Leger Takes Minority Stake in imarklab

Canadian polling firm Leger has taken a minority stake in interactive marketing solutions firm imarklab, as part of a partnership through which it will offer eye tracking and emotional recognition tools, physiological measures, and neuroscience approaches. Terms were not disclosed.

imarklab is the commercial arm of the RBC Financial Group Electronic Commerce Chair of HEC Montreal, which was set up in 2002 to help organizations understand how consumption is influenced by new technologies, and integrate relevant technologies into their businesses.

As part of the partnership, Leger will also gain access to HEC Montreal's Tech3Lab technologies, through which the company will be able to conduct in-depth research and analysis of consumer behavior, and offer clients practical applications of the latest research in neuroscience to improve marketing and advertising strategies on their web sites and mobile apps. In addition, imarklab's team will join Leger's head office located in Old Montreal.

Jean-Marc-Leger (pictured), President of Leger, comments: 'imarklab's services complement our line of customer experience measurements, which range from imarklab's interactive online measurement to Leger Metrics in-store customer experience measurement, and customer satisfaction measurements from our Leger research group. To combine scientific and applied research allows us to offer our customers the best of both worlds.'

Web sites: www.legerweb.com and www.imarklab.com .