Swiss Film & TV Analyst Largo Buys E-Poll

Largo, which provides advanced AI-driven solutions for the film, television and advertising industries, has acquired US consumer research and market insights firm E-Poll Market Research. The Sylvester Stallone-backed company already owns MR tech and consultancy firm QuMind.

Largo.ai was launched in 2020 as a spin-off from Swiss technical university, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and last year secured Series A financing, adding Hollywood legend Stallone as a strategic partner and investor, alongside Thomas Tippl, Vice Chairman of gaming brand Activision Blizzard. It is currently in the process of a B funding round.

The firm uses proprietary tech to analyse cinematographic patterns and simulate human audience behaviour via digital twins - its AI models then assess a project's structural patterns, strengths and weaknesses, and forecast its potential demographic reach, and the size, likely emotional reactions and purchase intent of its audience - all 'within minutes'. QuMind, which was originally known as Tpoll, was acquired last year.

The latest deal brings Largo's predictive tech together with nearly three decades of longitudinal audience intelligence; accelerates Largo's move into the marketing and advertising sector; and brings E-Poll's thirteen staff to the company. It also establishes a permanent US presence under the name of Largo US, with E-Poll's flagship product suite, E-Score as a core product. E-Score tracks and analyses audience perception of celebrities, brands, characters and television programmes, measuring consumer appeal, endorsement power, loyalty and marketability. As part of its Largo's platform, it will involve to model outcomes and help clients to optimize strategy prior to launch.

Largo says it has 'thousands' of digital twins available per country, across more than 20 global markets, with all profiles refreshed annually to ensure accuracy and relevance as audience attitudes evolve.

Gerry Philpott, President and CEO of E-Poll, will now serve as an EVP heading up the US operation, and a number of existing largo staff will move to E-Poll's Los Angeles headquarters. Operationally, E-Poll will continue to operate as a standalone brand, even as its tech is 'deeply integrated' into Largo's system.

'Entertainment and brand marketing is a global business,' says Philpott, 'and the acquisition by Largo fulfils my vision of expanding E-Poll's unique and powerful data set where it allows our experience to aid businesses in full end to end strategies.' Sami Arpa, CEO and co-founder of Largo, states: 'We want to enable our clients to move faster and smarter from creative spark to market execution, with united workflows, dynamic insight generation and significantly improved accuracy.'

The acquiring firm is online at www.largo.io .


Left to Right: Celine Udriot (COO of Largo); Sami Arpa; Gerry Philpott