Feature4 February 2013

Mark your mind up

Behavioural economist Leigh Caldwell shows how tailoring price to customer value perceptions can significantly increase profits.

News31 January 2013

Purple MR to provide pan-European support to Kelton

UK — Hendon-based international research specialist Purple Market Research has joined the Los Angeles-based marketing strategy network Kelton Global Group. The agency will provide UK and European support for Kelton.

News31 January 2013

Haines McGregor names ex-Added Value VP insight director

UK — Brand development consultancy Haines McGregor has appointed Added Value vice president Bec O’Brien to the role of insight director, based in the company’s Chelsea headquarters.

News31 January 2013

Ipsos relaunches Brand Graph Digital globally

US — Ipsos ASI Digital is relaunching its Brand Graph Digital service globally, three years after piloting it in the US. The move forms part of the company’s five year plan to modernise the way research in the digital world is conducted.

News31 January 2013

Effective Measure appoints Singapore MD to drive expansion

SINGAPORE — Effective Measure has announced the appointment of its first country managing director, Sammy Elazab, to take charge of the Singaporean marketplace. The move follows a number of appointments to the Singapore office in recent months.

Opinion31 January 2013

The bright and the blind

Plenty of big talk and big thought was on show at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. But the behavioural sciences give us cause to worry about the decisions being made there, says Crawford Hollingworth.

Opinion31 January 2013

Week 2: All hands on deck! The ship has hit a storm

It’s week two of his diary of a research start-up and Tom Holliss has turned video director and digital CRM expert. Jack of all trades, perhaps – but such is the life of a start-up.

News31 January 2013

ThinkNow Research hires client services director

US — Hispanic research specialist ThinkNow Research has appointed David Milam as its client services director, with immediate effect. He joins from Mediamark Research and Intelligence where he was client services manager, west coast.

News31 January 2013

Millward Brown to open new office in Myanmar

MYANMAR — Millward Brown has announced plans to open a new office in Myanmar ( Burma) during the first quarter of 2013. The new business will be headed by Lyndal Pearce, previously co-founder of Compass Research.

News31 January 2013

Advertising delivers £100bn to UK economy, claims report

UK — Advertising delivers £100bn a year to the UK economy by increasing the level of economic activity and increasing productivity, according to a new study by the Advertising Association ( AA) and Deloitte.

News31 January 2013

The Sound Research hires Knapman to lead London office

UK — Former BBC research head Stuart Knapman is joining strategic consultancy The Sound Research to head up its London operations and take a position on the Canadian firm’s board.

News30 January 2013

One-MS appoints Beiersdorf's Harries as research director

UK — Solihull-based qualitative research company One-MS has appointed former Beiersdorf marketer Rebecca Harries as a research director.

News30 January 2013

Pinfluencer launches image recognition engine

US — Pinfluencer has announced the launch of a new image recognition engine which will enable brands to see which image on a particular page drives the most traffic from Pinterest via its analytics dashboard.

Feature30 January 2013

Cash in your chimps? Not yet, says Goldberg

With new analytics software and an international expansion on the cards, CEO Dave Goldberg says the time wasn’t right for SurveyMonkey to go public.

News30 January 2013

Rentrak to measure VOD for RADiUS-TWC

News30 January 2013

Arbitron sues WKYC-TV for copyright infringement

US — Arbitron is suing a Gannet-owned Cleveland television and internet radio station for allegedly improperly using the audience measurement’s firm data reports in its sales and marketing packages that are sent out to potential advertisers.

News30 January 2013

DataGravity secures $30m In series B funding

US — DataGravity, an early-stage data mining company, has raised $30m in a series B investment round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Previous investors Charles River Ventures and General Catalyst Partners also participated in the round.

News30 January 2013

MRA names Amy Shields as director of research

US — The Marketing Research Association ( MRA) has appointed Advanced Focus’s executive vice president Amy Shields to the newly created role of director of research, effective immediately.

News30 January 2013

OnePoint Global and CE Agency team in S Africa

SOUTH AFRICA — Mobile technology firm OnePoint Global has developed a partnership with South Africa’s Customer Experience Agency ( CE Agency) to enable mobile research to be undertaken on any mobile handset for clients including oil and gas giant Total.

News30 January 2013

GfK probes Turkish irregularities as 2012 revenues rise 10.2%

GERMANY — GfK Group has posted preliminary figures showing a 10.2% increase in its full-year revenue to approximately €1.5bn, though this will be impacted by the firm announcing a provision of approximately €21m related to irregularities in its Turkish subsidiary.

News29 January 2013

Unified acquires PageLever

US — Facebook Pages analytics and management platform PageLever has been acquired by enterprise marketing technology specialists Unified. The firm will combine the former’s platform into its own offerings.

News29 January 2013

Barratt Developments appoints BritainThinks to stakeholder survey task

UK — Barratt Developments has appointed research and strategy specialists BritainThinks to examine stakeholder attitudes to housing in London.

News29 January 2013

HESCU wins postgraduate employability study task

UK — The Higher Education Careers Services Unit ( HECSU) has secured a contract with Universities UK to research employer engagement with postgraduate courses, with support from the Council for Industry and Higher Education and research agency CFE.

News29 January 2013

Vision Critical unveils platform to track brand value in real-time

US — Vision Critical has partnered with business intelligence specialists MicroStrategy and cloud analytics firm Applied Predictive Technologies ( APT) to release a Brand Equity Relationship Assessment ( BERA) platform that aims to help bridge the gap between marketing initiatives and financial results.

