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OTX Prepares to go OTT
Hi-tech researcher OTX (Online Testing eXchange) has added five senior executives, apparently the prelude to a major offensive. The hires include Bruce Grey Tedesco as Chief Research Officer and four others at VP level or above.
The company, founded by industry veteran Shelley Zalis only in 2000 (www.mrweb.com/drno2k/news2849.htm ), already has over $40 million in revenue and sits at no. 22 in the Honomichl / AMA ranking of US research firms, but says the appointments are part of preparations for 'aggressive growth'.
Eric Villain joins as Executive VP of the firm's Digital Media Group; Tom Greco as Senior VP, Marketing Insights; Mike Carlon as VP, Strategic Insights; and Ajay Durani as VP, Marketing.
Tedesco brings over thirty years of experience with a focus on advertising measurement and brand monitoring systems using advanced technology, including the us of neural networks and artificial intelligence as a resource for market researchers. He will take responsibility for the continued growth and development of innovative analytic and research solutions.
Villain has spent more than 20 years in brand development, marketing insights and communications research for international MR firms and ad agencies, with a particular 'passion' for 'helping clients understand the increasingly complex brand – customer two way communication process'.
Greco takes charge of clients and new business originating from the company's Cincinnati office. He was previously VP/MD for Knowledge Networks (KN), specialising in research for CPG manufacturers. He worked at PDI before its acquisition by KN in 2001, and spent the previous twenty years at ACNielsen.
Carlon's role is a new one, responsible for product and client development in the area of 'story telling', which the firm says will 'blend innovative approaches to qualitative and quantitative research to bring a new level of insight to clients'. His eleven year career spans academia, interactive marketing, financial services and CPG. He was most recently Senior Brand Building Insights Manager for the Dove brand for Unilever, and has also worked for MasterCard International and Dynamic Logic.
Durani's remit covers all OTX marketing and PR. He spent more than eleven 11 years at the Advertising Research Foundation, responsible for their conferences all over the world. More recently he headed up corporate communications for TV ad effectiveness firm IAG Research.
CEO Zalis says the new arrivals 'represent the best and the brightest of the research industry', with expertise which will round out the firm's consumer goods, entertainment and media disciplines.
OTX uses leading edge methods to conduct online research in the entertainment, advertising and consumer packaged goods spaces. It has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Miami, Chicago and London, with strategic partners in Australia and China, and a web site at www.otxresearch.com .
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