Acquisitions/transactions

Nuremberg, Germany-based GfK has acquired Sensemetric Web & Social Media Mining GmbH, a company that has developed a crowdsourcing digital platform for conducting social media analysis. Sensemetric will be integrated into the operations of GfK and its new social media intelligence center, based in Vienna. Christian Waldheim and Florian Schütz, formerly managing directors of Sensemetric, will head up the Social Media Intelligence Center.
Separately, GfK has expanded its network in the U.S., Germany and the U.K., increasing to 100 percent its shares in subsidiaries GfK Etilize, media control GfK International and GfK UK Entertainments.

Alliances/strategic partnerships

Vancouver, B.C., research firm Vision Critical has partnered with Nox4Think, a Sao Paulo, Brazil, research company, to resell Vision Critical Insight Communities to clients and prospects throughout Brazil.

MARS Advertising, a Southfield, Mich., shopper marketing company, has formed a partnership with Concentric, a provider of agent-based modeling software applications for marketing simulations, under which one of Concentric’s software platforms will be integrated into a new MARS marketing service offering called Compass.

Lightspeed Research, Warren, N.J., has licensed the Beacon market research platform developed by Fresno, Calif., research firm Decipher and will use Beacon for its survey programming and reporting capabilities.

Singapore-based Pulse Group and Chicago-based Over the Shoulder Inc. announce a strategic alliance that will connect Pulse’s consumer panelists across 17 Asia-Pacific markets to Over the Shoulder’s smartphone-based platform.

Research firms Thumb Inc., Red Bank, N.J., and Ypulse Inc., New York, have merged. With its experience in research, strategy and technology, Ypulse will leverage Thumb’s mobile social network and feedback platform to help marketers listen to and learn about youth. Dan Kurani, founder of Thumb, will continue as co-founder, board member and chief digital officer of Ypulse Inc. His co-founder Michael Melli will continue as vice president of engineering.

Association/organization news

NASCAR director of consumer research Robert Graff has been appointed president of the Great Lakes Chapter of the Marketing Research Association for a one-year term.

Awards/rankings

Steven Cohen, co-founder and partner of Needham, Mass., research firm in4mation insights, has been inducted into the Market Research Council Hall of Fame.

Phoenix-based Blueocean Market Intelligence has won a 2013 Bees Award for its proprietary Social Media Effectiveness Index in the category of “Best Social Media Marketing Theory.” The Bees Awards is a social media competition honoring communication and marketing professionals.

Tinesha Craig and Chad Hinkle from Chicago research firm Insights in Marketing’s i-on-Women team won the 2013 best speaker award at the annual Marketing to Women Conference for their presentation, “I Am More Than My Age & Life Stage: Using Psychological Profiling to Better Understand Her.”

Kristin Luck, president of Fresno, Calif., research firm Decipher, received the Marketing Research Association’s 2013 Impact Award in June. The annual award recognizes industry professionals who demonstrate “tremendous vision, leadership and innovation, within the past year, that has led to advances in the marketing research profession.”

Geoscape, Miami, has been named by the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF) as its 2013 Marketing Research Partner of the Year. Honorees were recognized at 3AF’s annual Asian Marketing Summit.

New accounts/projects

Tampa, Fla.-based Vanity Fair Licensed Sports Group, a division of global apparel and footwear firm Vanity Fair Corporation, has retained Tampa research firm Study Hall for in-market ethnography and shopper behavior research with male shoppers. To better understand the shopping, purchase, use, and storage behaviors of the male branded team apparel buyer, Study Hall will conduct a series of in-home, on-site, in-store and in-venue shop-alongs, interviews and ethnographic investigations. The research will focus on key drivers of purchase behavior and key trends in the team sports apparel sector.

New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions

Ipsos has launched Ipsos SMX (Social Media Exchange), which will focus on delivering insights via online communities and social listening, expanding to add new solutions and techniques as they become available. Ipsos SMX rolls out in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and China, with additional resources in 10 other countries.

Dtw Marketing Research Group Inc. is moving its corporate headquarters from Flanders, N.J., to Amelia Island, Fla., bringing 40 new jobs and $2.1 million in total capital investment to the area over the next two years. The firm will start hiring in the fall.

Adam Weinstein and Nathan Lynch, formerly co-CEOs of Synapse Research Inc., have launched Full Circle Research, a new online market research boutique. The company, which has offices in Maryland and Connecticut, is online at www.ilovefullcircle.com.

DotH Group has launched dotH Research, a specialized survey programming and data analysis company catering to the North American market. The firm is based in Mississauga, Ontario.

To better reflect the scope and diversity of services offered by the company, Montréal-based Leger Marketing has announced that it will now be known as Leger, The Research Intelligence Group.

Gordon Weiss Research, Minneapolis, has rebranded as Sivo Insights and will begin operating under the new name effective immediately.

Research company earnings/financial news

Provo, Utah-based Qualtrics has reported increasing customer growth in its consulting, professional services and full-service market research firm customer base in the first half of 2013, adding over 100 new customers in this category.

GutCheck, Boulder, Colo., announced $4 million in new funding from new investors Crawley Ventures and Grotech Ventures, who join existing investors Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures. The company declined to disclose the valuation on the Series B round, which closed late last year.