News29 April 2016

ISBA criticised over demand for contract clarity

Bronwen Morgan

The trade body for advertisers sent out a standard contract in an attempt to improve transparency and 'redefine relationships' between brands and media agencies, but the move has been met with criticism. 

News29 April 2016

Saving beats spending – just

People with a saving mindset just outnumber those with a spend mindset internationally, according to research from GfK.

News29 April 2016

Survation welcomes new director of research

Marius Mosoreanu has replaced Patrick Briône in the role, following the latter's departure to the Involvement and Participation Association. 

News29 April 2016

Elizabeth Denham appointed as new Information Commissioner

The Culture, Media and Sport select committee has approved Elizabeth Denham as the new Information Commissioner.

News29 April 2016

Pinterest chooses UK for first ad campaign

The image bookmarking platform is to unveil its first ever advertising campaign in the UK next month. 

News29 April 2016

Basis best agency, Sport England best client in Auras

Basis scooped the Aura Agency of the Year award beating C Space, Illuminas, Quadrangle, TNS and Verve with Sport England winning the client impact award.

Feature28 April 2016

Works of fact and fiction

Jane Simms

Waterstones' James Daunt has started to turn around the fortunes of the book retailer. But while he puts internal data to good use, he has yet to be won over by the business case for market research. By Jane Simms

Opinion28 April 2016

Time to stop nonsensical table top surveys

Customer feedback in the form of surveys delivered by staff at the time of purchase or service are riddled with misleading data and should be ditched by businesses says Roger Perowne.

News28 April 2016

WPP sees 10.5% revenue increase for Q1 2016

WPP reported revenue of £3.1 billion for the first quarter of 2016, an increase of 10.5%, with like-for-like growth at 5.1%. 

News28 April 2016

Dunnhumby invests in Aptaris

Customer science company dunnhumby has taken an equity stake in Aptaris, an enterprise marketing and promotions management technology company. 

News28 April 2016

Ipsos revenue up 1.9% in ‘best Q1’

Independent market research company, Ipsos, reported revenue of €386.9 million for the first quarter of 2016, a 1.9% increase on the same period the previous year.

News28 April 2016

Profitero appoints King as president and COO

Ecommerce analytics company Profitero has made Daniel King its president and chief operating officer, responsible for its EMEA sales team and global expansion ambitions.

News28 April 2016

Lightspeed GMI and comScore announce panel partnership

Lightspeed GMI has signed a multi-year contract with comScore to assist in building and maintaining its Total Home Panel. 

News28 April 2016

Hirst takes on CEO role at Carat UK amid management reshuffle

Carat UK has hired former CEO of Dentsu Aegis creative communications agency mcgarrybowen, Rick Hirst, as its first chief executive officer. 

News27 April 2016

73% of global consumers rate country of origin as key brand purchase driver

New multi-national research has revealed that on average, consumers consider a brand's country of origin as equally or more important than nine other purchase drivers, including price, function and quality. 

News27 April 2016

Intrusive ads pushing uptake of ad blockers

Jane Bainbridge

Media owners, ad agencies and consumers will all lose out as ad blocking software is increasingly used according to research from KPMG.

News27 April 2016

Future Thinking hires Gritten as director

Lieberman's Adele Gritten has joined market research consultancy Future Thinking as director of key accounts. 

News27 April 2016

Best reputations in retail banking are for mutual and challenger brands

Jane Bainbridge

Nationwide Building Society, Virgin Money and Santander have topped the UK RepTrak® ranking of retail banks’ reputations while the likes of RBS, Lloyds, TSB and Barclays have yet to win back public trust.

News27 April 2016

Directions Research hires two

Cincinnati-based insight company Directions Research has appointed Mike Herrel as development manager in its Business Intelligence Group and Shannon Goyda as senior research analyst.

