff named Lithium CEO

US— Online community builder Lithium has appointed Rob Tarkoff as chief executive officer, replacing co-founder Lyle Fong who becomes chief strategist.

News23 August 2011

TRA taps Kroger data for ROI analytics platform

US— TRA is bulking up the data assets underpinning its Media TRAnalytics platform through a partnership with DunnhumbyUSA, which collects and analyses loyalty card data for the retailer Kroger.

News23 August 2011

M3 USA buys Doctors.net.uk

US/UK— M3 USA, the owner of medical market research agency MDLinx, has acquired Doctors.net.uk, the online network of medical professionals and owner of research business MedeConnect Healthcare Insight.

News23 August 2011

Chime's research division sees first-half revenue rise

UK— The research division of Chime Communications saw increases in revenue and operating income for the six-month period ending 30 June, but the firm warned it is still operating in a “difficult” marketplace.

News23 August 2011

Lightspeed launches Greek and Polish panels

UK— Lightspeed Research has launched online panels in Greece and Poland, with 5,000 and 12,000 members respectively.

News22 August 2011

Carat, Omnicom and ESPN back Keller Fay's UK WOM study

UK— Keller Fay Group has launched its TalkTrack word-of-mouth research programme in the UK on a continuous basis, with Carat, Omnicom Media Group and ESPN signed up as clients.

News22 August 2011

Kantar Media Intelligence names North American president

US— George Carens has been appointed president of Kantar Media Intelligence North America, replacing Mark Nesbitt who has left the company.

News22 August 2011

Harris ops director launches new fieldwork agency

UK— Harris Interactive’s former director of research operations Dave Laybourne has launched a new fieldwork agency after acquiring his old employer’s Stockport-based call centre in an asset transfer.

News22 August 2011

Angry Birds creator signs up for Medio analytics

US/FINLAND— Rovio Entertainment, the creator of Angry Birds, has signed up to use Medio Systems’ range of mobile analytics tools to enhance fan engagement across its range of games.

News22 August 2011

German privacy watchdog unlikes Facebook

GERMANY — A regional data protection watchdog in Germany has told website owners to immediately shut down their Facebook pages and remove ‘Like’ buttons from their sites, because the way the social network tracks and profiles users breaches data protection law.

News22 August 2011

B2B International develops 'perceived value' metric

US— B2B International has developed a new metric called the Net Value Score ( NVS) that assesses a brand’s perceived value in the marketplace.

News19 August 2011

Meteorite owns a piece of Your Future

UK— Direct and digital marketing agency Meteorite has acquired a majority stake in strategic brand consultancy Your Future, and the two firms have launched a new planning and consultancy company, The Growth Group.

News19 August 2011

Nielsen testing for cable TV viewed on iPads

US— Nielsen has teamed up with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems to test the measurement of live television content watched on iPads.

News19 August 2011

Ad spend growth expectations lowered

UK— Industry expectations of growth in advertising spending for this year have fallen to 4.4%, according to ad research body Warc.

News19 August 2011

Affinnova secures patent for preference prediction

US— Affinnova has secured a sixth patent, for a system “for predicting personal preferences”. The system was invented by Kevin Karty of Affinnova’s innovation team.

Feature19 August 2011

Watch this space

The way people watch video clips online is changing. Patrick Hourihan explains how Yahoo is helping advertisers get a handle on this fast-moving area.

News19 August 2011

ARF hires Campbell Soup man as ad effectiveness EVP

US— Former Campbell Soup insights VP Robert Woodard has been appointed executive vice president of advertising effectiveness at the Advertising Research Foundation.

News18 August 2011

Aston Martin taps Beehive for customer satisfaction programme

UK— Aston Martin, the iconic car brand, has commissioned Beehive to work with it on developing and implementing a research framework for its global customer satisfaction and insight programme.

News18 August 2011

Confirmit hires customer experience director

UK— Customer feedback and market research software firm Confirmit has hired Claire Sporton as director of customer experience management.

