Synovate Hires UK Community Panels Head

In London, Synovate has hired Marc Chester for the newly created role of Community Panels Director.

Chester joins from online panel and technology provider Toluna, where he worked on a platform to help clients set up research panels and develop communities for brand engagement and co-creation. Prior to this, he held a number of roles in the business information and finance sectors for D&B, Experian and Barclays.

The firm says Chester's appointment will support the worldwide launch of its community panels offering. In his new role, he will be responsible for helping clients use the panels to understand consumer sentiment towards their brands.

'Community Panels enable clients to receive instantaneous feedback from the communities of consumers that buy into their brands,' explains Eleanor Thornton-Firkin, Group Head for Synovate UK's Technology sector research. 'Marc's appointment reflects our commitment to the shift towards helping clients to listen in a more engaging and collaborative way with their consumers.'

Earlier in the year, Synovate announced an agreement with Vision Critical, to power its online community using the Canadian software provider's interactive research software Sparq and its Fusion simulated shopping platform.

More recently, Synovate updated the panels, integrating qual and quant research with a number of applications to help clients spot trends and obtain feedback about product ideas.

Web site: www.synovate.com .