News notes
Six Rwandan women have become the first Market Research Society (MRS)-certified qualitative researchers in their country. They compose the Girl Research Unit, an initiative started by Girl Hub Rwanda in partnership with MRS and 2CV, a London-based research company.
The U.S. Media Rating Council has asked Portland, Ore., research company Rentrak Corp. to stop using the term “census-like” to describe its national and local television measurement services. Rentrak will now call its services Rentrak Local and Rentrak National and include the phrase “information based on massive and passive TV measurement footprint.” The description change does not apply to the Rentrak measurements of movies and video-on-demand services.
Facebook, San Francisco, has announced that it will begin tracking users’ behavior on other Web sites as well as its own. The change is aimed at allowing Facebook to target advertising more effectively. An opt-out will be available, in addition to an option to see why an ad has been sent to the user and to edit the user’s advertising profile.
The U.S. Secret Service has posted a work order for analytics software which can synthesize large sets of social media data and visually present the data. The software must also be able to detect sarcasm and false positives. The new software will allow the Secret Service to create its own system for monitoring Twitter, rather than continuing with the current FEMA Twitter analytics.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched Facebook and Twitter accounts, using the @CIA Twitter handle. The CIA currently has a Web site and Flickr and YouTube accounts but the Facebook and Twitter additions are designed to more directly engage with the public and provide information on the agency.
Adobe Digital Index reported that the number of users of Google’s Chrome browser surpassed users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the first time. An April, 2014 study found Chrome holding 31.8 percent of U.S. market share, followed by Internet Explorer with 30.9 percent and Apple’s Safari browser in third with 25 percent. The percentages were based on Web traffic sampling of both desktop and mobile devices from 10,000 U.S. consumer-facing Web sites.
Changes in U.K. copyright laws, effective June 1, allow data mining of online journals and postings. Online content can be copied provided the research is for non-commercial purposes, users have access to the content and the researchers acknowledge the original work.
In the first four days after the European Court ruled that individuals had a “right to be forgotten,” Google received approximately 41,000 requests for removal of Internet information and continues to receive 10,000 requests daily. London newspaper The Guardian reported that in future search results Google will flag entries that have been removed but Google did not confirm this.
ComScore will settle its class action lawsuit by establishing a $14 million fund. The settlement also included a requirement that comScore alter its privacy policy and implement specific privacy protocols. The lawsuit, filed in August 2011, alleged that the company had obtained personal information from computers by including its tracking software with other programs, such as screen savers or games, and had intercepted personal information such as phone numbers, Social Security numbers, usernames, passwords and credit card numbers.
San Francisco TV station KTSF will be the first company to have the number of its mobile device viewers added to its ratings figures. New York researcher Nielsen will integrate its software with the applications of Syncbak, a Marion, Iowa, software company.
Acquisitions/transactions
Kantar Media, a London research company, has acquired a majority stake in Precise Media Group, a London communications company which provides monitoring and evaluation services to the public relations and communications industries.
London marketing company the Engine Group has acquired the Intelligence Group, a Los Angeles marketing firm and will merge the Intelligence Group with its creative and consumer agency Noise.
Chinese Internet company Alibaba will acquire UCWeb, a Chinese Web browser company, and merge it into its UC Mobile business unit.
FoneWorx has bought a 44 percent stake in fellow Johannesburg research firm Livingfacts. Livingfacts will continue to operate as a separate entity but FoneWorx will have a seat on its board.
Stamford, Conn., research company FocusVision has purchased Revelation, a Portland, Ore., research firm. The Revelation Next mobile and Web qualitative research apps will be incorporated in the FocusVision suite of live videostreaming products. Revelation founder Steve August will join FocusVision as chief innovation officer as the two businesses will merge to form one company.
Marin Software, San Francisco, has acquired Perfect Audience, a San Francisco marketing company, in a cash and stock deal valued at $25.5 million. The Perfect Audience team will move to Marin’s offices.
