Penske Media clearly sees the impact of online music streaming. Penske, which currently owns "Rolling Stone" and "Variety" magazines, has partnered with BuzzAngle, an analytics company which tracks daily sales, streaming and airplay activity of albums, songs and artists. The partnership will bring "unparalleled" charts and data analysis to the music industry.

J.D. Power will now partner with HARMAN, an in-car systems developer and manufacturer, to gather more customer data. The goal is to get more accurate feedback from their customers.

Survata has received $14 million in series B funding. Survata provides ad measurement and market research services, and the funding will go toward further improving their ad measurement tools.

YouGov releases a report about luxury retail. The findings reveal that a majority who purchase luxury items tend to do so when they are on sale. The full report is linked in our show notes.

GfK reports that UK consumer confidence has declined throughout the month of July, this despite warm weather, the World Cup, and Wimbledon.

The Insight People, which started as a UK-based insight firm, announces they are launching its Kids Insight service in the US which studies the consumer behavior of children.

Grail Research is decoupling from Integreon. It has been rebranded as Grail Insights and is now an independent firm. It will continue to focus on primary and secondary research.

IPSOS is set to acquire 4 global divisions of GfK Research. The full press release is linked in our show notes, among many other helpful links.

Neilsen and OzTAM announce plans for an integrated database of TV and connected devices for Australia. This will launch in 2019. The full press release is linked in the show notes.

WPP opens a new office in Toronto. The new location will house a larger team. They now have 5 locations.

Google launches another analytics initiative, this one designed for non profits. A link to their full suite of offerings for non-profits is linked in the show notes.

ORC is launching Engine Group in North America with a new structure focusing on data-driven marketing insights.

Forrester Research announces that they are having another good quarter. They are up 7.5%, which they attribute to their sales model, but they also look forward to further growth with their recent acquisitions of Glimpzit and FeedbackNow.

Also in Australia, KPMG buys local firm UDKU to improve customer experience.

Mathmatica intends to buy EDI

Cision purchases ShareIQ, a visual recognition tech company.

Qlik acquires Podium Data.

ISG adds a new role to Todd D Lavieri who is already Partner and President of ISG Americas and Asia pacific. He will now also assume the role of Vice Chairman.

Daniel Foreman is appointed Executive Director of Majestic Research Services and Solutions

Kantar hiring head of Panel

Ispos hiring senior research executive

YouGov released their BrandIndex which showed Google and YouTube maintaining their one and two spots while Facebook fell from 3rd to 5th.

YouGov also published their list of the World's Most Admired People. Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie each hold the top spot. Ironically Vladimir Putin edged out the Dalai Lama, who sit at six and seven. Someone explain this to me.

comScore just announced new updates to their custom reporting tool for mobile.The updates will allow their customers to get greater insight into consumer engagement with content, products and services through mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The press release is linked in our show notes.

Kantar released a report on smart speakers. Amazon's speakers lead the market, but as many Americans still don't own a device, there's plenty of room for Apple or Google to make up ground. The majority of consumers use them to listen to audio content like podcasts or music.

Partner's Group intends to buy IRI. According to Reuters, this is going to be a $2 billion deal. See the full article in our show notes.

Jumpshot, an opt-in data manager, hires Michael Perlman, formerly of comScore, as Chief Revenue Officer. Find the press release here.

MFour adds three new team members: Stacy Hua, a senior research consultant; Nathan Bush, a survey programmer and designer; and, Ryan Houseman, a solutions development representative.

Nielsen shares fell 27 percent after they announced that CEO Mitch Barnes will be retiring and they reduced their projections for 2018.

The DMA published research revealing that consumers prefered emails as the marketing channel. Their full report is linked in the show notes.

IPSOS reported revenue is down 5.7% compared to this time last year. Their report of the first half year is linked in the show notes.

Market Strategies and Morpace Inc. receive a $60 million credit from LBC credit partners to support the merging of the two companies. They will remain headquartered in Michigan.

Market Measures hires Tobin Sparrow as research director.