News29 January 2013

GfK hires Villain to lead new US customer experience unit

US — GfK has appointed Ipsos MediaCT’s Eric Villain to the newly created post of managing director of the US Brand and Customer Experience ( BaCE) division, which incorporates customer loyalty, branding and communications.

News29 January 2013

Sensum pilots wearable emotional response platform

UK — Technology start-up Sensum have unveiled a new emotional response platform that measures tiny changes in viewers’ sweat levels to gauge an audience’s engagement with entertainment offerings such as the HBO series Game of Thrones.

News29 January 2013

The Telegraph signs up to Webtrends Streams

UK — Web analytics specialists Webtrends has expanded its relationship with The Telegraph newspaper and implemented Webtrends Streams to improve customer experience, increase conversions and revenue on its website and develop engagement internally.

Feature29 January 2013

The new deal

As the UK government looks to overhaul the former COI research roster, Brian Tarran asks a panel of experts what their hopes are for the future of research procurement in Westminster.

News29 January 2013

Ipsos MediaCT names Wallace as US VP

US — Ipsos MediaCT has appointed former WPP senior executive, Paul Wallace, as its latest US vice president. He will be responsible for securing several high profile lines of new business and managing and overseeing operations on existing business.

News29 January 2013

Insight Strategy Group promotes Van Vleet and Orenstein

US — Insight Strategy Group has promoted Karen Van Vleet to the post of associate director and Annie Orenstein to the role of research manager, with immediate effect.

News29 January 2013

Mintel Futures aims to offer clients long term trend forecasts

UK — Mintel has launched a new global approach to trend forecasting called Mintel Futures. The process aims to enable the firm’s analysts to offer a longer term, strategic outlook in reports by concentrating on a set of six key trends over the next 5-10 years.

News29 January 2013

Twitter focuses on mobile analytics with Crashlytics acquisition

US — Twitter has acquired analytics and crash-reporting tool Crashlytics, an insights dashboard used by companies to find out the performance of mobile apps including when they crash and what the root cause of this was.

News28 January 2013

Rentrak expands deal with Morgan Murphy into Washington

US — Morgan Murphy Media, a TV and radio broadcaster in Washington, has signed an expanded multi-year contract to receive Rentrak’s TV audience measurement service, StationView Essentials.

News28 January 2013

Watermelon Research appoints Phil Corr as director

UK — Watermelon Research has added to its senior team with the appointment of TNS’s Phil Corr as a director, alongside two new consultants to strengthen its online offerings to clients.

News28 January 2013

Warc warns of lack of evidence in social brand campaigns

GLOBAL — Too many social media campaigns are run on a small-scale, short-term basis and lack quantified proof of their commercial effectiveness, a study by Warc has concluded.

News28 January 2013

GSK joins Duke-Ipsos Research Centre

US — GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK) has become the ninth member company on the board of the Duke-Ipsos Research Centre, a shopper think tank and collaboration between FMCG manufacturers, academics and retailers.

News28 January 2013

Insight Resarch Group launches IQ quantitative practice

UK — Insight Research Group has unveiled a new dedicated quantitative research practice for healthcare clients, called IQ. It will be led by directors Philip Dunn and Gracie van Kemenade.

News28 January 2013

Cello hints at solid recovery in 2012 after restructures

UK — Cello Group, parent company of research agencies 2CV, Face, RS Consulting and Insight Research Group, has posted a pre-close trading update for 2012, indicating that the company achieved a “solid recovery, with the stabalising of headline profit margins.”

Opinion28 January 2013

'Respect for personal data must be in the DNA of business'

Ensuring public trust in companies’ use of personal data is more important than ever, says Market Research Society CEO Jane Frost on the launch of the Fair Data trust mark.

News28 January 2013

ICO cites need for data as cookie policy changes

UK — The Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) is to change the cookie-dropping policy on its website from explicit to implied consent because it wants “reliable information to make our website better”.

News28 January 2013

Obama research head earns White House role

US — President Obama’s director of opinion research during last year’s re-election campaign, David Simas, is to become the assistant to the president and deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy in the White House.

News28 January 2013

Allegiance names new CEO and CFO

US — Customer feedback firm Allegiance has hired former Symantec SVP and CMO Carine Clark as its new president and CEO, effective immediately. She is joined by Novell’s Dana Russell, who becomes chief financial officer.

News28 January 2013

MRS launches 'trust mark' for fair use of consumer data

UK — A new ‘trust mark’ signalling a company’s commitment to the fair use of consumer data is launched today by the Market Research Society.

News25 January 2013

Civicom adds text analytics to research offerings

US — Civicom says it has introduced text analytics to its portfolio to simplify the analysis of large amounts of qualitative data generated from individual depth interviews, focus groups, mobile qualitative studies and online multimedia board projects.

News25 January 2013

Rentrak adds another Scripps station in latest deal

US — Rentrak has signed a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Scripps Television for its ABC-station, Kero-TV Bakersfield, California. The deal comes two years after the firms first signed a partnership.

Feature25 January 2013

Networking opportunities available

Never mind the insights; social networks are great communications tools. SPA Future Thinking’s Paul Roberts discusses the next evolution of the humble corporate intranet.