Feature27 April 2016

Byron Sharp in seven

Jane Bainbridge

Byron Sharp, director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia, is a champion of evidence-based marketing. His latest book is a follow- up to How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know entitled How Brands Grow Part 2

News26 April 2016

UK ad spend surpasses £20bn

Last year saw UK advertising expenditure grow at its highest rate since 2010, with an increase of 7.5% to £20.1bn. 

News26 April 2016

React Surveys appoints Spencer as director

Customer service research specialist React Surveys has made Jill Spencer director for its mystery shopping services.

News26 April 2016

IModerate adds two to client development team

Denver-based insights agency iModerate has appointed Michael Steinberg and Steve Dodge to its client development team.

News26 April 2016

RED C expands to UK with new joint venture

Dublin-based research agency RED C Research & Marketing has opened a London office in Soho, marking its expansion into the UK market.

News26 April 2016

Tonic hires two in New York following growth

Tonic has welcomed two new account executives to its New York office following a number of client wins. 

News26 April 2016

Schlesinger launches interactive research wall

Schlesinger Associates has installed The Wall, an interactive stimuli wall, in three US central locations: New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. 

News25 April 2016

73% of Brits don't expect to be using cash in five years' time

A new study has revealed that a third of Brits believe cash will be 'extinct' within the next 15 years, with British men more comfortable with the prospect of a cashless society than British women. 

Opinion25 April 2016

The danger of client satisfaction

Paul Tredwell

April isn't just the month to assess financial results – it also presents the opportunity to assess client relationships says Paul Tredwell in his latest blog.

Opinion25 April 2016

On retaining millennials

Betty Adamou

Companies looking to appeal to younger market researchers should apply some rules of gaming engagement, says Betty Adamou

News25 April 2016

GlobaLexicon rebrands and boosts team

Market research language and translation company GlobaLexicon has launched a new brand and hired 10 new staff to its team. 

News25 April 2016

Nielsen revenues up 2% for Q1 2016

The company's revenues were $1.5bn in Q1 2016, an increase of 2% compared with the same period last year. 

News25 April 2016

IPA TouchPoints adds two researchers

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising ( IPA) has hired Clare McNally-Luke and Dan Flynn to its cross-media, cross -device survey for media owners, clients and agencies, TouchPoints.

News22 April 2016

IRI adds measurement and tracking to e-commerce offer

IRI has added a measurement and tracking service, E-Market Insights, to its e-commerce offer. 

News22 April 2016

US digital ad revenues hit record high

US digital advertising revenues reached an all-time high of $59.6bn in 2015, marking a 20% increase on 2014 figures, according to the latest IAB report. 

News22 April 2016

Big data worries around the Internet of Things

The volume of data collected with the rise of the Internet of Things ( IoT) is the main concern among consumers according to a report monitoring social media conversations on the subject.

News22 April 2016

ComScore and Facebook partner on viewability metrics

ComScore has announced that it is partnering with Facebook to report its viewability data directly in its validated Campaign Essentials ( vCE) solution. 

News22 April 2016

Group M’s Harcus made Xaxis MD

Harry Harcus has been appointed UK managing director for WPP’s programmatic digital platform Xaxis, taking over from Nicolas Bidon.

News22 April 2016

Leger appoints Gauthier as research VP

Sylvain Gauthier has joined market research and polling company Leger as its vice-president research.

Opinion21 April 2016

What Amen Corner tells us about behavioural economics

Richard Smith

Market researchers can learn the lessons from sport and how unconscious processes are affected by extreme stress. By Richard Smith.

Opinion21 April 2016

Testing significance

Rory Sutherland

Making a proper business decision can often mean trying a 'slightly wrong' option, rather than a 'boringly right' one, argues Rory Sutherland. 

News21 April 2016

Millward Brown partners with Kantar Worldpanel

Millward Brown has teamed up with Kantar Worldpanel to provide a new brand tracking offer to determine the impact of digital campaigns on brand measurement and short-term sales.

News21 April 2016

AMR appoints directors as part of expansion

WPP-owned research consultancy AMR has expanded its qualitative and technology research expertise and hired Dorothy Dudley as qualitative director. 

