News notes
Facebook announced that it is opening its Internet.org initiative to developers, despite concerns over Internet neutrality. The initiative will enable developers to create services and Web sites that will be accessible through Internet.org.
The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) announced that enforcement of its Principles in the mobile environment (DAA Mobile Guidance) will begin on September 1, 2015, including new guidance specific to mobile, such as cross-app data, precise location data and personal directory data. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will extend their ongoing independent oversight of the DAA Principles on browsers to the mobile space. As a result, companies that collect and use data across sites or apps for interest-based advertising will be required to demonstrate compliance with the DAA Principles as they relate to mobile activity starting on September 1.
Acquisitions/transactions
Reston, Va., firm comScore has acquired Proximic, a Menlo Park, Calif., analytics company.
ReconMR, San Marcos, Texas, has acquired Voter Consumer Research Houston.
IMS Health, Danbury, Conn., has acquired Dataline Software, Brighton, U.K., to extend its technology-enabled real-world evidence (RWE) platform and accelerate delivery of integrated clinical and cost-of-care insights for assessing health care value and performance. Dataline’s software tools expand the capabilities of Evidence 360, IMS Health’s RWE platform.
Professional services company KPMG, based in Amsterdam, has acquired London customer experience firm Nunwood.
App Annie, a mobile app intelligence platform based in San Francisco, has acquired Mobidia, a Richmond, B.C., mobile measurement company.
Chicago research firm Information Resources Inc. has acquired Datasea, a China-based analytic services and market research firm specializing in the retail and CPG industries.
Chicago researcher Market Track has acquired NewMo, a San Rafael, Calif., software firm with the SaaS platform CyberAnalyst. The platform allows clients to monitor, identify and resolve intellectual property and commercial agreement violations.
Toronto software firm ScribbleLive has acquired Appinions Inc., a New York software company with the Attention Analytics platform.
Paris marketing and media company Publicis Worldwide has acquired Vivid Brand, a London marketing and research agency. Vivid Brand will form a new agency with the same name within the Publicis U.K. network, to be led by Guy Wieynk, group CEO of the U.K. and Nordics at Publicis.
Woodruff Sweitzer, a Columbia, Mo., marketing firm, has purchased Confluence, a Red Wing, Minn., marketing and public relations firm. Confluence will change its name to Woodruff Sweitzer but retain all employees and current Confluence owner Tim McKim will become executive vice president at Woodruff Sweitzer. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Twitter is set to acquire marketing technology specialist TellApart, Burlingame, Calif., which offers a predictive engine service that anticipates the needs of shoppers. Twitter says the acquisition will allow cross-device identity, targeting and attribution.
Brand Networks, a social marketing and advertising software company based in Boston, will acquire SHIFT, a Los Angeles platform for cross-network social advertising and collaboration, in a $50 million cash and stock deal. The acquisition creates a social marketing platform powered by RelevanceRank, a proprietary technology that lets social media marketers measure and predict the ongoing performance of their paid and organic content across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Verisk Analytics Inc., a Jersey City, N.J., data analytics company, has acquired Wood Mackenzie Limited, a data analytics company based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Woonsocket, R.I., pharmacy chain CVS has acquired Omnicare, a nursing home pharmacy based in Cincinnati, for $12.7 billion.
Shanghai, China, marketing firm Always Marketing Services, a WPP company, has acquired 3ree, a marketing company based in Singapore.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
IBM and Facebook have partnered to offer marketers new integrations between the two platforms. IBM said customers will now be able to buy Facebook ads with combined data from Facebook and IBM’s Marketing Cloud. Customers will also be able to take campaigns that work on Facebook and replicate them elsewhere.
As reported by City A.M., Nielsen, New York, is reportedly eyeing a bid for Tesco’s U.K., customer science company dunnhumby, possibly raising the price of the company to over £2 billion.
AppFigures, a New York-based reporting platform, will collaborate with Microsoft to allow users to integrate data using Power BI and Power BI Designer.
Merkle, a Columbia, Md., marketing agency, has formed a strategic partnership with Rentrak, a Portland, Ore., research company.
