In becoming a “disruptive” force in the digital branding world, Marc Ryan and his cohorts at InsightExpress L.L.C. have an array of tools available aimed at assessing the market power of social media.
In winning notice from peers, however, the Stamford-based company turned to a relatively archaic form of online communication ”“ email.
InsightExpress received the “disruptive innovation” award at The Market Research Event 2011 (Nov. 7-9), an industry confab organized by the Next Gen Market Research networking group. The award recognizes the market research company that deploys the most innovative research concept ”“ in InsightExpress”™ case, its Ignite Network that provides access to some 10 million qualified respondents lending opinions via email on whatever product or service a company hopes to bring to market.
InsightExpress says that makes The Ignite Network the world”™s largest, panel-based data analytics and research platform, addressing longstanding methodological concerns and opening doors to previously difficult-to-measure online properties such as Facebook, YouTube, portal homepages and ad networks.
It is a problem that is occupying market research companies of all ilk. On multiple occasions this year, Shelton-based Survey Sampling International L.L.C. has hosted webinars on the optimal approaches for bringing social networkers into market research, and blending social media with other access sources.
InsightExpress likewise is developing multiple platforms for measuring audience response in a digital world. Those include its InsightNorms Cross Media database with data on advertising effectiveness from 75 mixed-media campaigns, including ads run in print, TV, radio and the web. Its Web Intercept technology serves up questions to website visitors, with companies able to target a needed response rate. And its “Mobile Blueprint” service assesses visitors to websites tailored for mobile devices, including pre-launch feedback to help tweak a site before it is unveiled.
“Media research has been a space that has had very little evolution in the past 10 years,” Ryan said. “People have gotten stuck into the same methodologies.”
InsightExpress was founded in 1999 as an affiliate of NFO WorldGroup, now a part of WPP. Since 2005, InsightExpress has been led by former NFO CEO William Lipner ”“ Ryan is the lone member of InsightExpress”™ senior management team who does not have a stint with NFO on his resume. Before joining InsightExpress, he worked for the Nielsen Co., which has a large office in Wilton.
Connecticut has a significant cluster of market research companies ”“ the Marketing Research Association (MRA) “Blue Book” industry directory lists 16 companies here, though MRA itself is relocating its headquarters next month from Glastonbury to Washington, D.C. Besides Nielsen, other name-brand entities with Fairfield County offices include Survey Sampling International in Shelton, which merged last summer with Opinionology, and Toluna, which acquired Wilton-based Greenfield Online and which allows people to query just about any question to a panel of participants, including using a mobile phone app.
InsightExpress has a large number of marquee customers all its own, including Zagat, which it helped convert from paper ballots to online surveys for its restaurant handbooks, and Cisco Systems Inc., which in November published a survey undertaken by InsightExpress.
A key takeaway from that survey? A significant percentage of younger people prefer to work at companies that embrace social media ”“ even if it means making less money.
