News notes
France-based research firm Strategir has launched a new identity, coinciding with the company’s 30th anniversary.
Oslo, Norway, data services firm Norstat has launched its new corporate design that will be used across the 12 countries where the company is currently operating.
Health care data collection firm SHC Universal, New York, is participating in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program, the replacement for the Safe Harbor agreement with which the company was already compliant. The program, designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and EU Commission and adopted on July 12, 2016, provides a mechanism to comply with the EU Data Protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S.
Acquisitions/transactions
Quintiles IMS Holdings Inc. has completed its merger of equals transaction between Danbury, Conn., information and technology services company IMS Health and Research Triangle Park, N.C., health care services firm Quintiles.
Dentsu Aegis Network, London, has acquired Paris-based Web analytics firm Wasabi Analytics. Wasabi will be fully integrated into Dentsu Aegis Network’s digital performance agency iProspect. Following the acquisition, Sébastien Manaches, founder and CEO of Wasabi Analytics, will become head of Web analytics of iProspect France. The Wasabi Analytics team will join the iProspect’s office in Paris.
San Francisco-based marketing data company Krux has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by San Francisco CRM firm Salesforce.
IPerceptions, a Montreal-based research and audience solutions firm, has acquired Montreal enterprise software company Datacratic’s Ad Tech business.
Toronto-based research firm The Logit Group has acquired data collection company Cido Research Americas. Terms of the transaction were not released. Cido President Tim Sinke was named COO of the combined company, while Logit Co-Founders Anthony Molinaro and Sam Pisani, along with Paul Molinaro, were named as managing partners. Cido’s Founder and Managing Director Roland Klassen will continue as an advisor.
AXIO Group, a portfolio company of U.K. private equity firm Electra Partners, has received a binding offer from Tokyo-based Internet services firm M3 Inc. to purchase Vidal Group, a European health care informatics and information systems company, for €100 million.
New York-based audience company Xaxis has agreed to acquire (subject to regulatory approval) Petersburg, Fla., digital retail media firm Triad Retail Media. Following the closing of the acquisition, Triad Retail Media and its team members will continue to operate as a standalone brand under its own leadership.
20|20 Research, Nashville, Tenn., has acquired Denver-based research firm iModerate for an undisclosed sum, expanding the research services available to its clients.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Mobile app audience data provider PushSpring, Seattle, has formed a partnership with comScore, Reston, Va., to introduce mobile audience segments based on comScore Mobile Metrix and PushSpring’s App Graph data for use in programmatic ad buys. The new capability uses comScore mobile demographic data in conjunction with PushSpring’s app analytics to identify patterns in mobile audiences.
Research software firm InTask Inc., Morristown, N.J., and New York-based health care data collection solutions firm SHC Universal have formed a strategic partnership. Under the terms of the partnership, SHC will be the exclusive distributor of the InTaskT simulation software platform to market research agencies.
Research technology firm FocusVision, Stamford, Conn., and Iselin, N.J., researcher Schlesinger Associates have formed a partnership to pilot a new focus group video system. The new system includes 360-degree cameras for capturing expressions and non-verbal cues and produces video by linking to 24tru, Focus Vision’s platform for storing, editing, analyzing and distributing video.
Salt Lake City customer experience software and services firm MaritzCX and Cambridge, Mass., research and advisory firm Forrester have partnered to provide Forrester’s Customer Experience Index surveys within the MaritzCX Platform. The partnership will give MaritzCX customers access to pre-built survey templates across 17 industries.
GfK MRI, New York, and Redwood City, Calif., customer insights software firm Cubeyou have partnered to create a resource for understanding the interactions of social media and product usage. GfK MRI data will be enhanced with likes and other social media information from Cubeyou’s research, allowing advertisers to study the interplay between a brand’s social media presence and the use of its products.
Paris-based online communities firm Krealinks has teamed up with U.K. video insight firm Voxpopme. The collaboration will add consumer recorded video feedback to Krealinks’ community services.
Association/organization news
ESOMAR and the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) have written to ask Russian Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov to rescind a recent measure declaring the Yury Levada Centre a foreign agent. ESOMAR says the measure will hamper the Centre in conducting research as it requires the Centre’s staff to misrepresent themselves as foreign agents and not as independent researchers when conducting social and opinion research, thus impacting the organization’s ability to assemble representative samples through voluntary participation of respondents in line with internationally accepted professional standards.