News18 August 2011

Tangent merges insight agency with creative stablemate

UK— Tangent Communications has merged its customer insight agency Snowball with digital creative agency Tangent One to create a new entity, Tangent Snowball.

Feature18 August 2011

What is love, anyway?

Ian Addie, Nunwood’s innovation director explores the thorny issue of emotional engagement through the medium of Orangina.

News18 August 2011

Luth Research partners with Exmovere for emotion detection

US— Luth Research has announced an agreement with biomedical engineering firm Exmovere to incorporate questions designed to gauge emotion into its surveys.

News18 August 2011

Evolution Marketing Research adds Cloud to team

US— Healthcare insight and intelligence agency Evolution Marketing Research has hired former GlaxoSmithKline director Blaine Cloud as a senior director.

News18 August 2011

MMA to launch Global Centre of Excellence

INDIA— Marketing Management Analytics is launching a Global Centre of Excellence in Bangalore responsible for developing expertise and capabilities in advanced predictive and optimisation techniques.

News17 August 2011

'Do not track' measures pose risk to research, warns Esomar

NETHERLANDS— Industry association Esomar has warned that research could face unintended consequences from measures to introduce ‘do not track’ lists for online tracking if it doesn’t protect itself.

News17 August 2011

Crowd DNA launches campaign measurement service

UK— Research and strategy agency Crowd DNA has launched a new multi-sector campaign measurement tool called Impact DNA.

News17 August 2011

River running smoothly with £1m sales increase

UK— River Research has posted an increase in sales of almost £1m for the last financial year ending 31 May.

News17 August 2011

Specific Media adds eye-tracking for advertisers

UK— Digital ad network Specific Media has launched an eye-tracking service to pre-test the effectiveness of online creative, working in partnership with technology provider EyeTrackShop.

News17 August 2011

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner promotes quartet

US— Pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has promoted Andrew Baumann ( pictured), Melissa Egelsky and Drew Lieberman to vice presidents and given Adam Slater the role of director of research operations.

News17 August 2011

TRA secures TV ad targeting patent

US— Advertising ROI researcher TRA has secured a patent for using purchase behaviour to target TV ads.

News17 August 2011

Phoenix Healthcare adds group director to UK office

UK— Healthcare researcher Phoenix Healthcare, part of Phoenix Marketing International, has hired Delphine Duchateau as group director at its Richmond office.

News16 August 2011

Aegis shareholders back Synovate sale

UK— Aegis shareholders today voted in favour of selling the market research agency Synovate to rival research group Ipsos.

News16 August 2011

H,T,P Concept announces new management structure

GERMANY— Research and fieldwork firm H,T,P Concept has unveiled a new organisational structure.

News16 August 2011

Exelate offers ad targeting 'verified by ComScore'

US— Exelate, which provides targeting data to online advertisers, is now offering data segments ‘verified by ComScore’.

News16 August 2011

Honomichl sees 'healthy turnaround' for global top 25

GLOBAL— The top 25 market research agencies – the “backbone” of the industry – saw a “very healthy turnaround” in fortunes last year, with revenues up 4.9% to $18.8bn, according to Jack Honomichl.

News16 August 2011

ActiveGroup founder Nelems returns as CEO

US— Online qual technology provider ActiveGroup has re-hired its founder David Nelems, who left the firm when it was sold in 2007, as its new chief executive officer.

News16 August 2011

Yahoo taps Facebook for 'six degrees' experiment

US— Yahoo and Facebook are setting out to test the hypothesis that anyone in the world is connected to anyone else in just six steps.

News15 August 2011

Social media management firm Buddy Media gets $54m

US— Social media management platform Buddy Media has raised $54m in a series D round of funding, coming largely from a group of existing investors.

News15 August 2011

Direct mail marketers offered monthly eye-tracking omnibus

UK— Royal Mail is working with research agency Eyetracker to run a monthly eye-tracking omnibus for direct mail marketers.

