2009 'Dismal' Year for Top 25 MR Firms

The world's Top 25 research organizations had a 'dismal' year for revenue in 2009, according to market research industry authority Jack Honomichl. During the year, total revenues for the 25 firms who made this year's list were down by 3.1% to $17.4bn.

The previous year's top 25 saw a 3.9% increase to $18.9bn in 2008. Honomichl, the founder of industry publication Inside Research, says this is the first time since he began compiling this industry analysis fifteen years ago that the industry has had a 'down year'. He adds that this is 'no surprise' given the state of the world's economy.

The list is made of up market research organizations with estimated annual global revenue of more than $50m. These firms account for about 56% of the total world revenue for marketing, advertising, and public opinion research.

After adjustment for inflation, 2009 revenue for the Top 25 firms was down 4.5%, while staff numbers dropped 4% to 103,216 employees in the year.

Fifteen of the Top 25 - including Kantar, IMS Health, GfK, Ipsos and Synovate - saw revenues decline during the year, while ten companies reported an increase.

Three firms - Dentsu in Japan, YouGov in the UK, and BVA Group in France - were dropped from the list because of declines in revenue. Taking their place were dunnhumby in the UK, Macromill in Japan and Abt SRBI in the US.

Honomichl points out that many of the Global Top 25 have grown through acquisition, and while this slowed in 2009, he says this was still important. Specifically nine of the Top 25 firms acquired one or more firms during the year, with GfK making seven purchases.

Full details are available in the August edition of Marketing News, which can be downloaded from the AMA web site: www.marketingpower.com .

Rank		Organisation	Revenue1	% change
2009	2008		($ millions)	From 20082
1	1	The Nielsen Company	4,628.0	1.0
2	2	The Kantar Group *	2,823.2	-9.5
3	3	IMS Health Inc.	2,189.7	-2.4
4	4	GfK SE	1,622.8	-6.0
5	5	Ipsos Group S.A.	1,315.0	-3.8
6	6	Synovate	816.4	-9.6
7	7	SymphonyIRI Group	706.3	1.2
8	8	Westat Inc	502.4	7.0
9	9	Arbitron Inc	385.0	4.4
10	10	INTAGE Inc	**368.6	0.3

* estimated by Top 25
** fiscal year ending March 2010
[1] For some companies, total revenues including non-research activities are significantly higher
[2] adjusted so as not to include revenue gains or losses from acquisitions or divestitures, and to exclude currency exchange effects.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

Register (free) for Daily Research News

Simple printable version of this article

Email this article to a friend