Starbucks is partnering with the music streaming service Spotify to allow Starbucks baristas and customers to control the songs played in the shops. Spotify will also be incorporated into the Starbucks mobile app and will give customers the ability to collect points in the Starbucks customer loyalty program, My Starbucks Rewards. Additionally, Starbucks employees will receive a complimentary subscription to Spotify’s premium services, which usually costs $10 a month, beginning this summer.
Nielsen and Roku Inc., have formed a strategic agreement that will enable Nielsen to measure video advertising delivered to Roku streaming players and Roku TV models. Marketers can buy video advertising on the Roku platform with the same kind of audience guarantees available with traditional television. As a first step, Nielsen and Roku will enable OTT measurement through Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings.
London research firm TNS and sister company Kantar Media have partnered with GeoPoll, a mobile surveying platform based in Denver.
Stockholm-based media company MediamŠtning i Skandinavien (MMS) has signed up GfK to integrate multi-source data streams for traditional and online TV consumption into a single “total video currency.” This will produce Sweden’s first universal currency covering the full scope of the market that includes traditional linear and time-shift television audiences as well as those viewing video content on smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.
Health Connexions partnered with Tekcapital, an international provider of technology and intellectual property services, to provide the Invention Evaluator service to the Health Connexions network of contacts.
NetBase, a social media analytics company based in Mountain View, Calif., partnered with New York social media site Tumblr. This partnership will provide access to the feed of all public activity on the Tumblr platform.
Lumi, a London research firm, has formed a strategic partnership with Cint, a Stockholm research software company, to create a mobile-first panel by combining Lumi’s mobile research platform and Cint’s panel marketplace platform.
Havas Sports & Entertainment U.K. and Cake, agencies of Purteaux, France, firm Havas Media Group, have partnered to create Havas Sports & Entertainment Cake.
Focus Market Research, Minneapolis, has partnered with Iselin, N.J., research firm Schlesinger Associates. Focus Market Research’s project management and recruitment team has transferred to Schlesinger Associates Phoenix and Schlesinger has also acquired Focus Market Research’s local Phoenix panel. Focus Market Research’s Minneapolis facility and operation remains open for business as usual and remains independent of this Phoenix partnership.
Chicago retail data company IRI is partnering with research firms comScore, Reston, Va., and Rentrak, Portland, Ore., to launch a tool linking cross-media advertising to actual shopping behavior. The solution utilizes the IRI ProScores model, which predicts a consumer’s spending on a brand. This data is integrated with point-of-sale and panel data, Rentrak’s TV viewership data and client data.
Crossmedia, a New York media services agency, has agreed to utilize the national and local measurement services of Portland, Ore., research firm Rentrak.
New York analytics technology firm Affinio will integrate the search capability provided by Denver software firm Gnip to better segment audience members, using common hashtags, content and keywords.
Marketing firm Creston Group and researcher Future Foundation, both in London, are partnering to combine the nVision trend service of Future Foundation with the Creston Group’s neuroscience specialization. The combined expertise will be available for both companies’ clients and for joint project proposals.
Singapore data platform AdNear has partnered with Melbourne, Australia, research firm Roy Morgan. The partnership will allow AdNear to use Roy Morgan’s Helix Personas – a consumer segmentation and data integration tool – to target mobile devices.
Association/organization news
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association, St. Paul, Minn., has expanded its membership to include qualitative researchers working in areas of product design, branding strategy and user strategy as well as academics (college professors and graduate students teaching qualitative research).
Millward Brown Vermeer, the Advertising Research Foundation, ESOMAR, Kantar and Korn Ferry are partnering to lead Insights2020 – Driving Customer-Centric Growth, a global marketing leadership initiative focused on aligning insights and analytics strategy, structure and capability to drive business growth. The initiative’s founding partners will collaborate with the Insights2020 advisory board, chaired by Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer at Unilever.
Awards/rankings
Mumbai, India, research firm Cross-Tab Group has received an Inc. India Innovative 100 award.