News25 January 2013

Havas pilots SOE analytics and content unit in New York

US — Havas Worldwide is piloting a new shared owned and earned ( SOE) media unit in its New York office, which consolidates various agency disciplines around analytics, community management, and content strategy.

News25 January 2013

Milena Moncaleano to head insight for MediaCom Colombia

COLOMBIA — MediaCom has named Milena Moncaleano as the leader of its research and insight department in its new Colombia office, following the acquisition of Massive, a well-known local agency in the country.

News25 January 2013

Tree's Bayfield to join OgilvyOne to head data practice

UK — Tree co-founder Matthew Bayfield is leaving the research and data analysis firm to join WPP’s OgilvyOne in the newly created role of head of data practice across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

News25 January 2013

Mystery Researchers hires Curtis as director

US — Mystery Researchers, formerly known as Research Services Group, has appointed former SAP and Coca-Cola executive Geoff Curtis as a director of business development.

News25 January 2013

Questback names Dressen as CEO for central Europe

GERMANY — Questback has appointed former ASG senior vice president Hilarius Dressen as chief executive and managing director of its central Europe operations, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

News24 January 2013

Join the Dots appoints London business development execs

UK — Join the Dots has hired two senior business development executives, Mark Walton and Ed Wheeler, to work out of its newly established London office. They join Graeme Lawrence, sales and marketing director.

News24 January 2013

Product Perceptions adds Mathieu to sensory team

UK — Product Perceptions has hired Nicolas Mathieu as a sensory manager. He joins the Crawley based agency from Canada and will work in its sensory department.

News24 January 2013

Big data tech firm Guavus acquires Neuralitic Systems

US — Big data analytics provider Guavus has acquired Montreal-based Neuralitic Systems, the mobile data monetisation and marketing analytics experts serving the telecommunications industry.

News24 January 2013

Wolfram Alpha upgrades personal analytics for Facebook

US — Wolfram Alpha has announced its first upgrade to its personal analytics for Facebook offering, including an extension of its social network visualisations to help users better understand how their social network fits together.

News24 January 2013

Ipsos adds Dupont-Madinier as independent director

FRANCE — Ipsos has appointed Mary Dupont-Madinier as a director of the company. She replaces Wladimir Mollof, who has resigned, for the remainder of his mandate running to 31 December 2015.

Feature24 January 2013

Access all areas

Research professionals need to be mindful of a growing movement towards greater data sharing. Big data was just the beginning. Now we’ve got open data and Midata to contend with. Lucy Fisher reports.

News24 January 2013

Warc GMI shows first global marketing budget rise since May

GLOBAL — Marketing budgets have increased for the first time in more than six months at the worldwide level, according to Warc’s latest Global Marketing Index ( GMI), which reached 50.4 points in January.

News24 January 2013

Spotify pens music analytics deal with Musicmetric

UK — Musicmetric has announced a deal with Spotify to allow its users to benchmark Spotify data alongside social media trends and file-sharing information using the Musicmetric Pro premium analytics tool.

News24 January 2013

EMI's David Boyle to join HarperCollins Publishers as SVP consumer insight

US — HarperCollins Publishers has appointed David Boyle to the new role of senior vice president, consumer insight, reporting to Chantal Restivo-Alessi, chief digital officer from 4 February.

News24 January 2013

Posterscope and JCDecaux debut ‘VirtuoCity’ simulation research technology

UK — Posterscope and JCDecaux have worked in partnership to launch new bespoke research technology, known as VirtuoCity. The outdoor agencies claim that it will allow brands to better understand consumer engagement with out-of-home ( OOH) advertising.

News23 January 2013

Semetric raises £3m investment for global expansion

UK — Semetric, the global data analytics firm behind Musicmetric, has secured £3m investment from Imperial Innovations Group and existing investor Pentech Ventures, a venture capital fund specialising in software investments.

News23 January 2013

Nesta appoints nativeye to monitor mentorship programme

UK — Nesta, the innovation charity, has partnered with the mobile based comunity research tool nativeye to track experiences of their creative business mentor network programme.

News23 January 2013

Revelation names McLean as COO

US — Online and mobile qualitative research tool provider Revelation has named former Qmedtrix EVP Todd McLean as its new chief operating officer with immediate effect.

Opinion23 January 2013

Week 1: Diary of a research start-up

Tom Holliss kicks-off a new series recounting the trials and tribulations of launching a startup research technology company.

News23 January 2013

Rentrak partners with Majestic MRSS on Indian box office deal

INDIA — Rentrak Corporation has announced a collaboration for the collection of movie box office grosses in India with Majestic Market Research ( Majestic MRSS).

Feature23 January 2013

Under the influence

Many of our decisions and behaviours are influenced by what we see others do. Colin Strong, Paul Ormerod and Alex Bentley consider the evidence and how marketers can adapt to this reality.

Feature23 January 2013

Under the influence

Many of our decisions and behaviours are influenced by what we see others do. Colin Strong, Paul Ormerod and Alex Bentley consider the evidence and how marketers can adapt to this reality.

Feature23 January 2013

Under the influence

Many of our decisions and behaviours are influenced by what we see others do. Colin Strong, Paul Ormerod and Alex Bentley consider the evidence and how marketers can adapt to this reality.

News23 January 2013

Simply Measured raises $8m funding

US — Simply Measured has raised $8m in financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners ( BVP) with MHS Capital and existing angels participating. The move comes as the firm announces Google Analytics integration capabilities.