News21 April 2016

ComScore offers MRC-accredited viewable GRP for video

Cross-platform measurement company comScore has been given Media Rating Council ( MRC) accreditation for its Campaign Essentials Audience Module.

News21 April 2016

Williams rejoins CMI

Dave Williams has rejoined insights and consulting firm CMI as manager of technology services. 

Opinion20 April 2016

Consumer (not customer) experience

Understanding what influences a person buying your products or services needs to start before they ever become an actual customer says Virginia Monk.

Opinion20 April 2016

Gender diversity in the workforce

Seema Malhotra MP, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, shares her thoughts on how to overcome inequality in the work environment

News20 April 2016

Seven ways for data and creativity to work in harmony

Jane Bainbridge

A panel session at Adweek Europe in London yesterday – 19 April – discussed whether it was data experts or creatives who held the power in advertising.

News20 April 2016

Brexit fears linked to economic insecurity among British consumers

Bronwen Morgan

The latest GfK Consumer Climate Europe study has revealed that Brits' economic expectations fell considerably in the first quarter of 2016.  

News20 April 2016

Microsoft launches digital content rating tool

Video Pulse allows users to react and provide feedback on a recorded video, as well as play back their own and other respondents' feedback. 

News20 April 2016

Ad blocking heading toward mainstream in UK

Jane Bainbridge

More than a quarter of UK internet users will block ads by 2017 with concerns of it reaching 'epidemic' levels, according to a report from eMarketer.

News20 April 2016

TNS takes full ownership of TNS ICAP in Greece

WPP-owned global operating network TNS has acquired all remaining shares in Taylor Nelson Sofres ICAP Market Research in Greece.

News19 April 2016

E-Tabs expands head office with new hire

The data visualisation and automated reporting provider has hired Russ Budden as consultant team manager at its London head office. 

Opinion19 April 2016

BE Bites: How to de-bias decision making

Knowing that we are prone to making biased decisions doesn't always help us to avoid doing so, says Crawford Hollingworth. But there are strategies to keep us on the straight and narrow.

News19 April 2016

MFour releases mobile DIY survey app

MFour DIY uses the same panel and smartphone interface as MFour Mobile Research's Surveys on the Go app. 

News19 April 2016

Kadence hires Clayton as UK/ Europe MD

Kadence International has named Greg Clayton as its new managing director for UK/ Europe. 

News19 April 2016

Sorrell talks low growth, Brexit and his £63m pay package

Jane Bainbridge

Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, covered all the big issues at Ad Week Europe in London yesterday – 18 April – from the state of the economy and how that may or may not be affected by Brexit, to the US election and today's media landscape – saving his controversial pay packet to last.

News19 April 2016

Nielsen in alliance with Profitero

Global information and insight company Nielsen has formed a strategic alliance with ecommerce analytics firm Profitero so manufacturers can correlate digital shelf analytics with actual sales data.

News18 April 2016

JCDecaux links with YouGov Profiles

Outdoor media owner JCDecaux has established a partnership with YouGov to access its Profiles segmentation, which it is launching with a nationwide editorial across its digital screens.

News18 April 2016

European Parliament approves GDPR

The EU General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) has been approved by the European Parliament following four years of work. 

News18 April 2016

Azure Knowledge opens new offices in Brazil and Russia

Global data collection agency Azure Knowledge has expanded with two new offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Moscow, Russia.

News18 April 2016

Viewability of UK online ads up 54%

Online ad viewability hit its highest level for 18 months, with an increase of 54% in the first quarter of 2016.

News18 April 2016

IGen Insight promotes Maxine Fox to MD

Maxine Fox, previously associate director, has been appointed as the new managing director of youth, kids and family insight specialists, iGen Insight. 

News18 April 2016

Basis Research expands to US

Basis Research has opened its first US office, in Los Angeles, led by Kate Hartzell. 

Feature18 April 2016

Preparing for data reform

Data protection reform is happening whether the UK votes to stay in the EU or to leave. Here Dr Michelle Goddard looks at how the changes in regulation will affect you.