The Canadian Association for Public Opinion Research (CAPOR) and the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) have begun negotiations to merge. A letter by Mark Wood, MRIA board of directors chair, states that the associations will work out governance details over the coming months, concluding with a vote to merge by respective memberships in late spring 2017.
Awards/rankings
BuzzBack Market Research, New York, has been named as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in New York City by Crain’s New York Business.
Dan Foreman, chairman of research firms ZappiStore and Bakamo.Social, has been named as the MR industry Change Agent of the Year at TMRE.
St. Louis research agency Brädo Creative Insight and its client, pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck and Co., received the 2016 EXPLOR award at The Market Research Event in October for their case study that addressed the challenge of developing pharmaceutical packaging that meets legal requirements while also delivering on a patient’s needs.
Milwaukee-based Dieringer Research Group has received national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Development Center, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.
In 2017, Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business’ master’s in marketing program was ranked No. 7 in the U.S., according to the TFE Times’ Master’s of Marketing ranking, up from No. 10 last year. Additionally, of the programs listed, Broad ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for its master’s in marketing research degree.
New accounts/projects
ComScore, Reston, Va., has signed an agreement with data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which will use comScore’s television information as a component of TV campaign strategies for political and commercial advertising clients.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Nielsen, New York, has launched the Nielsen Connected Partner Program, which is designed to open its consumer packaged goods data and insights to third-party analytic companies on a broad scale.
Potomac, Md., online consumer sample firm Full Circle Research Co. has expanded with new operations in Houston. They will be headed by Todd Neff.
Research and technology company Toluna has opened its first office in Brazil. Luca Bon, sales director Latam, will lead the company’s effort to serve customers locally in the region.
Kantar Public, the new Kantar brand for government and the public sector, has launched the Centre Kantar sur le futur de L’Europe, a new Paris-based research center focused on the future of Europe with a pan-European team of researchers with expertise in political and opinion polling, social and economic trends and migration. It will be overseen by Edouard Lecerf, global director of political and opinion research at Kantar Public.
IPG Mediabrands, the media arm of marketing solutions firm Interpublic Group, has launched Healix, a new division focused on life science and health care brands. As part of the launch, Healix will have offices in New York and Princeton, N.J., with affiliates in EMEA and APAC regions. It will be led by Jeffrey D. Erb, who will serve as president, North America.
In Boston, communications company Havas Health and analytics firm Vencore have formed HVH Patient Precision Analytics, an entity that will use analytics and predictive modeling to provide data and insights into the rare and niche disease market. The joint venture will be led by Steve Costalas from Vencore, who will serve as CEO, and Jeff Ceitlin from Havas Health, who will serve as chief commercial officer.
Morristown, N.J., commercial analytics and operations firm KMK Consulting has launched an independent subsidiary, InTask Inc., to provide simulation platforms for use in health care market research. The company’s first software platform, InTask, is now available for commercial applications. Greg Chu, former head of KMK Market Research, has been named COO of InTask Inc. and Subhra Ghosh will join KMK Consulting as head of market research.
U.K. social intelligence company Brandwatch has opened a new office in Paris and has appointed Bertrand Saint-Martin as VP of France.
Research industry consultant Kristin Luck has rebranded her consultancy, Luck Collective, to better represent the growth strategy services she provides to clients.
Meneses Research & Associates, San Diego, Calif., and Latin Facts Research, Los Angeles, have merged to form Latin Facts Meneses Research, a company specializing in conducting research among U.S. Hispanic consumers.
Marketing services company Juntos Marketing, Sydney, has merged with Australia-based firm Leapfrog Research.
Paul Donnelly and Colm Russell, both formerly at Kadence International, have formed Dynamic Fieldwork Ltd., a London-based data collection consultancy for market research companies and management consultancies. Dynamic Fieldwork offers qualitative and quantitative data collection, scripting and hosting, sample management, translation services and data processing.
Research company earnings/financial news
Nielsen, New York, has reported revenues of $1.57 billion for third-quarter 2016, up 2.5 percent compared to third-quarter 2015.