Opinion15 August 2011

Making the most of a hot zone

Crawford Hollingworth shows how technology and behavioural economics are working hand in hand to catch people ‘in the moment’ and get them to act on impulse.

News15 August 2011

Ex-Dubit execs launch ResearchBods panel business

UK— Two former executives of youth communications and research agency Dubit have set up a new online panel business called ResearchBods.

News15 August 2011

FreshMinds chief names new research leader

UK— FreshMinds Research has appointed Annette Müller as managing director, replacing Alistair Leathwood who is moving to Australia as joint MD of Colmar Brunton’s Sydney office.

News15 August 2011

GfK buys 25% of Media Behaviour Institute

GERMANY— GfK has acquired a 25% stake in Media Behaviour Institute ( MBI), the firm responsible for bringing the UK-developed multi-media measurement survey Touchpoints to the US market.

News12 August 2011

People on the move

The latest appointments and promotions in the global market research and consumer insight industry. This week: Forrester, Kudos Research, GfK, Cross-Tab, KBM Group, Kantar Video, Nunwood, Rentrak, Double Helix, ComScore and more.

News12 August 2011

iPerceptions reports 9% sales lift in second quarter

CANADA— iPerceptions, a maker of tools for measuring online customer satisfaction and experience, has seen a 9% year-on-year rise in second quarter revenue.

News12 August 2011

Echo to measure media perceptions of EU

EUROPE— Media and reputation analysis firm Echo Research has been named as the lead contractor to the European Commission for analysing perceptions of the EU in traditional and social media.

News12 August 2011

Affinnova sales up 44%, sees Europe take off

US— Affinnova, a developer of concept optimisation technology, has reported annual sales up 44% for the year ending June 2011.

News12 August 2011

Opinionaided Q&A app gets $4.3m from venture capital firms

US— Mobile Q&A app Opinionaided has completed its series A round of funding, securing $4.3m from venture capital firms and angel investors to continue development of the platform.

News11 August 2011

Ecommerce startup implements IBM analytics tools

UK— Technovated, a London-based ecommerce software start-up, is using IBM’s business analytics software to analyse online consumer sentiment and shopping trends.

News11 August 2011

Millward Brown, Cymfony to integrate social media and brand tracking

US— WPP-owned agencies Millward Brown and Kantar Media Cymfony are working together to offer clients a mix of online media monitoring and brand and communications research.

Opinion11 August 2011

Time wasters need not apply

With free time at a premium, consumers are driven by a desire to avoid ‘dead’ time. Too much choice is too time-consuming, they’ll pay extra to claw back a few minutes and woe betide any company that slows them down. Pete Comley assess the ‘My Time’ trend.

News11 August 2011

Snap Surveys adds Cint sample service

UK— Snap Surveys is integrating Cint’s Direct Sample service into its survey software, giving clients automated access to six million panellists.

News11 August 2011

Sean Creamer becomes Arbitron COO

US— Sean Creamer, formerly chief financial officer and head of US media services at radio ratings provider Arbitron, has moved to the newly created role of chief operating officer.

News11 August 2011

In-store monitoring firm BVI gets $8m investment

US— In-store monitoring firm BVI Networks has closed an $8m round of financing to support sales efforts and further development of its analytics technology.

News11 August 2011

YouGov shuffles US management, names Struse president

US— YouGov has shuffled its senior management in the US market, moving CEO Doug Rivers to the role of group chief innovations officer while promoting Doss Struse ( pictured) to president.

News10 August 2011

Ipsos adds social media monitoring capabilities to Observer

US— Ipsos Observer, the survey management, data delivery and data collection arm of Ipsos in the US, has added social media monitoring to its toolkit.

News10 August 2011

Ross McLean to lead mobile research efforts at Egg Strategy

US— Marketing research consultancy Egg Strategy has appointed Ross McLean to lead its Over The Shoulder division, which conducts mobile research using an iPhone app.