News15 April 2016

Ruler Analytics appoints Gregory as non-executive chairman

Richard Gregory, formerly managing director of digital marketing agency Latitude, has joined the marketing analytics and phone call tracking company's leadership team. 

Opinion15 April 2016

Applying matchmaking tech to brand emotion

The subconscious strongly influences purchasing decisions, yet traditional emotion-based market research techniques are qualitative and although informative, their scope is too limited to strongly inform marketing strategies says Nelson Tao.

News15 April 2016

IModerate and Qualtrics form qual and quant partnership

Survey platform Qualtrics has partnered with insight agency iModerate to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches. 

News15 April 2016

Schlesinger hires Mavretish to client development role

Alan Mavretish, former senior director of Research Solutions at Instantly, has joined Schlesinger Interactive as vice president, Client Development.

Opinion15 April 2016

Market research – what is it, really?

The latest Bellwether Report shows a modest upward revision of marketing budgets for 2016/17. Yet behind this more positive outlook lurks continued uncertainty, prompted by macro-economic, structural and political questions that remain hanging in the air.

News15 April 2016

Respondi buys House of Common Knowledge

Sample and panel provider Respondi has acquired the French market research, data science and IT company House of Common Knowledge for an undisclosed amount.

News15 April 2016

Chris Riquier made Foxley board director

Website design company, Foxley, has appointed former TNS Asia Pacific CEO, Chris Riquier, as board director.

News14 April 2016

Facebook's Instant Articles to incorporate Nielsen Digital Content Ratings

Nielsen has announced that Facebook will offer its publishing partners Digital Content Ratings for measurement of its Instant Articles. 

News14 April 2016

MR budgets down in Q1 Bellwether Report

Marketing budget growth was sustained for the 14th successive quarter in the Q1 2016 Bellwether Report but market research budgets fell for the third successive quarter. 

News14 April 2016

Ben Hogg joins Lucid as EMEA managing director

Jane Bainbridge

Global audience platform Lucid has appointed former Research Now director Ben Hogg as managing director, EMEA as part of its international growth strategy.

News14 April 2016

Nepa launches IPO

Market research consultancy Nepa has announced it has filed for an initial public offering of more than 1.5 million shares.

News14 April 2016

UK digital ad spend sees highest growth since 2008

The annual IAB/ PwC Digital Adspend study revealed that UK digital ad spend grew by 16.4% last year, reaching £8.6bn. 

News14 April 2016

Dunnhumby hires US business development lead

Rob Christian has joined the customer science company as senior vice president of business development.  

Feature13 April 2016

The darker side of digital

Digital technology has facilitated communication in an unprecedented way. But, Nichola Kent-Lemon of Northstar asks, is there a dark side to our dependency? 

News13 April 2016

Access to evidence 'not enough to encourage research use'

The Alliance for Useful Evidence has released the findings from its project The Science of Using Science, which explores evidence on what works in enabling the use of research by decision-makers. 

News13 April 2016

GfK makes supervisory board changes

Dr Wolfgang C. Berndt, Dr Bernhard Düttmann, Hauke Stars and Hans van Bylen are to leave the supervisory board in May. 

News13 April 2016

Nielsen launches cloud-based data integration tool

Nielsen Marketing Cloud integrates consumer and media data, management tools and analytics applications. 

News13 April 2016

Arbittier named as new SHC Universal CEO

The healthcare survey and data collection company has appointed its former president, Jerry Arbittier, to the chief executive officer role. 

News12 April 2016

Measurement masters set up consultancy

The Measurement Practice, a consultancy to help in-house teams and agencies make the most of research, has been launched by five research and communications specialists. 

Feature12 April 2016

A land of promise

Bronwen Morgan

Market research in Africa holds the key to unlocking many commercial opportunities, but there are a number of logistical issues to bear in mind when planning activities there. By Bronwen Morgan

News12 April 2016

Clissold-Vasey made COO at TNS

Jane Bainbridge

UK – TNS UK has appointed Richard Clissold-Vasey to the new role of chief operating officer, with a place on its board.