Alex Hunt resigns from his position as global president of System 1. At the same time System 1 has appointed Jane Wakelyas as non-executive director.

Richard Cornelius retires from ORC international.

NAILBITER co-founder, Amishi Takalkar, will be taking over as CEO

Big Sofa hires Dorothy White, formerly of CPG, as Client Services Director.

Ameritest promotes Abigail Hollister to company president

Tune hires Bhavana Mathur as Vice President of Product Management.

Key Quest appoints Suzie Curtis as Project Director of London.

Globalwebindex secures $40 million in series A funding which will facilitate the company's plans to expand to the US and Asia. Get the link to the full article in our show notes.

Research Fox unveils their Market Research Panel Book for 2018, encompassing 62 countries and over 10 million panel members.

The Populus Group launches a new tool, Populus Diversity. This index includes a range of demographic and social attitudes and is highly predictive of disruptor brands and politics, according to Karston Shaw, head of analytics.

Catalina also launches a new tool: buyR³Science, which uses real-time shopper data to improve brand performance.

Language Connect has been bought out by The Hut Group. The full press release is linked in our show notes.In human capital news of market research…

Jon Priest transitions from CEO of Future Thinking to Non-executive director of Next Wave Partners.

Maru/Matchbox hires Erica Ruyle as VP of Qualitative Insights. See the full press release in our show notes.

Pietre de Zwart joins Eyeota as CTO.

LivingLense adds three new members to their customer team: Brett Henderson as Global Director of Customer Success, and Juliana Almeida to manage European relationships and Jenna Boccia to focus on North America.

Andrew Bloom will now lead the Enterprise Data Solutions Division of Infogroup.

Label Insight promotes co-founder, Ronak Sheth, to CEO.

According to data from Acast and Nielsen, podcast listeners tend to have higher levels of education and spend more money. See Nielsen's full report linked in the show notes.

C4 Research released a report that revealed that advertising that deals with important issues garnered more attention from 16 to 34 year olds because they equate them with ethical products.

451 Research, a research firm, and Publish Interactive, a SaaS developer for researchers, partner to release a new content management and research publishing platform. The full news release is linked in our show notes.

Equibity has released a trade statement indicating that a decline in intel segment sales will likely cause them to miss their 2018 expectations.

https://harro.com/2018/07/24/ebiquity-expected-to-miss-annual-revenue-target-through-under-performing-intel-division/

WPP's Group M sells their sponsorship consultancy, IEG, to Engine Shop. Engine Shop is an engagement consultancy.

Yesterday we reported that Altiant is growing in the UK, Sweden, and Bulgaria. As part of that effort Richard Roig, previously of Research Interactive, joins their team as VP of Client services.

Stephen Schroeder, an automotive veteran formerly of J.D. Power, has joined the automotive team at Market Strategies International-Morpace.

Directions Research hires Eric Schauble as VP of client services for its healthcare research team. Like Stephen Schroeder, he is an industry professional whose expertise is being leveraged within market research teams.

Facebook is investigating Crimson Hexagon to determine if they have violated any of their policies when capturing social media data.

At the same time, the Guardian reports that there has been a dramatic increase in privacy complaints since the implementation of GDPR across the UK and Europe.

Research from the World Federation of Advertisers shows that brands are increasingly using brand influencers as part of their marketing strategies.

Kantar is launching a new "Trust in News" study and has partnered with Vividata, a leading Canadian cross-data and consumer behavior firm, for it. Their press release is linked in the show notes.

Altiant, based out of Stolkholm, is expanding in the UK, Sweden, and Bulgaria.

Surprisingly, there are no mergers and acquisitions today, but in human capital of market research...

Former Global Insights CEO of Kantar, Travyn Rhal, has been named Non-Executive Director of Isentia.

Aspire is hiring for a new Graduate Market Research Analyst in London.

The Schlesinger Group has promoted John Simon to the role of Director, Client Solutions. He will now oversee key accounts and manage offices in Dallas and Houston

Entrepreneur magazine notes that market research is an important but often prohibitively expensive endeavor for startups. They provide some suggestions in their article, linked in the show notes.