News10 August 2011

Razorfish analytics man Schinn joins Accordant Media

US— Media buying and optimisation firm Accordant Media has hired ex-Razorfish analytics executive Craig Schinn as head of analytics.

News10 August 2011

NPD Group teams up with Eedar for videogame research

US— The NPD Group is collaborating with videogame researcher Eedar to provide market tracking services for the gaming industry.

News10 August 2011

Fieldwork providers Rosslyn and Viewpoint merge

UK— Sister fieldwork providers Viewpoint Field and Rosslyn Research have merged to become Viewpoint Field & Studios.

Opinion10 August 2011

An ethical dilemma

Researchers shouldn’t be quick to abandon long-held principles like respondent anonymity and informed consent even though it might be commercially tempting to do so, argues Brian Tarran.

News10 August 2011

Casro publishes draft social media guidelines

US— The Council of American Survey Research Organisations ( Casro) has published a draft set of guidelines for social media research and is seeking industry comment.

News9 August 2011

German research body accuses mobile game firm of sugging

GERMANY— Internet users in Germany are being warned to steer clear of a mobile game subscription service masquerading as a survey.

News9 August 2011

Chico's to track fashion brand mentions on social media

US— Fashion group Chico’s FAS has tapped SAS for social media analytics to help it monitor and understand what people are saying about its Chico’s, White House Black Market and Soma brands online.

News9 August 2011

Gemius, Mediaresearch picked for IAB Slovakia web research

SLOVAKIA— IAB Slovakia has appointed Gemius in partnership with Mediaresearch Slovakia to be the country’s official online audience measurement provider.

News9 August 2011

Nielsen buys Marketing Analytics, focused on measuring sales impact

US— Nielsen has acquired Marketing Analytics, based in Illinois, a company that works with consumer goods firms to measure the impact marketing has on product sales.

News9 August 2011

S4C builds research panel with aid of Beaufort

UK— Welsh broadcaster S4C is recruiting a panel of 100 people to share their views on the channel’s programmes and services.

News9 August 2011

Poynter takes up UK leadership role at Vision Critical

UK— Vision Critical, maker of community panel software, has appointed Ray Poynter as executive vice president and managing director of the company’s London office.

News8 August 2011

Webtrends buys real-time analytics provider Reinvigorate

US— Webtrends has added real-time web analytics to its portfolio with the purchase of Reinvigorate from Media Temple Ventures.

News8 August 2011

$10m investment for community software firm Get Satisfaction

US— Community software firm Get Satisfaction has raised $10m in a second round of financing, bringing total funding to date to $21m.

News8 August 2011

Harris tech chief Richard Scionti joins Prophet as CIO

US— Harris Interactive’s chief technology officer Richard Scionti has left the firm and become chief information officer at strategic brand and marketing consultancy Prophet.

Opinion8 August 2011

The mobile hype ends here

Everyone’s got a mobile phone, right? Doesn’t mean they want to take surveys on them. Reg Baker tempers some of the hype surrounding the use of cellphones in market research.

News8 August 2011

Startup promises Facebook Insights 'on steroids'

US— PageLever, a new analytics tool for Facebook fan page administrators has launched with backing from startup investor Y Combinator.

News8 August 2011

Aegis to bring Aevolve insight to Asia Pacific

THAILAND— Aegis Media is rolling out its dedicated insight and evaluation unit Aevolve in Asia Pacific, with a former Nielsen media research executive at the helm.

News5 August 2011

UK Bill of Rights consultation to look at privacy protection

UK— The government has launched a consultation to ask the public whether the UK needs a bill of rights, which could include new rights of privacy.

News5 August 2011

DC's pharmacy board scraps MR payment disclosure rule

US— The District of Columbia’s Board of Pharmacy, a regulatory body, has revised rules that required drugs companies to report incentives paid to doctors to take part in market research projects.