News12 April 2016

UK ad industry exports to rise 54% in five years

UK – The UK advertising business contributed £4.7bn to national exports with a predicted rise of 54% over the next five years according to the Advertising Association.

News12 April 2016

CMI adds to healthcare and life sciences practice

US – Research and consulting firm CMI has appointed Will Leopold as senior research manager, healthcare and life sciences team.    

News12 April 2016

RealityMine appoints chief revenue officer

UK – Mobile market research technology and analytics company RealityMine has hired Tom O’Sullivan as its chief revenue officer.

Opinion11 April 2016

The strange state of social media in market research

Jess Owens

Social media is part of people's everyday lives and it's time the market research industry recognised this, and used the data it offers to full effect, says Jess Owens.

News11 April 2016

NPD launches product feature evaluation

US – Market information and analytics company The NPD Group has introduced a product feature evaluation service as an alternative to using surveys to predict market behaviour.

News11 April 2016

Hive partners with DataMentors

UK – Hive Marketing Cloud has announced an alliance with the US-based data company DataMentors which will see the Hive platform providing analytics.  

News11 April 2016

Facebook changes ad policy

Jane Bainbridge

US – Brands, publishers and celebrities will be able to share sponsored content on Facebook in a new policy announced by the social network.  

News11 April 2016

Revenue up 27% for Join the Dots

Research company Join the Dots has announced a year-on-year revenue increase of 27%, achieving £7.75 million in 2015.

News8 April 2016

SHC Universal welcomes new director

Rachel Knowles has joined the healthcare panel and survey company's London-based team as director. 

News8 April 2016

Moore joins Voxpopme's North American sales team

Brin Moore, former SVP of market research at MyPoints.com, has joined video research technology company Voxpopme as VP of sales for North America.

News8 April 2016

Millward Brown launches B2B ad copy test

Millward Brown has launched a version of Link, its advertising copy testing solution, for B2B marketers. 

News8 April 2016

UKOM appoints first director of insight

The industry body for UK online measurement has appointed Julie Forey as its first director of insight. 

Feature8 April 2016

The promise and the peril of the digital screen

Jane Bainbridge

Any company relying on websites and screen interactions for business should take note of the research that Shlomo Benartzi has done, which he explains in his new book The Smarter Screen

Opinion7 April 2016

Image processing goes mainstream

Frank Hedler

Computer vision algorithms have vastly improved facial and emotional recognition, but market researchers need to create the applications that turn this tech into valuable insight. By Frank Hedler

News7 April 2016

MTV hires Weir to strategic insights role

Laurel Weir has been named MTV's senior vice president of strategic insights and research. 

News7 April 2016

360insights partners with Luck on predictive analytics

360insights, formerly 360incentives, is working with consultant Kristin Luck on leveraging its new predictive analytics platform. 

News7 April 2016

MFour Mobile Research appoints comms director

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Mike Boehm has joined MFour Mobile Research as director of communications.

News7 April 2016

SurveyMonkey branches out into mobile app insights

The online survey platform has launched SurveyMonkey Intelligence, which offers data and insight on a number of mobile apps and the overall app economy. 

News7 April 2016

Lightspeed GMI expands further in Latin America

Digital data collection company Lightspeed GMI has made new appointments to the Latin American operation it established in 2013.

News6 April 2016

Black Swan tasks Turner with forming insight division

Predictive data analytics and activation company Black Swan has hired former Edelman Berland European COO James Turner as chief insight officer.

News6 April 2016

WPP appoints Seligman as senior independent director

Former Sony executive Nicole Seligman has been appointed senior independent director at WPP, with immediate effect. 

News6 April 2016

Digital out-of-home advertising predicted to be fastest-growing media channel

Digital out-of-home advertising is considered the number one medium by UK media planners and outdoor specialists, and is predicted to see the most growth over the next five years. 

