Fifty5Blue Buys Simantea and TRP Research

Media measurement group Fifty5Blue has announced the acquisitions of Simantea and TRP Research, adding capabilities in audience insight, consumer behaviour and measurement technology.

Fifty5Blue was known as Kantar Media until it rebranded in February this year - this followed Kantar's sale of the division a year earlier to London-based alternative investment firm H.I.G. Capital, for around $1 billion. Fifty5Blue specializes in media consumption, including audience measurement, consumer insight and advertising intelligence, and operates in more than 80 countries.

The company says the latest investments - already completed - reflect its 'commitment to delivering clarity across the content and advertising ecosystem,' - and to the development of new measurement and effectiveness solutions. Simantea and TRP Research will each keep their current brand names, with both teams reporting to Fifty5Blue management.

Simantea operates consumer panels via a mobile app, where consumers opt in to allow capture of data on their purchases through receipts, alongside passive measurement of app and web activity - the latter includes media consumption, digital and broadcast advertising exposure, and location.

TRP is a longstanding partner of Fifty5Blue's dedicated software arm TechEdge, with many customers in common. The firm specialises in audience reporting and consultancy, measurement panels, media monitoring and data visualization - the last via TechEdge's AudEx, a portal providing a customisable summary view of the TV and VOD (video on demand) landscape. The companies say the acquisition builds on this existing relationship and brings research, consultancy and software capabilities closer together to improve their offer to clients.

'This investment represents another critical part of Fifty5Blue's journey to deliver clarity to our customers,' claims Fifty5Blue's Global CEO Patrick Béhar. 'Simantea will help address a key customer need to tie our best-in-class audience data with lower funnel measures at a high level of granularity. With TRP, we will be able to help our customers not only evaluate our data but draw out valuable insights they can make business decisions on. We are incredibly excited to bring the Simantea and TRP teams onboard.'

Web site: www.fifty5blue.com .