News23 January 2013

Optimal raises $7m in series B funding round

US — Social media analytics specialist Optimal has added $7m in series B funding with new participants including Warren Adelman, the former CEO of GoDaddy, and Silicon Valley Bank.

News23 January 2013

Simon-Kucher sees 20% revenue lift in 2012

GERMANY — Strategy consultancy Simon-Kucher and Partners has reported a 20% increase in full year revenues for 2012 totalling €145m, with over 45% of the income being generated outside of its German headquarters.

News23 January 2013

Facebook announces global launch of ROI measurement tool

GLOBAL — Facebook has launched its conversion measurement and optimisation system for direct response marketers globally, allowing advertisers to measure the ROI of their ads.

News22 January 2013

Vision Critical makes text analytics acquisition

CANADA — Online community technology firm Vision Critical is adding text analytics to its product mix through the acquisition of DiscoverText.

Opinion22 January 2013

That elusive thing called 'insight'

Former clientside researcher and Insight Inside founder Andy Howden reveals 10 reasons why insight can struggle to gain traction within business.

News22 January 2013

PBS signs Rentrak for DVD retail, download data

US — Public television distributer PBS Distribution has tapped Rentrak for weekly retail sales data for DVD and Blu-ray titles in the US, as well as data on digital download activity.

News22 January 2013

Ipsos Healthcare Asia Pacific MD to lead UK business

UK — Ipsos Healthcare’s Asia Pacific MD Gareth Phillips has relocated to become UK managing director and head of Western Europe.

News22 January 2013

Adometry bags $8m for marketing analytics development

US — Marketing analytics firm Adometry has raised $8m in new financing to fund development of its cross-channel campaign attribution platform.

News22 January 2013

SIS International hires Lorien's Sacchi as biz dev director

UK — SIS International Research has appointed Federica Sacchi as director of business development for EMEA, based in London. 

News22 January 2013

Iglo Group hands global concept test remit to Marketing Sciences

UK — Iglo Group, the frozen foods company formerly known as Birds Eye Iglo, has awarded its global product concept testing contract to Marketing Sciences for the second year running.

News22 January 2013

Dipsticks promotes in brand/comms and public sector teams

UK — Dipsticks Research has promoted James Dickie, a former research manager of its Other Lines of Enquiry media research business, to head of brand and communications research for the Dipsticks brand.

News22 January 2013

TNS's Stephen Yap joins Ipsos Marketing

UK — Ipsos Marketing has appointed Stephen Yap as head of market understanding and measurement, focusing on consumer and shopper needs and behaviours.

News21 January 2013

Gallup no longer in poll position at USA Today

US — USA Today and Gallup have ended their polling partnership of 20 years, calling it “a mutual decision”.

News21 January 2013

CMS Research hires TNS's Cummins for biz dev role

US — CMS Research has appointed Jeff Cummins as vice president of business development.

Feature21 January 2013

Catching up with consumers

ORC president and CEO Marc Litvinoff tells us about his company’s plans following the acquisition of Cincinnati-based consumer research specialist Marketing Research Services Inc.

News21 January 2013

SymphonyIRI puts strategy exec in charge of Americas

US — SymphonyIRI Group has named Piyush Chaudhari as president of the Americas, reporting directly to Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer.

News21 January 2013

ICM names Carruthers as head of qual research

UK — ICM has appointed former Interbrand director Iain Carruthers as head of qualitative research.

News21 January 2013

Obituary: Nigel Bradley, marketing lecturer

UK — Nigel Bradley, a senior lecturer in marketing at Westminster Business School ( WBS), died on 31 December. He had been battling cancer for several years.

News21 January 2013

Obituary: Cliff Holmes, statistics expert

UK — Cliff Holmes, a statistics expert and veteran of the UK market research industry, died last week aged 76 after a short battle with cancer.

News21 January 2013

Experian buys analytics firm Pacific Micromarketing

AUSTRALIA — Pacific Micromarketing, the analytics arm of Australian publisher PMP, has been acquired by Experian for $6.17m. All employees will be transferred to Experian offices as part of the sale.

News21 January 2013

Kathi Love to step down as GfK MRI president

US — GfK MRI president and CEO Kathi Love is to step down from her role on 15 February. She will be replaced on an interim basis by chief research officer Julian Baim and chief operating officer Ian Jack.

News18 January 2013

DARPA-funded big data tool gets $10m investment

US — A big data analysis technology that began life as a DARPA-funded research project at Stanford University has received $10.25m in financing.

News18 January 2013

NetBase adds $9m to close $23m financing round

US — Social media monitoring and analysis firm NetBase has raised a further $9m in funding, bringing to a close its series C expansion round which brought in a total of $23m in new capital.

News18 January 2013

Leger Metrics hires Raffai as VP marketing and sales

CANADA — Leger Metrics, formerly Agility Metrics, has hired Cegedim’s Josef Raffai as its new vice president of marketing and sales. He is the firm’s first hire since its acquisition and rebrand last month.

News18 January 2013

Crowd Science sells to ad tech firm YuMe

US — Crowd Science, an online audience measurement and targeting firm founded by two former ComScore executives, has been acquired by digital video ad technology company YuMe.

News18 January 2013

MediaResearch named founding member for CNP SNaP merger

CZECH REPUBLIC — MediaResearch has been named as the founding member of the combined joined Czech and Slovakian National Panels ( CNP SNaP). The merger of the two online panels was completed earlier this month.