Facebook has purchased Pryte, a mobile data firm in Helsinki.
Portland, Ore., Internet company Chirpify has acquired Measureful, a marketing company also in Portland. The Measureful team will move into the Chirpify facilities and Measureful CEO and founder John Koenig will become vice president of product.
Cloudera, San Francisco, has acquired fellow software company Gazzang, Austin, Texas, for an undisclosed sum.
Leger, a Montreal research firm, has become a minority stockholder and partner of Montreal Internet company imarklab. The imarklab team will move to Leger’s head office.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company the GfK Group has become the majority shareholder in Genius Digital, a Bath, U.K., research company.
Chicago Internet company Viewpoints has agreed to acquire PowerReviews, a San Francisco Internet firm, and to unite under the PowerReviews brand. Matt Moog will continue as CEO and Jim Morris, founding CTO of PowerReviews, will become CTO of the new company. The company will be co-located in Chicago and San Francisco.
New York research company Millward Brown has acquired EffectiveBrands, an Amsterdam marketing strategy firm, and will combine it with Millward Optimor, its strategy consulting unit, to form Millward Brown Vermeer. The new division will be led by Mario Simon as CEO and EffectiveBrand founders Frank van den Driest as chief commercial officer and Marc de Swaan Arons as company CMO.
Cambridge, Mass., software company RapidMiner has acquired Budapest, Hungary, analytics specialist Radoop. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Radoop has partnered with RapidMiner for the past two years and will now become its big data division, with founder Zolt‡n Prekopcs‡k as vice president.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
WPP-owned New York marketing firm the Data Alliance has partnered with Factual, a Los Angeles Internet company. The partnership will allow WPP companies to use Factual data which maps the location of mobile phones to physical places and to integrate the data into insights and analytics.
London mobile marketing company Somo has partnered with New York marketing company Medialets to use Medialets’ Servo platform in tracking mobile ads.
AquaOrange, a Bangkok research company, has formed a joint venture with Mediabiz Creative, a communications firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Lieberman Research Worldwide, Los Angeles, is partnering with Beyond Verbal, a Tel Aviv, Israel, software company. The collaboration is aimed at combining Lieberman’s emotion analytic technology with Beyond Verbal’s Pragmatic Brain Science Institute, which has an existing portfolio of brain science software and techniques.
Market Publishers Ltd., London, and IRPN Research, New Mumbai, India, have formed a partnership authorizing MarketPublishers.com to distribute and sell IRPN Research’s research reports.
Association/organization news
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association St. Paul, Minn., is offering a Young Professionals Grant to attend the association’s 2014 annual conference in New Orleans. The closing date for applications is August 14. Additional information is available at www.qrca.org/ypg.
Angus Reid, co-founder of Vision Critical, a Vancouver, B.C., research company, is retiring from the firm in order to set up an independent public opinion research organization, the Angus Reid Institute. Similar to the U.S. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., the Institute will conduct public opinion polling, demographic research and other social science research to inform the public, press and policymakers.
The Marketing Research Institute International, Athens, Ga., received the 2014 Impact Award from the Marketing Research Association.
The Market Research Council has inducted Gayle Fuguitt, CEO and president of the Advertising Research Foundation, into its hall of fame.
Awards/rankings
Paris research company Ipsos received the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association Best Integration award for its project with the RBC Royal Bank. Also, Ipsos and the city of Calgary were presented with the Public Policy Impact Award, given for a research project with a demonstrable public policy impact.
Merrill Dubrow, president and CEO of Dallas-based M/A/R/C Research, received the Meritorious Service to Market Research Award from the Marketing Research Association.
The student team from the University of Texas at Austin won the Ad-ology Research award for Best Use of Marketing Research at the American Advertising Federation national conference. Competing teams were judged on their use of market research in an integrated marketing campaign for Mary Kay Cosmetics.
