Kantar Partners with MarketTools, Inc. and Adopts TrueSample for All Online Consumer Research in the U.S.

LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Kantar, the insight, information and consultancy division of WPP and one of the world's largest providers of on-line research, and MarketTools, the leader in software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM), today announced that they have formed a partnership, effective July 1, 2011, in which Kantar will roll out MarketTools® TrueSample® as its quality solution for all U.S. online consumer survey-based research.  

Kantar will apply the full TrueSample quality solution of panel- and survey-level validation across the Kantar group of companies, including its two largest units, Millward Brown and TNS, as well as its online access panel business, Lightspeed Research. The arrangement will also involve testing the approach in key European and other markets.

In other news, Kantar also confirmed its departure from the Promedius Group.

"We have been at the forefront of the industry in implementing ways of increasing online data quality by cutting out fraudulent respondents, improving the quality of questionnaires and a host of other actions," said Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar. "Our experience and learning to date have convinced us that a deep partnership with MarketTools will be good for our clients and will move us faster towards creating our ideal with respect to panel validation – a robust, industry-wide solution."

"As one of the world's largest providers of online consumer research, Kantar has built a reputation for providing accurate, reliable research insights to the world's largest businesses," said Scott Arnold, President and CEO of MarketTools, Inc. "With its decision to use TrueSample for all of its consumer research in the U.S., Kantar is again demonstrating its commitment to quality by adopting the industry's most widely used quality solution."

"We welcome this partnership between Kantar and MarketTools because it represents a commitment to addressing vital issues of research quality and transparency," said Joan Lewis, Global Consumer and Market Knowledge Officer at Procter & Gamble. "By aligning their online services with TrueSample, Kantar is raising the quality standard of their work for P&G and their other clients."

Kantar will work collaboratively with MarketTools by leveraging its deep experience with online consumer research data to help improve the TrueSample technology and processes. Kantar will be using the TrueSample solution for validating survey respondents as Real, Unique, and Engaged™, as well as TrueSample SurveyScore™ and TrueSample.net, the TrueSample customer portal for data analysis and reporting.

In addition, Efrain Ribeiro, COO of Lightspeed, Kantar's online panel business, and Renee Smith, Chief Research Officer of Kantar, will join the TrueSample Quality Council, with Smith serving as co-chair of the TrueSample Quality Council's "research-on-research" sub-committee along with John Ouren, Executive Vice President of MarketTools, Inc.  

The TrueSample Quality Council was established in 2008 with the goal of achieving objective and quantifiable gains in sample and research quality. The Council brings together leaders in the market research industry to share best practices in data quality and to help drive data quality initiatives across the industry. The Council includes representatives from Energizer, E. & J. Gallo Winery, General Mills, MarketTools, Microsoft, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Samsung Electronics, Southwest Airlines, and Unilever, among others.

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 28,500 employees work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com

About MarketTools TrueSample

MarketTools TrueSample improves the quality of online research by identifying and removing fake, duplicate and unengaged respondents from research samples. The patent-pending MarketTools TrueSample combines powerful validation, fingerprinting and engagement modeling into one comprehensive technological solution that ensures that survey respondents are Real, Unique, and Engaged™.  TrueSample uses extensive third-party databases to guarantee that all prospective panelists are who they say they are (Real); ensures that no respondent can take a survey twice by eliminating overlapping and duplicate panelists (Unique); removes speeders and straight-liners, in real time (Engaged); and provides quantified feedback on survey design via TrueSample SurveyScore™.

About MarketTools, Inc.

MarketTools is the leading provider of software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM). The company is focused on providing leading organizations the actionable customer insights they need to make better business decisions that lead to high-value business impact. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. The MarketTools premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes CustomerSat™, TrueSample®, Zoomerang®, ZoomPanel® and ZoomPanel Tech™. MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit www.markettools.com.

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SOURCE MarketTools, Inc.