News18 January 2013

Dentsu launches digital insights agency 360i in UK

UK — Dentsu is launching its digital insights agency 360i in the UK, in partnership with its UK search marketing agency Steak. The new office is 360i’s sixth, but its first outside of the US.

News17 January 2013

Webtrends announces partnership with Web Analytics Demystified

US — Webtrends has signed a partnership agreement with Web Analytics Demystified for the reselling of Webtrends Streams, covering North America.

News17 January 2013

Swrve appointed by Funtactix

IRELAND — Dublin-based mobile gaming and analytics firm Swrve has been appointed by Funtactix, creators of the game versions of Hollywood movies including Mission:Impossible, The Game, and The Hunger Games Adventures.

News17 January 2013

SurveyMonkey raises $800m in recapitalisation with Tiger Global and Google

US — SurveyMonkey has initiated an $800m debt and equity recapitalisation with Tiger Global Management that could be worth approximately $1.35bn. Google is also becoming a new shareholder.

Feature17 January 2013

Planning permission

When businesses sit down to plan for the future, does research get a look in? Spring’s Steve Phillips went in search of an answer talking to several of his firm’s biggest clients.

News17 January 2013

Obama's digital analytics director turns consultant

US — Amelia Showalter, President Obama’s former director of digital analytics, is taking the skills she honed on the campaign trail and plying them in a new consultancy venture.

News17 January 2013

Curalate raises $3m in series A financing

US — Curalate, a Philadelphia-based analytics firm that helps organisations measure, monitor and increase activity around their brands on Pinterest, has secured $3m in series A financing.

News17 January 2013

IAB Australia names former chairman as interim CEO

AUSTRALIA — Tony Prentice, a former chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB) Australia, has returned to the organisation as interim CEO, replacing Paul Fisher who left to join Nielsen.

News17 January 2013

IPA Bellwether points to increased spend on MR in Q4

UK — UK marketers increased their spend on market research in the fourth quarter of the year, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s ( IPA) Bellwether Report, with a net 0.7% of survey respondents reporting upwards revisions to budgets.

News17 January 2013

BrainJuicer cut 9% of staff after profit warning

UK — BrainJuicer cut 9% of its workforce in the latter part of 2012 after warning of a sharp downturn in revenues in the final two months of the year.

News16 January 2013

Ebiquity reports 27% H1 revenue lift

UK — Media and marketing performance measurement company Ebiquity has reported interim underlying operating profits rose by 29% to £3.2m in the six months to the end of October.

News16 January 2013

M3 Global Research announces new managers

UK — Sony Group owned healthcare research agency M3 Global Research has rehired Hawi Kumsa and Jana Rueten to manager level roles in its latest recruitment push.

News16 January 2013

RapidBlue launches mobile app for retail analytics

FINLAND — Shopper analytics specialist RapidBlue Solutions has launched a mobile application, Mobile Retail Store Analytics, designed to enable offline retail store analytics directly on devices.

News16 January 2013

Millward Brown signs Unilever and Coke to facial coding deals

US — Millward Brown has announced a major expansion of its Link and facial coding technology offerings with Unilever and Coca-Cola amongst the first clients to make use of the service in 2013.

News16 January 2013

Eccleston made commercial director at eDigitalResearch

UK — Online specialist eDigitalResearch have promoted head of research, Derek Eccleston to the newly created role of commercial director with immediate effect.

Feature16 January 2013

Till receipt surveys get a reality check

Helen Roberts, retail research director at GfK, contests that till receipt surveys ( TRS) are not the perfect research solution they appeared to be upon their conception.

News16 January 2013

Nielsen sees global ad spending rise 4.3% in Q3 2012

GLOBAL — Global advertising spending was up 4.3% in the third quarter of 2012 over the same period in 2011, to $139bn, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

News16 January 2013

Market Strategies International names Orians COO

US — Market Strategies International has appointed Kantar’s Kevin Orians as chief operating officer. He will report directly to the company’s president George Wilkerson, with immediate effect.

News16 January 2013

Twitter unveils Oscars Index to track awards buzz

US — Twitter has launched a new Twitter Oscars Index that will track buzz on the site connected to the Oscars. The index will measure and rank conversation about the Academy Awards every day over the next six weeks up to the ceremony on February 24, in Los Angeles.

News16 January 2013

Facebook unveils Graph Search user research tool

US — Facebook has unveiled a new data tool, Graph Search, which allows users to sift through pictures, posts and messages and collate and organise it in new ways without breaching privacy standards.

News15 January 2013

Trufflenet promotes Huynh to research manager role

UK — Trufflenet, the social media research company, has promoted Maryann Huynh to the post of research manager. She will lead a dedicated team of researchers and analysts servicing key clients in healthcare, media and the public sector.

News15 January 2013

GMO Research and Horizon E-Lab to form JV in China

CHINA — GMO Research and Horizon E-lab have announced plans to establish a joint venture company headquartered in Shanghai, China, in April this year. The firm will be named GMO E-Lab Marketing Research.

News15 January 2013

Point Consultancy unveils FMCG specialist division

DUBAI — A new FMCG specialised division called Ignite has been opened in Dubai by Point Consultancy. The agency will focus on helping brands in the sector across the Middle East and North Africa region.