The Research Liberation Front recognized seven market researchers with Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage awards, designed to acknowledge individuals who overcame long odds to produce great market research. One of the recipients, Catalina Garcia of UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones, Medellin, Colombia, was attacked while interviewing in a Medellin barrio.
Research company Millward Brown Hong Kong, has won the “Research Agency of the Year of 2014 – Silver” at Marketing Magazine’s 2014 Awards Night.
ew accounts/projects
SKO, the television audience measurement service for the Netherlands, has contracted with London research company Kantar Media Audiences to measure commercials on a range of digital platforms, beginning with online video campaigns.
New York researcher the Nielsen Company has been named the market research supplier for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro.
Research Bods, Leeds, U.K., has been selected as research partner by HELLO! magazine, London.
Portland, Ore., research company Rentrak and Fox Television Stations announced that Rentrak will provide its local market television rating services to all FOX-owned television stations, which includes 28 stations across 18 markets from New York City to Gainesville, Fla. Separately, Los Angeles television stations KCBS and KCAL have contracted with Rentrak for its local ratings services.
Research and Marketing Strategies, Baldwinsville, N.Y., has been approved by the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services as a 2014-2015 survey administrator of patient care surveys for accountable care organizations.
ew companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
B2B International, a Manchester, U.K., research company, has opened its eighth office, in Dusseldorf, Germany. It will be headed by general manager, Claudia Knod.
London research company Verve has opened an office in Iasi, Romania, headed by Eugen Tuchendria.
Kantar Media, New York, has expanded its Target Group Index consumer insights business to the U.S., with Leslie Albright as head.
Sydney marketing company Crossmark has launched Shopper Republic, a specialist shopper marketing division aimed at combining analytics and field intelligence to help clients develop retailer-specific strategies.
Hollywood, Calif., research firm Worldwide Motion Picture Group has closed, but its CEO, Vincent Bruzzese, has opened a similar company, C4.
London research company Brass Insight has changed its name to Trinity McQueen as part of its separation from its parent company, Brass.
Barcelona, Spain, research company Netquest has opened a Lisbon, Portugal, office which will be led by Madalena Santo.
Salt Lake City software company Mindshare Technologies and its Empathica division have united under the InMoment name.
New York based Radius Global Market Research has opened an office in Dubai, led by research director Nitin Ladva.
London insurance specialist company Litmus Analysis has launched a market research venture, Litmus Research Associates. Robin Dicks has been hired to head the division.
Princeton, N.J., research firm ORC International has opened an office in Sevres, southwest of Paris. Anne Lavielle will head up the new operation.
Mruk, the Manchester, U.K., social research branch of RS Consulting Group, a London research firm, has opened a new office in Glasgow, Scotland.
James Fergusson has opened a mobile and digital insights agency, Mobile Digital Indaba, in Melbourne, Australia with offices in Singapore and Cape Town, South Africa. Clive Little will lead the Singapore office and Kirsty Smit will head the Cape Town office.
The Starr Conspiracy, a Fort Worth, Texas, marketing firm, has opened a San Francisco office, which will be led by partner Steve Smith.
San Francisco marketing firm AdRoll has relocated to Dublin.
London technology firm Retail Insight has opened an office in Sydney, Australia, to be headed by Peter Goggin.
Kathy King and Janet Chambers have launched Sparkle, a London recruitment agency for qualitative and quantitative market research.
Maritz Loyalty Marketing, Ontario, Canada, has rebranded as Bond Brand Loyalty.
Research company earnings/financial news
Portland, Ore., research company Rentrak Corp. reported a 40 percent increase in its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to $21.6 million. The revenue for the full fiscal year, ending March 31, was $75.6 million, an increase of 34 percent.
London research company Illuminas recorded a 27 percent increase in revenue for the year ending February 2014.
Austin, Texas research firm TrendKite has completed a $3.2 million Series A funding round, which will be used to expand its big-data processing infrastructure and expansion of its sales team.