News5 August 2011

Showtime Networks reshuffles research responsibilities

US— Cable TV broadcaster Showtime Networks has reshuffled its research, programme planning and scheduling team following the departure of Len Fogge, executive vice president of creative, marketing, research and digital media.

News5 August 2011

Verint completes Vovici acquisition

US— Speech and text analytics firm Verint has completed the acquisition of online survey management and enterprise feedback tools provider Vovici.

News5 August 2011

Empower to acquire Market Intelligence Group

US— Empower MediaMarketing has agreed a deal to acquire analytics firm Market Intelligence Group ( MIG).

News5 August 2011

Audience measurement revenue rises at Rentrak

US— Rentrak’s consolidated revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 fell thanks to a decline in its home entertainment services division, but the firm’s media information business posted a 13% increase in sales.

News5 August 2011

Kissmetrics chief says tracking lawsuits are 'meritless'

US— Web analytics firm Kissmetrics is facing two lawsuits over its tracking practices – but founder Hiten Shah has hit back, calling the actions “meritless”.

News4 August 2011

Synovate combines analytics units SMA and MMA

US— Synovate Management Analytics, which was launched last year to help clients integrate research with data from other sources, is being combined with sister company Marketing Management Analytics.

News4 August 2011

Meltwater merges IceRocket with social media intelligence tool

NORWAY— Media monitoring software company The Meltwater Group has bought social media search engine provider IceRocket.

News4 August 2011

Missing Mexican pollsters released by mystery captors

MEXICO— Nine pollsters who had gone missing while carrying out surveys for an upcoming gubernatorial election in the the state of Michoacan have been freed by “unidentified captors”.

News4 August 2011

Kantar Media Compete names Scott Centurino COO

US— Scott Centurino has been appointed chief operating officer at digital intelligence firm Kantar Media Compete where he will be responsible for expanding the firm’s global footprint and digital measurement offerings.

News4 August 2011

Nielsen online GRPs to launch with Facebook as partner

US— Nielsen is poised to launch online campaign ratings – a gross ratings point ( GRP)-equivalent system for web advertising – on 15 August, with Facebook announced as one of its data partners.

News4 August 2011

Economic fears to flatten 2011 ad spend growth, Warc predicts

UK— Real-terms growth in advertising spend is set to be flat this year as a result of “growing uncertainty about the global economy”, according to ad research body Warc.

News4 August 2011

ComScore to acquire ad verification firm AdXpose, posts Q2 loss

US— ComScore has agreed to acquire digital advertising verification and optimisation firm AdXpose in a mostly stock-based deal worth $22m.

Feature4 August 2011

Behind the sofa

Simon Lidington thinks researchers have forgotten the art of conversation. Turns out all you need is a sofa, a video camera and some cool interactive transcript technology to get people talking.

News3 August 2011

Kantar denies ‘stealing’ TRA secrets during merger talks

US— WPP’s research division Kantar has denied that it stole trade secrets from ad ROI researcher TRA while the two businesses were in talks about the possibility of a buyout.

News3 August 2011

Grass Roots hires research director from NS&I

UK— Mystery shopping and customer satisfaction agency Grass Roots has hired Sarah Wood as research director to oversee various programmes for key clients.

News3 August 2011

People on the move

The latest appointments and promotions in the global market research and consumer insight industry, with news from MMR, Synovate, The NPD Group, BritainThinks and more.

News3 August 2011

Final sentence handed down in child lighter safety test fraud

US— The last of four people charged in connection with faked lighter safety tests has been sentenced in federal court.

News3 August 2011

More pollsters reported missing in Mexico

MEXICO— Three more fieldworkers have gone missing while polling on the gubernatorial elections in the state of Michoacan, following reports of six disappearances over the weekend.

Opinion3 August 2011

Slow down! You move too fast

Attempts to curb speeding on the roads usually involve a mix of scary messages and the threat of fines or driving bans. But behavioural economics is starting to be applied to this social issue in creative ways, says Crawford Hollingworth.