News15 January 2013

MRS names Patrick Barwise as patron

UK — The Market Research Society ( MRS) has named Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at London Business School, as its newest patron.

News15 January 2013

Schlesinger partners The Insight Lab in St Louis

US — Schlesinger Associates has been selected as the recruiting and facility management partner for a new San Francisco research initative, known as The Insight Lab.

News15 January 2013

Effective Measure teams with Mindshare Singapore

SINGAPORE - Effective Measure has been appointed by Mindshare Singapore to provide its digital campaign Gross Rating Point ( GRP) measurement and advertising effectiveness solutions to all of the media agency’s clients.

Feature15 January 2013

JICREG and NRS: Read all about it

Jim Jarrett, a business director in the intelligence team at Mindshare UK, says the NRS deal to collect JICREG’s readership data represents a welcome unification of press audience measurement in the UK.

News15 January 2013

River promotes executives and adds to team

UK — River Research has strengthened its team with a series of appointments and promotions across the company, including a new focus on digital communities and its Asia-Pacific research offering.

News15 January 2013

Rentrak adds three Quincy networks to local TV roster

US — Rentrak has signed a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Quincy Newspapers for three of its affiliate stations across North America.

News15 January 2013

LinkedIn and TNS scrutinise talent brand ambassadors

US — LinkedIn and TNS Employee Insights have undertaken a major collaborative research study focused aroud identifying trends in talent brand ambassadorship.

News15 January 2013

Lightspeed reshuffles senior management team

US — Lightspeed Research has announced a management reshuffle that will see Martin Filz replace Andrew Cayton as CEO, EMEA. Efrain Ribeiro also becomes global chief research officer.

News14 January 2013

$20k prize for 'innovative' business intelligence tools

US — A $20,000 prize is being offered to the entrepreneur or company that comes up with the most innovative new way of gathering business intelligence.

Opinion14 January 2013

No easy answers

Thinktank’s Andrew Cooper follows up our data visualisation special with a call for agencies to spend more time thinking about their outputs. He warns that simplification isn’t always the best approach.

News14 January 2013

Nebu hires ex-Nipo and Nedstat man to lead product development

NETHERLANDS — Nebu, a developer of data collection and panel management software, has hired Emile Bakker as product manager.

News14 January 2013

Netquest opens Chile office with Cid at the helm

CHILE — Online panel and survey technology firm Netquest has opened an office in Chile to be led by Enric Cid, who also heads the development of the company’s Latin American panels.

News14 January 2013

CMR names Hulusi as research director

UK — Suffolk-based medical device research specialists Creative Medical Research ( CMR) has appointed former TNS executive Alper Hulusi as research director.

News14 January 2013

HCD Research appoints Messina as director of marketing sciences

US — HCD Research has appointed former Perception Research Services director Joe Messina to the newly created role of director of marketing sciences, where he will lead the firm’s communication sciences research group.

News14 January 2013

Insight Health US appoints Gallant as joint CEO

US — Cello Group has appointed Kathryn Gallant, former managing partner for US health at Hall & Partners, as the new joint CEO of Insight Health US. She replaces Avanti Ananthram, who will become head of international development based in the UK.

Feature11 January 2013

Top tips

Our expert contributors offer rules to live by for researchers wanting to brush up on their data design skills.

News11 January 2013

GfK to study retail traffic patterns with Location Insights

US — GfK has launched a new ‘Location Insights’ service to help retailers understand the movements and demographics of crowds in and around specific stores. It will be available commercially in April.

News11 January 2013

Academica Group launches StudentVu community panel

CANADA — Research consultancy Academica Group has partnered with Vision Critical to launch a community panel called StudentVu, targeting university and college students for membership.

Feature11 January 2013

Award-winning design

We showcase eight of the best pieces of data visualisation work that competed in the recent Kantar-sponsored Information is Beautiful Awards.

News11 January 2013

Socialrithmic shifts focus to Pinterest

US — Social media analytics firm Socialrithmic has switched its focus from Facebook and Twitter to Pinterest with a new analytics product designed specifically for the content-sharing site.

News11 January 2013

Sapient buys Sunil Garga's (m)Phasize

US — Sapient, the global services company that owns interactive marketing agency SapientNitro, has acquired cross-channel marketing analytics firm ( m)Phasize.

News11 January 2013

Mobile network big data tech firm Guavus gets $30m

US — Guavus, a big data analytics provider that counts mobile network operators among its clients, has closed a $30m round of new funding.

News10 January 2013

Businessman and TV star Cuban joins CivicScience board

US — Businessman and media personality Mark Cuban has signed up for a four-year stint advising polling firm CivicScience on its marketing and product development activities.

News10 January 2013

The Sound turns it up a notch in 2012

CANADA — Qual specialist The Sound Research has reported 25% growth in commissions last year to $7.4m, making 2012 the most profitable 12 months in its five-year history.

News10 January 2013

Balanzó, Ohme and Scamell-Katz launch neuroscience consultancy

UK — Former TNS colleagues Cristina Balanzó and Siemon Scamell-Katz have partnered with Human Mind & Brain founder Rafal Ohme to launch Walnut Group, a consumer neuroscience consultancy and research agency.

Feature10 January 2013

Making eye contact with customers

Internal data-sharing is one thing - but brands also have to communicate information to consumers. Betfair, Ford and Absolut discuss how they use data visualisation to engage the public.

