Hatches, Matches and Dispatches - DRNO in 2011

Every month Daily Research News publishes over 150 stories from the market research industry and 2011's grand total of items was 1,886. So which of them grabbed you? Features Editor Teresa Lynch looks at the most read stories.

Unsurprisingly the top (on-going) story of the year, by a large margin, was the Ipsos purchase of Synovate. We were hooked from the first announcement of intent in early June, through the denials of interest from other companies, taking in the mystery suitor, and finishing with the purchase at the end of the month. So much so that, including some subsequent articles about the 'bedding in' process of the two companies, we had over 20,000 page views on the Ipsos/Synovate merger and seven of the top 20 stories involved it.

Not one personnel story makes the top 20, but many came in just below that. First of these at number 36 is the severance payment deal of Harris Interactive's former President and CEO Kimberly Till, which joined several other instalments in the on-going saga of financial problems at the firm, in our top 100. The top promotion story is that of SVP of Category Development Rakesh Kapoor to Chief Executive Officer at Reckitt Benckiser: clearly we love to see an MR executive making it to CEO! The top new appointment was TNS Chairman Paul Edwards joining Hall & Partners as European Chief Executive Officer.

In terms of techniques, way out in front this year is social media. Three of the top 20 stories concern some form of social media enterprise, and the overall top story - perhaps a surprise - concerns US Internet marketing and analytics specialist HubSpot acquiring social media management platform onefort. Another acquisition, that of Aegis group company iProspect buying social media intelligence specialist ICUC Moderation Services (ICUC) is number seven on the list and CRM specialist Merkle launching a social media measurement division is 10th. Of course the secret of having a social media story attract a lot of attention is to use social media, and the no.1 ranking reflects the story's being 'picked up' on various networks.

The third ranked story, Speak Asia Execs Arrested, is perhaps more easily accounted for. Market Researchers are particularly protective of their good name and some may have turned to it in alarm - the company was allegedly asking respondents for money to be on its panels and the management had been arrested. However we strongly suspect that alarm was not the main motivator - many of the 'juicier' legal stories get high ratings and we suspect it's more to do with an undoubted fascination with the darker side.

Firms that frequently make the headlines as fast-growing independents naturally make something of a splash if and when they're acquired: thus when GfK bought Knowledge Networks and Kantar bought GMI , you wanted to know why, how and on what terms; and not unnaturally, items about the overall health of the research industry itself - where based on respected and long-established indicators - are guaranteed a good audience.

Sometimes we write headlines that carry puns or are intended to intrigue readers into clicking through, and I'm afraid there are sufficient stories in this category in the top 50 to encourage us to continue - it's your fault then if you see more in 2012. Stories like Synovate's Mystery Suitor is Cinema Owner, or TNS to 'DISCOVER' New Frontiers obviously benefitted from the level of intrigue in the heading; and yes, many of you wanted to know more about SEO Firm Wooed by Indicia Proposal and Neurofocus Goes Wi-Fi and Dry.
One of our favourite stories of 2010 however falls into 'none of the above' - 'Eric Marder Associates to Close after Half a Century'. Manhattan based Marder established his quantitative practice in 1960, wrote The Laws of Choice: Predicting Customer Behavior in 1997 and now having served his 50 years at the coal face, rather than settling down to pipe and slippers is planning to 'pursue other interests'. You can't keep a good researcher down.
That's it for this 2011, but don't forget to contact editor@mrweb.com with your stories in 2012.

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