MrWeb 21 YEARS Feature: How MR Beat Recession in 2002

Memories are short (well ours are anyway) and when we started our summary of 'the MR world in 2002' we expected to find an industry deeply affected by the global downturn of that year. Only when we got reading did we remember that of course, until 2009, research used to be recession-proof!

So yes, there's ample evidence in DRNO's reports of the global downturn that followed or was accentuated by the events of September 11th the previous year, and its effect on confidence. America - tracked by the Harris Poll - divided over George W Bush's response to the atrocities and business leaders buckled up for uncertain times, pulling in their marketing and advertising horns along with other items of expenditure. But while individuals cut back on insight, others stepped up their investment to help them chart that very uncertainty. The industry bucked the trend. That was how it worked, right?

Even outside MR, there were plenty of distractions. It was a World Cup year, and Roy Keane did his best to make the Irish dressing room another war zone. In the absence of their own nation, a fair proportion of Scots supported the Irish but a surprising 30% told Lightspeed they were backing their southern neighbours - the same proportion that supported 'anyone but England' (they needn't have worried). Brits responded to the general doom and gloom by eating a lot of cheese and sandwiches, according to TNS.

There were occasional signs that Internet growth was affected, as GfK reported in Germany, but on the whole it enjoyed another record-breaking year: establishing itself as essential in Americans' everyday lives; in growing demand for shopping; and getting into the homes of the Chinese and the routines of British women. But if you need a reminder of how far things were from today, technologically speaking, just look at the TGI data showing DVD players in only 14% of homes while nearly all (90 percent) had a VCR. [For the benefit of our younger readers, that's 'Video Cassette Recorder' - explanation here courtesy of Not the Nine O'Clock News: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VgwxKW0J6I ]

MR techniques briefly hit the national and international headlines when Daniel Kahneman, a Professor of Public Affairs at Princeton University in the US, shared the Nobel economics prize for a method showing how psychology affected people's buying decisions. His 'Thinking Fast and Slow' with its explanation of 'System 1' and 'System 2' thinking has since been vastly influential in the research and advertising industries.

Changes in audience research that year would also have far-reaching effects, most notably booming Arbitron's development and testing of its Portable People Meter (PPM), gathering pace and expanding its scope in the US, trialling in Latin America and Canada, and moving outdoor.

Nielsen, its merger with Arbitron far in the future and its businesses still split between groups, had a good year with VNU buoyant and pushing its newly acquired Nielsen brand out worldwide, while winning major contracts from the likes of P&G. The fledgling online audience sector was already consolidating: NetRatings, not yet a part of Nielsen, bought Internet audience monitor NetValue, Australian panels and clients from AMR Interactive and the business of ACNielsen eRatings.com. Both the last two included assets of Jupiter Media Metrix, from buying all of which NetRatings nevertheless stepped back after discussions with the FTC. It did buy JMM's subsidiary AdRelevance, however.

2002 was the year Aegis Research rebranded as Synovate, announced by CEO Adrian Chedore in June. The division was bolstered by a number of buys, including Madrid-based INNER Strategic Research, British company Sample Surveys Limited and in continental Europe Market&More.

Synovate was to last precisely nine years before being gobbled up by Ipsos, but in 2002 the French-based giant was busy enough elsewhere, notably with a massive increase in its US business, although this still only left it in 12th position in the country. Worldwide the company grew revenue by 46%, or 8% even comparing like with like. In October, Henri Wallard was appointed as CEO, while Jean-Michel Carlo was chosen to head up its new Regional Management for Europe. The group bought in Japan and China, the former Soviet Union, Germany (Sample-INRA) and the US - the last of these ACNielsen's Vantis operation.

GfK also enjoyed fast-rising revenue, and made acquisitions in France, Turkey, Germany and Switzerland, Belgium and Portugal. It opened in Yugoslavia (again, young readers, ask a senior colleague what that was), and in March it expanded in Australia, India and France again.

The Millward Brown Group had a major year for acquisitions. It bought in Poland, acquired Paris-based MFR, merged with Kantar sister company Goldfarb Consultants in Canada and added units of BMRB in the UK. But perhaps more significant were buys in the US - Connecticut-based qual firm Greenfield Consulting Group - and in Thailand, in the form of marketing consultancy Firefly. Goldfarb's expertise formed a part of the global automotive practice which MB launched in October.

TNS buys included US specialist Elrick & Lavidge Marketing Research, and Sweden's Svenska Gallup AB. In February, it acquired the custom research division of pioneering Internet researcher Greenfield Online, Inc.

UK agency Business & Market Research (B&MR) announced it would merge into Wirthlin Worldwide, with teams joining the latter's operations in London and Brussels.

In other major M&A news, MORI bought consultancy firm Market Dynamics; Claritas acquired the operating rights of Chicago-based shopping center data firm National Research Bureau; marketing service company eq bought the UK's Quaestor; WPP-owned communications services network Red Cell bought UK strategic consultancy HeadlightVision; and IMS Health snapped up New Hampshire-based Marketing Initiatives, Inc.

TNS and MORI joined Ipsos, GfK and MB in putting in good results - MORI was the UK's fastest growing top ten market research agency for the second year running. But big US firms grew too, including Opinion Research Corp, Harris Interactive and IMS Health, and overall Europe's share of the global MR pie (37%) fell behind that of the US (39% or $US 6.16bn) this year, according to ESOMAR. The association also reported growth in the Asia Pacific market, within a worldwide total of $15.9bn or EUR 17.8bn. The UK industry, which had grown about 8% in 2001 according to the BMRA, was reported early in 2002 by the same source to be 'holding up well' relative to 'other marketing disciplines such as advertising'.

There were notable individual comings and goings, Kantar Group CEO David Jenkins announced his retirement after five years leading it to double in size; Peter Hutton moved to the role of Group Development Director at MORI with Greg Smith brought in to replace him as Head of the firm's Corporate & Consumer Division; David Haynes became President of US data collection giant Western Wats; and Darren Noyce left Harris Interactive/Total to join German agency Skopos - he's still there as of 2020. Founder Neil McPhee left Bristol-based MSS after 20 years as MD, while IDA boss Peter Jackling and JLRS MD Jill Lonsdale left behind the single life in what DRNO called the MR wedding of the year.

Among the associations, AEMRI became AIMRI (subtle one that); Ted Vonk was announced as the new ESOMAR Director General, to replace Mario van Hamersveld, while the same organisation reported via its Marco Polo industry study that (in our words) 'market research clients often live on an island isolated from both end users in their own organisation and research providers'. In another hint at their forthcoming merger, the Chairman of the BMRA Ivor Stocker was appointed to the council of the Market Research Society in the UK.

...And MrWeb added 50% to its turnover and its audience, and poked a little smug fun at the former organisation when the BMRA boasted the 'World's Busiest MR Site' and backed it up with visitor stats considerably smaller than our own. Sadly, we probably still weren't the world's busiest then and we're certainly not now, but no complaints: these were boom times for us and, it seems, for the MR industry as a whole. All the more shocking, then, when MR actually *did* begin to feel the pinch the next time the world economy hit the buffers in 2009. If we can speed these retrospectives up to the original intended rate of two a week, we might just get to that in time to depress you for Valentine's Day. 2003 to follow shortly.


Nick Thomas

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