News10 January 2013

Italian and Russian research associations join Efamro

BELGIUM — The European Research Federation ( Efamro) has added Assirm - the Italian association for market social and opinion research - and OIROM - the Russian Association for Market and Opinion Research - as its newest members.

News10 January 2013

Washington Post Media launches Capital Insight group

US — The publishers of the Washington Post newspaper have announced the launch of Capital Insight, an independent polling operation that will offer polling and research services to external clients.

News10 January 2013

Populus hires Peacock to focus on customer satisfaction

UK — Populus has appointed FreshMinds executive Laurent Peacock as a consultant in a bid to bolster its push into the customer insights market. He will report to director Gary Muncaster in the newly created role.

News10 January 2013

Market Strategies International opens in Singapore

SINGAPORE — US-based agency Market Strategies International has opened an office in Singapore.

News9 January 2013

Quantcast looks to MakeGood to bolster reporting suite

US — Web measurement firm Quantcast has bought MakeGood, a software company that has developed a system to automate the reconciliation and reporting of digital ad campaign performance data.

Feature9 January 2013

Practical applications

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all tool for data visualisation work. DataMarket’s Hjalmar Gislason reviews what is available to help researchers find the best solution for their needs.

News9 January 2013

ICM to move into centralised Creston offices in Soho

UK — Research agency ICM is moving in to the new Soho headquarters of parent company Creston, alongside other businesses within the group.

News9 January 2013

BritainThinks wins Museums Association research task

UK — BritainThinks has been appointed by the Museums Association to run a series of research studies that will feed in to the development of the Museums 2020 proposals – looking at how museums can play a wider role in society.

News9 January 2013

InsightExpress names co-CEOs to replace retiring Lipner

US — InsightExpress has promoted Drew Lipner and Marc Ryan to the role of co-CEOs, replacing William Lipner who is retiring but will continue as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. The changes are effective immediately.

News9 January 2013

ResearchBods hires Silversides as operations manager

UK — ResearchBods have appointed Nunwood’s Marcus Silversides to the newly created post of operations manager. He will oversee project delivery of the EduVoice research panels scheme.

News9 January 2013

Warc predicts 4% global adspend increase

GLOBAL — Advertising expenditure growth is expected to increase by 4% this year and 5.5% in 2014 despite the fragility of the global economy, according to Warc’s latest Consensus Ad Forecast.

News9 January 2013

Garton goes it alone as media consultant in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — Steve Garton, Synovate’s former global head of media and latterly executive director of business insights at Ipsos, has set up shop as an independent media consultant.

News9 January 2013

Mobile ad network InMobi bags Overlay's analytics experts

SINGAPORE — Mobile advertising network InMobi has bought Overlay Media, a data analytics company that has built a “context engine” to deliver personalised content to mobile users.

News9 January 2013

ORC International buys consumer specialist MRSI

US — ORC International has acquired Cincinnati-based consumer research specialist Marketing Research Services Inc. ( MRSI).

News8 January 2013

UK researchers see little New Year cheer

UK — Almost a third of researchers are fearful for the financial health of the UK research sector this year, according to findings from RSM’s latest research professionals’ survey.

News8 January 2013

ReInvention makes second acquisition, buys Authentic Response

US — Sampling and data collection firm reInvention has acquired rival Authentic Response in a deal that boosts the former’s panel reach.

Feature8 January 2013

Embedding creativity

Visual communication skills are alien to some in the research industry, but they needn’t be. Data visualisation can become part of the research process through smart hiring, skills training and expert partnerships.

News8 January 2013

Eilers Research launches with gaming industry focus

US — Former Roth Capital Partners senior analyst Todd Eilers has opened Eilers Research, a new boutique research and advisory firm servicing the equipment and technology sector within the global gaming industry.

News8 January 2013

Kraft's beverage insights leader to probe ad effectiveness at ARF

US — Coreen McGann, who led Kraft’s beverage consumer insights and strategy team for the past four years, has joined the Advertising Research Foundation’s research team ( ARF) as executive vice president of advertising effectiveness.

News8 January 2013

Toluna hires Lightspeed's Tan to APAC VP role

HONG KONG — Toluna has appointed Lightspeed Research director Cannie Tan to the newly created role of vice president of operations in the APAC region.

News8 January 2013

Narayanan named Ipsos Healthcare senior vice president

US — Ipsos Healthcare has appointed Siva Narayanan as senior vice president in charge of the company’s evidence generation, value and access portfolio.

News8 January 2013

NRS and JICREG partner for regional press measurement

UK — The National Readership Survey ( NRS) has been appointed by the Joint Industry Committee for Regional Media Research ( JICREG) to collect readership data for all regional newspapers in the UK, effective from 1 April.

News8 January 2013

Ipsos Healthcare's Douglas joins P\S\L as strategy chief

UK — Bob Douglas, formerly Ipsos Healthcare’s global head of custom research, has joined P\S\L Group as chief strategy officer.

News7 January 2013

Aguilar and Thompson named as Insight analysts

US — Insight Strategy Group has named Tiffany Aguilar and Paige Thompson as analysts.

News7 January 2013

Rentrak signs ratings contract with Iowa ABC affiliate

US — Rentrak has announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Capital Communications Company’s ABC-affiliate, WOI-DT, which airs in Des Moines, Iowa.