News2 August 2011

Kantar renews MR support deal with WNS

UK/INDIA— Kantar has renewed its contract with business and knowledge process outsourcing firm WNS after working with the company for the last five years.

News2 August 2011

Dipsticks founders make way for new MD

UK— The co-founders of Dipsticks Research, John and Fiona Raglan, are to step back from the business and play a smaller role, and have promoted Ivor Knox to managing director.

News2 August 2011

Gartner reports 16% rise in Q2 revenue

US— Gartner’s second quarter revenue increased 16% to $365.5m, with net income up 60% to $32.2m, the IT industry analysis firm said today.

News2 August 2011

Initiative names new worldwide head of research

UK— Liz Parker has been appointed worldwide head of research at media communications agency Initiative. She was previously insight manager at Associated Newspapers.

News2 August 2011

Kissmetrics drops ETags after privacy researchers' report

US— Kissmetrics, which bills itself as a “person-based analytics platform”, has revised its web tracking methods after privacy researchers drew attention to its use of ETag technology – a hard-to-evade form of tracking.

Feature2 August 2011

Ipsos must protect Synovate’s ‘golden nuggets’

Adrian Chedore, Synovate’s founding CEO, delivers his verdict on the planned sale of the company to Ipsos. An exclusive interview by Robert Bain.

News2 August 2011

Election pollsters missing in Mexico – report

MEXICO— Police are looking for six polling company workers who went missing over the weekend in the Mexican state of Michoacán, according to the Associated Press.

News2 August 2011

Survey software firm QuestBack acquires Globalpark

NORWAY— Survey and feedback management software maker QuestBack has acquired German research software firm Globalpark.

News1 August 2011

Communications firm Open Health launches MR consultancy

UK— Chime-owned healthcare communications agency Open Health has launched a new market research and brand consulting practice, Open Plan.

News1 August 2011

First quarter sees improvement at Creston's insight division

UK— The first three months of the financial year saw an improvement for Creston’s insight division, whose revenue has declined over the past few years, the group said in a statement today.

News1 August 2011

Rentrak scoops first European VOD deal

US— TV audience researcher Rentrak has won a “long-term multi-platform” deal to measure the on-demand services of Spanish satellite broadcaster Digital+, through its OnDemand Essentials service.

News1 August 2011

Indian police arrest officials of 'pay to take surveys' firm

INDIA— The chief operating officer of Speak Asia – a company that charges panellists a fee to take surveys with the promise of making big money from their opinions – has been arrested along with several colleagues, according to reports.

News1 August 2011

Matthias Hartmann to replace Wübbenhorst as GfK CEO

GERMANY— Matthias Hartmann, global head of strategy and industries at IBM Business Services, is to replace Klaus Wübbenhorst as CEO of research agency GfK by the end of this year.

News1 August 2011

Sands Research and Brain Intelligence in neuro partnership

US/CHINA— Neuromarketing agency Sands Research has struck a deal with Chinese counterpart Brain Intelligence Neuro-Consultancy ( BI) to offer their services to clients around the world.

Feature1 August 2011

Community safety

Sally O’Rourke says she doesn’t work in research, but she is the European MD for Communispace. She tells us why life without a closed customer community can be ‘dangerous’.

Feature1 August 2011

Improve your focus

The mood on the high street might be grim but retailers can still succeed. James Verrinder looks at how they can sharpen up their understanding of customers and respond quickly to their needs.

Feature1 August 2011

Experience is everything

The top performers in Nunwood’s US customer experience rankings have one thing in common – deep understanding of their customers, says David Conway.

Feature1 August 2011

Mum’s the word

Carrie Longton, co-founder of Mumsnet, speaks to Robert Bain about how the business is driven by its community, and how brands are tapping into it for insight and engagement.

Feature1 August 2011

Hear me out: Researchers must learn from The Wire

Luke Perry of Jigsaw Research argues that researchers need to spend some quality time with a box set of the US crime drama.