News6 April 2016

Harrington takes key commercial role at eDigitalResearch

Chris Harrington has joined eDigitalResearch, now part of the Maru Group, as chief sales and commercial director. 

News6 April 2016

Cambiar opens technology and analytics office

Cambiar Consulting has announced the opening of a new technology and analytics office and practice in California, to be led by Richard Scionti, formerly of GfK.

Feature6 April 2016

Energy policy turns to technology and ‘nudge’

How the campaign for smart meter roll-out, Smart Energy GB, has used behavioural science to encourage householders to adopt smart meters as part of their energy use. 

News5 April 2016

US MD appointed at Firefish

US – Independent insight consultancy Firefish has hired Beth Broughton as managing director of its New York office. 

News5 April 2016

Facebook and Dunnhumby sign deal to track impact of ads on FMCG sales

Bronwen Morgan

Facebook has signed a deal with Dunnhumby enabling FMCG brands to track how ads run on its platform affect offline sales. 

News5 April 2016

STW Group formally agrees WPP AUNZ merger

Australasian marketing content and communications group STW is officially to merge with the Australian and New Zealand businesses of WPP. 

Opinion5 April 2016

BE Bites: how to make numbers mean something

Crawford Hollingworth

Have you ever read a news article which quoted a lot of big numbers, yet you weren't really sure what they meant or how to visualise them? Crawford Hollingworth looks at how to add meaning to numbers.

News5 April 2016

Maru Group closes Vision Critical deal

Maru Group has closed the transaction to acquire Vision Critical's North American spin off research consulting division, Vision Critical Research and Consulting. 

News5 April 2016

Cint makes Thornton deputy CEO

UK – Richard Thornton, Cint’s chief commercial officer, has been promoted to deputy CEO to drive business development.

News5 April 2016

Nielsen and DISH Network join forces for set-top box data

US – Nielsen and DISH Network have announced a long-term agreement to integrate DISH’s aggregated set-top box data with Nielsen’s TV ratings service.

News4 April 2016

IBM hires AOL's Lord as chief digital officer

Bob Lord, formerly president at AOL and CEO at Razorfish, has joined IBM as chief digital officer. 

Feature4 April 2016

The 90s merger mania

This year the MRS is celebrating 70 years of market research and as part of that, TNS president, Tony Cowling, looks at the structural changes witnessed in the 1990s.

Feature4 April 2016

The feeling's mutual

Bronwen Morgan

Yorkshire Building Society has changed the way it uses market research to ensure it understands all of its customers, as Bronwen Morgan finds out

News4 April 2016

Over half of consumers would share smart home data for discounts

54% of consumers around the world say they might be prepared to share personal data collected from smart homes in exchange for money, according to research.

News4 April 2016

ex-Hall & Partners quartet launch Compton+Dean

UK – A team of four experienced market researchers have founded a qualitative research agency specialising in brand and communications called Compton+Dean.

News4 April 2016

Warc's Ainsworth becomes Millward Brown CEO

Jane Bainbridge

UK – Global brand and media comms research consultancy Millward Brown has appointed Louise Ainsworth as its CEO of Millward Brown in the UK.

News1 April 2016

IAB Australia and Nielsen launch digital ratings tool

AUSTRALIA – The Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB) and Nielsen have released Digital Ratings ( Monthly), a new total digital audience measurement currency across all devices.

News1 April 2016

Happy Thinking People hires two

Anton Kozka and Paul Hoster have both joined the qualitative research and consulting company's Berlin office. 

Opinion1 April 2016

Three steps to broaden the insights role

John Kearon

BrainJuicer’s John Kearon digs deeper into the findings of its WFA Future of Insights Project to see what insights needs to do to build its consultancy credentials.

News1 April 2016

Park joins Affectiva

Alan Park has joined emotion recognition software company Affectiva from Emotient as chief revenue officer. 

News1 April 2016

Transport Focus calls tender for research

UK – Independent transport user watchdog Transport Focus has launched a tender process to refresh its preferred supplier list ( PSL) for research projects.