Launch for New UK Opinion Polling Firm

In the UK, former BT research head James 'JT' Turner and political and behavioural data scientist Zsolt Kiss have launched a research business called opinion.life, with ambitions to 'revolutionise' the science of polling.

Turner was recently hired by predictive analytics specialist Black Swan Data to establish a new Insights division, having previously worked at marcoms group Edelman Berland, ICM, FreshMinds, Populus and BT. Kiss is the founder of ZK Analytics, and his background includes research at the University of Oxford, and brief spells at Bain & Company, NatCen and TNS. During his career, he also served as Political Data Strategist at The Times. Zsolt will take the role of Chief Methodologist working with private and public sector clients, while Turner will take the lead on client services.

The pair have developed a proprietary methodology combining psychological drivers of behaviour and attitude with predictive algorithms. Adding this to traditional polling will - they say - allow them to more accurately understand and predict consumer opinion.

Commenting on the launch, Turner said: 'The UK's polling industry has taken some knocks over the last couple of years. We believe that there are some fundamental ways that we can improve opinion research and our experience in the worlds of data science and behaviour science, as well as more traditional techniques, will be an industry game-changer'.

Web site: www.opinion.life .

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