News7 January 2013

MediaResearch renews Czech TV measurement deal

CZECH REPUBLIC — The Association of Television Organisations ( ATO) has renewed MediaResearch’s deal to measure TV audiences in the Czech Republic for a further five years.

Feature7 January 2013

Telling tales

There are many good reasons for researchers to embrace data visualisation. One of them is to make people pay attention to the story you want to tell.

Feature7 January 2013

Seeing is believing

If researchers want to deliver insights that have real business impact, it’s clear that work needs to be done on the delivery mechanism. This is where data visualisation comes in.

News7 January 2013

Euclid upgrades wi-fi-based shopper analytics platform

US — Retail analytics firm Euclid has partnered with several wi-fi network providers for a new hardware-free version of its in-store shopper measurement system.

News7 January 2013

Morrisons puts Collard in charge of marketing and insight

UK — Supermarket chain Morrisons has promoted marketing director Nick Collard to group marketing and customer director, with responsibility for insight.

News7 January 2013

Marktest partners with Gemius for web measurement

PORTUGAL — Portuguese media research agency Marktest has signed a partnership agreement with online specialist Gemius to monitor internet audience behaviour in the Portuguese market.

News4 January 2013

Broadcast networks sign Rentrak for live mobile TV ratings

US — A mobile TV service backed by 12 major broadcast groups has selected Rentrak to provide audience measurement services.

News4 January 2013

Trufflenet promotes Doherty to data manager role

UK — Social media research company Trufflenet has promoted Max Doherty to the post of data manager.

News4 January 2013

Face Facts names Hughes head of data management

UK — Quant fieldwork firm Face Facts Research has hired Nunwood’s Joanne Hughes as head of data management.

News4 January 2013

Anametrix promotes CMO Thorogood to CEO

US — Cloud-based digital analytics platform Anametrix has promoted its CMO Pelin Thorogood to CEO with immediate effect. She replaces Anametrix co-founder and chairman of the board Blaise Barrelet.

News4 January 2013

Tribal Group acquires i-graduate for £7.5m

UK — Educational benchmarking and analytics group i-graduate has been acquired by learning software specialists Tribal Group in a deal worth up to £7.5m.

News4 January 2013

Revolution Analytics gets $7.8m financing for New Year

US — Revolution Analytics, a developer of statistical and predictive analytics software tools, has raised $7.8m in equity financing, according to documents filed with regulators.

News3 January 2013

Yankee Group sold to IT market specialists The 451 Group

US — Yankee Group, a research firm focused on the mobile communications market, has been sold by its private equity owners to The 451 Group, parent of IT market research specialists 451 Research and Uptime Institute.

News3 January 2013

Arbitron signs new multi-year ratings deal with Cumulus

US — Arbitron has signed a multi-year agreement with US radio broadcaster Cumulus Media to provide its diary and Portable People Meter ( PPM) radio ratings services across all 450 Cumulus stations nationally.

Feature3 January 2013

Fixer-upper

Bob Barocci led the Advertising Research Foundation back from the brink of collapse. Ten years on, he reflects on the organisation’s successes and the industry’s future challenges as he prepares to retire from the role.

News3 January 2013

Intage and ConField agree regional partnership deal

JAPAN/EGYPT — Japanese research firm Intage and Egypt’s ConField MENA have signed a non-exclusive alliance agreement for customised research services in their respective territories.

News3 January 2013

PRS promotes Mantashian to VP of qual

US — Packaging and shopper researcher firm Perception Research Services ( PRS) has promoted Jenic Mantashian to the newly created role of vice president of qualitative research.

News3 January 2013

Engage hires ex-Hall & Partners' Halliwell

UK — Engage Research, which works with clients in the drinks, FMCG and media sectors, has hired quantitative specialist Jen Halliwell as a director.

News3 January 2013

Dentsu to take 7% stake in BI firm Digital Garage

JAPAN — Japanese advertising giant Dentsu is to acquire a 7% stake in business intelligence firm Digital Garage.

News3 January 2013

Epic data access proposals 'counter-productive', says MRA

US — Giving consumers greater control over the type of information research companies collect about them and how it is used would be expensive and counter-productive, according to the Marketing Research Association ( MRA).

News3 January 2013

WPP buys into gamification and big data with Globant stake

ARGENTINA — WPP has agreed to acquire a 20% stake in gamification and big data software specialist Globant. The deal will see the agency network giant offer the software to any clients looking to strengthen their digital marketing efforts.

Opinion2 January 2013

New year. New industry?

The research industry is great – but how would you make it better? Now is the time to deliver your manifesto for change.

Opinion2 January 2013

Research in review: A spotlight on skills

The hottest topics of last year hold important lessons for how research skills must change and evolve. Sinead Hasson, managing director of recruitment firm Hasson Associates, delves into our archive.

News2 January 2013

IAB research council seeks to pin down 'engagement'

US — The Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB) is setting up a new research council to challenge the ambiguity of the term “engagement” and to get the industry to agree upon more tangible, descriptive forms of audience interaction.

News2 January 2013

Nielsen becomes sole provider of Hong Kong TV ratings

HONG KONG — Nielsen’s five-year contract to carry out TV audience measurement in Hong Kong, replacing CSM Media Research, is underway.

News2 January 2013

Mobile survey traffic increases in Q3, finds Kinesis

US — Mobile survey traffic increased from 19% to 25% between the first and third quarters last year, according to analysis by Kinesis Survey Technologies.