ReachLocal Inc., a Woodland Hills, Calif., online marketing firm, has been awarded a 2015 Confirmit ACE (Achievement in Customer Excellence) Award, which celebrates “outstanding achievement in voice of the customer and customer experience.” ReachLocal earned the award from Confirmit, an Oslo, Norway, software firm, for its client survey program which solicits feedback throughout the customer lifecycle from point of entry (new client), to maintenance (check in) and client churn.
Better Homes and Gardens, along with Toronto-based marketing research firm BrandSpark International, announced the winners of the 2015 Better Homes and Gardens Best New Product Awards and the 2015 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards. Representatives from winning brands included Olay, Maybelline, Listerine, Clean & Clear and St. Ives.
BRICS100 Research, Cape Town, South Africa, released the first ever BRICS100 annual listings of the fastest growing companies of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations for the year 2014. The top 10 list includes: 1 - Alibaba (China); 2 - RoboCV (Russia); 3 - ZeptoLab (Russia); 4 - UniPay (Brazil); 5 - FlipKart (India); 6 - Veduca (Brazil); 7 - DesComplica (Brazil); 8 - OlaCabs (India); 9 - iMusica (Brazil); 10 - Snapdeal (India).
The Customer Experience Professionals Association announced the winners of its 2015 CX Innovation Awards: Crowe Horwath LLP, John Deere, Optum, Sandy Spring Bank and Western National Insurance Group. Additional finalists were also honored.
Jose Luis Rodriguez, a senior from Loyola University Chicago, has won GfK’s fourth annual Next Generation Competition, where college graduates from a variety of disciplines propose market research projects examining today’s business and marketing issues. Rodriguez submitted the winning paper, “Mobile User Experience Sentiment: Preference Profiles Across Lifestyles,” where he found that different smartphone user groups had distinct likes and dislikes regarding the usability of their phones’ features. He will travel to New York City for coaching and learning sessions with GfK researchers and thought leaders.
Hannaford’s and Publix took the top spots in the 2015 Temkin Effort Ratings, which rate how easy or difficult companies are to work with. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers conducted by the Temkin Group, a Waban, Mass., customer experience firm, the ratings examine 293 companies across 20 industries. Aldi, Lowe’s, credit unions, PetSmart, Trader Joe’s, Amazon.com, Bed Bath & Beyond, Advance Auto Parts and Walgreens fill out the top 10 spots.
New accounts/projects
ThinkNow Research, Burbank, Calif., has been awarded a five-year/20-year option Advertising & Integrated Marketing Solution Schedule 541 contract by the U.S. General Services Administration, the procurement agency for the federal government.
Cambridge, Mass., research firm Abt Associates won its second evaluation contract from the U.K. Department for International Development to assess the effectiveness of pilot projects testing the use of “pull mechanisms” to incentivize private sector involvement in markets and address market failures impeding the development of markets to serve smallholder farmers. The nine-year, $5.5 million evaluation contract is part of the $118 million AgResults initiative funded by Australia, Canada, the U.K., the U.S., and the Gates Foundation. The contract will continue and expand work begun under an initial contract won in 2013.
PostUp, an Austin, Texas, software firm, has joined the Return Path partner program, integrating with its products to give brands more insight into campaign performance and to allow test messaging, previews of campaigns and device detection.
Portland, Ore., researcher Rentrak announced a TV ratings and video on demand measurement agreement with Viacom Media Networks. Viacom will utilize Rentrak’s demographics measurement capabilities, which include Rentrak’s viewing information and integrated purchase information from IRI, Shopcom and IHS Polk’s Automotive segmentations.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
SFW, a Greensboro, N.C., marketing agency, has opened a new office on North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus. The office offers services including marketing research, digital, strategy, creative and account management. Additionally, Victoria Kearns will serve as the managing director of SFW Raleigh.
Sandeep Chibber and Ashish Mathur have launched SampTech Consulting Services in Gurgaon, India. The firm will provide qualitative and quantitative research, online and offline data collection, data processing and analysis, dashboards and report writing.
In London, Gary Dods and Jonathan Owen have set up WeAreFearless, a company which will specialize in creating “human centric” brand engagement strategies utilizing consumer neuroscience.