Luckily Nature Research is offering a free study. Check it out, if you're looking for feedback from readers of Nature magazine.

The Loyalty division of Maritz announces twelve new tools using data and insights to help clients build stronger relationships with their customers, rather than merely offering rewards.

SimpleReach launches a standardized measurement of video, which previously had to meet different metrics depending on the platform to count as a view. See the show notes for the full article.

SIS International Research debuts a new beauty division, Beauty Innovation Consulting, to serve makeup, skincare, fragrance, and wellness brands.

Gunny Scarfo, formerly of VICE Media, and Ben Zeidler, formerly of L2/Gartner, launch a new research marketing firm to provide "uncensored research", developed from the premise that people don't often share the intimate details of their lives and buying decisions with market research.

Malaysian Digital Association selects comScore to measure digital audience in Malaysia.

Publicis Health Acquires Payer Sciences

De Novo Marketing annexes Annex Analytics

Workday Buys Stories.bi, an augmented analytics firm

In an op-ed piece from Gagan Bhalla, director at Kantar MENAP, he analyzes how to build a brand through disruption, using Amazon as the exemplar. His article, which is linked in the show notes, outlines four steps in the process.

Snapchat is integrating Nielsen's premium audience segments to their ad buying platform. Advertisers can now create personalized ads across more than 30,000 segments as well as access third-party data from Nielsen's Marketing Cloud.

Ofcom research reveals that there are now more subscriptions of online streaming services like Netflix than of traditional TV providers in the UK. Viewing among 16-34 year olds is moving online – no surprise there. Likewise, music streaming now makes more revenue than physical sales. Note from the editor: That may further shift advertising dollars to online platforms.

ThinkNow releases a new tool focusing on multicultural segmentation called ConneKt. The goal of the tool is to provide accurate insights of minority populations.

True Influence, an intent data platform, has released InsightBASE 2.0. The update is able to alert companies when their prospects are ready to buy. These "intent signals" are collected in real time, according to their press release, which is included in the show notes.

A report from Kantar Media argues that we are "living in a mixed media world." Statistics reveal that people listen to a smattering of terrestrial radio, online radio, and streaming services across various age brackets. The report also reveals attitudes toward advertising on the various radio services as well as television.

Microsoft is adding a phone recording feature to Skype. Skype users will now be able to record their audio and video calls, allowing many businesses to bring video capture services in house.

Walmart has received a patent for an in-store listening system. The express purpose is to listen to the check out process in order to optimize service and review employees' performance. Many have privacy concerns as the patent does include listening to conversations with customers.

Forrester acquires two firms: FeedbackNow and GlimpzIt. FeedbackNow measures the satisfaction of passengers in real time. GlimpzIt uses machine learning to analyze words, pictures, and video. According to their press release, which is included in the show notes, "The acquisitions of FeedbackNow and GlimpzIt are part of Forrester's plan to build a real-time CX Cloud, integrating a range of inputs to help companies monitor and improve experience."

Google's Measurement Partner Program continues to add verified partners. The goal of the program is, "to offer brands a variety of options to measure their advertising media." Most recently comScore and IRI have been added to their ranks, which already includes Nielsen, Oracle, and ResearchNow among several others.

Salesforce has acquired Datorama. Datorama provides cloud-based marketing analytics through AI. Salesforce intends to use the platform to enhance their Marketing Cloud tool. This would allow many businesses to access research marketing insights through their Salesforce tools.

The Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (AMSRO) has launched a new platform to identify and eliminate fake research. The platform enables report suspected false research strategies. The goal is to encourage Australians to feel more confident that their privacy will be protected and research scams will be investigated and stopped.

Market Xcel, a full-service, quant and qual marketing research agency based in India, has added a big data division. This will add hypothesis testing, regression analysis and data modeling to their range of services.

Amobee, a brand intelligence firm, has won the bid to buy Videology. Videology had previously filed bankruptcy and announced they were selling off their assets. Their tools allow users to manage, measure and optimize digital video and TV advertising.