In the US, Ipsos Interactive Services (IIS) has partnered with Peanut Labs – which provides access to members of social networking sites – to improve its reach among the 13-34 year old demographic, otherwise known as Generation Y (Gen-Y).

Since it was founded in 2005, Peanut Labs has specialized in reaching youth audiences for market research through applications on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Google Open Social. The partnership will couple IIS’s market research expertise and reach with Peanut Labs’ knowledge and Sample3.0 technology, to recruit and maintain younger populations on Ipsos panels in the US and Canada.

IIS COO Efrain Ribeiro explained the difficulties in recruiting and retaining younger demographics: ‘When these respondents do join panels, they do not participate in survey opportunities very often. Our relationship with Peanut Labs will provide us with guaranteed access to a critical population that is often difficult to reach through traditional methods.’

The firms will recruit and profile individuals to participate on specific Ipsos panels. Peanut Labs will then communicate with the respondents, using its Sample3.0 sampling technology integrated into more than 70 social networks, to drive them to Ipsos surveys.

At the end of last month, Peanut Labs announced the formation of a consultative group of prominent researchers and clients to study and combat the problem of fraudulent online responses. In February, the firm received $3.2m in funding to continue product development of sampling technology, targeted at Gen-Y.

Web sites: www.ipsos-interactive.com , www.ipsos.com and www.peanutlabs.com .

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