TNS Wins Record Qual Contract for Eurobarometer

TNS has beaten Ipsos, GfK and others in a major qual competitive tender from the European Commission and the European Parliament. TNS says the deal covers all the body's qualitative studies and is 'believed to be the world's largest qual research programme', valued at some 15m Euros over four years.

The Eurobarometer qualitative studies will be managed within TNS' Political & Social sector by TNS Opinion, and will involve group discussions and in-depth interviews with the general public and specific target groups, in 34 countries and territories including all 27 EU member states. Such studies are used to examine reactions to policies and actions, evaluate messages and material, and to probe into quant results. TNS first won the contract for the quantitative Standard Eurobarometer studies in 1974.

Leendert de Voogd, Global Head of TNS Political & Social, says the success is due to the hard work of a large international team, and adds: 'Our strong presence in the European territory and our knowledge of our clients' needs have helped us to win this highly competitive tender. We look forward to building on our strong partnership with the European Commission and the European Parliament.'

London-based Mark Francas, Global Deputy Head of TNS Political & Social, says the win is 'a huge endorsement of our qualitative capabilities in the social research space' and will help to balance the past perception of TNS as primarily a quantitative agency in the UK market.

During the tender process, TNS demonstrated its proprietary 6dTV system, a live and interactive research platform which uses video to allow researchers and clients to follow and have input to focus groups live via the internet from a remote location.

TNS is now part of WPP's Kantar Group, which has 26,500 employees working across 80 countries. Web sites are at www.tnsglobal.com and www.kantargrouptns.com .

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

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