Opinions Ltd., Chagrin Falls, Ohio, opened a new mall-based data collection facility in the Washington, D.C., area at Annapolis Mall and tapped Yvonnie Fayson as facility manager.
GlobaLexicon, a language and translation service provider based in London, has opened a new office in Antwerp, Belgium.
RealityMine, a Manchester, U.K., researcher, is expanding its syndicated TouchPoints and measurement business to 20 new markets worldwide. It has also secured rights to the TouchPoints name and has hired the USA TouchPoints founders, Jim Spaeth and Alice K. Sylvester, as chief product officer and chief growth officer, respectively, at RealityMine.
London firm WPP’s Data Alliance opened a new office in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of its expansion into Africa, naming Devon Tighe as the managing director.
San Francisco digital agency Questus opened a branch office in Brea, Calif.
Havas Media Group, New York, launched a new independent consultancy and solutions offering, HMG Consulting, led by Darren Goldie.
London research and strategy firm Mavens is opening a U.S. headquarters in San Diego and a Latin America headquarters in Sao Paulo.
SurveyGizmo, a Boulder, Colo., software company, has opened a support office in London.
Progressive Business Media, a Greensboro, N.C., publisher, has launched a new division, Progressive Market Research. It will provide customized and proprietary research, including market analysis and strategic company and consumer insights, to the home furnishings industry.
The joint venture between London marketing firm dunnhumby and grocery chain Kroger, dunnhumbyUSA, will be converted to a new agency, to be known as 84.51¡. The new firm will absorb the staff of dunnhumby USA but will be wholly owned by Kroger and will use dunnhumby’s tools under license. The name of the firm alludes to the longitudinal coordinate of the firm’s new offices.
Six independent research companies have established the Digital Insight Network, an association to enable them to share best practice information and innovations in the field of digital methodologies. Members will also assist each other with global research projects. The companies, eDigitalResearch, Southampton, U.K.; MRSS India, Mumbai, India; Efficience3, Reims, France; Wallis, Melbourne, Australia; Buzz Channel, Auckland, New Zealand, and BrŠdo Creative Insight, St. Louis, say that the network will provide businesses with an alternative to multinational research firms, offering instead local insight but on an international platform.
New York marketing and advertising agency J. Walter Thompson has brought together three of its divisions, Sonar, Analytics and the Innovation Group, to form a new research and analytics group, the Intelligence Group. Sonar explores cultural trends using qualitative and quantitative research, while Analytics generates marketing ideas utilizing data and technology and the Innovation Group predicts future trends.
The Latin Field Team, an Austin, Texas, researcher, has opened a new focus group facility and call center in Mexico City’s World Trade Center.
WPP’s parent company GroupM, a New York media investment company, is expanding its sports and entertainment offering under a new global agency brand, ESP.
SIS International Research has reported that its fieldwork and data collection unit has grown its U.S. qualitative research database in both in regional as well as major cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The company also announced that it has enhanced its Hispanic research capabilities and its Spanish-speaking recruiting and fieldwork capabilities with the addition of Ana Rangel, based in the company’s New York office. Also, Ralph Pagan has been appointed as vice president of strategy and market intelligence and will lead the SIS B2B research team and will work alongside Damir Giliyazov, manager of market intelligence.
Research company earnings/financial news
Portland, Ore., research firm Rentrak Corporation announced fourth-quarter 2015 revenue of $28.5 million, a 32 percent increase. For fiscal 2015, total company revenue grew to $102.9 million, a 36 percent increase from last year.
Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn., reported first-quarter 2015 revenue of $471.2 million, an increase of 5 percent over first quarter 2014 and 12 percent excluding the foreign exchange impact.
Nuremberg, Germany-based GfK has grown by 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year. The adjusted operating income increased by 15.7 percent and the margin improved to 7.5 percent (versus 7.0 percent in the same period last year).
Nielsen N.V. reported first-quarter 2015 revenue of $1,458 million, down 2.1 percent due to the impact of foreign exchange but up 4.4 percent on a constant currency basis, compared to the first quarter of 2014.
DJS Research, Cheshire, U.K., reported sales of £3.6 million during the financial year 2014/15, which represents a 26 percent increase over the previous financial year.