Conversition Survey Reveals Attitudes towards Social Media Monitoring & Analysis Tools and Technology

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

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81 Percent of Market Research Agencies Agree Social Media can Complement Insights Generated by Traditional Research Methods
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Toronto, ON – October 27, 2011 – Conversition, a pioneer in the Social Media Research industry, recently surveyed 601 clients of Research Now to determine their usage and attitudes towards social media data platforms for the purposes of measuring consumer engagement and gaining consumer insights.

Conversition conducted a 15 minute study focused on the usage of social media monitoring tools and technology to engage consumers, or gain insight into their existing or emerging needs. In order to fully comprehend the potential that the Social Media Monitoring & Analysis (SMMA) industry has in different markets, Conversition surveyed Research Now clients based in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The findings showed highly encouraging results for an industry quickly being adopted by researchers. In particular, responses regarding the use of social media for insight purposes illustrates that SMMA has entered the „early majority‟ within prime English-speaking markets. More specifically, 81 percent of all market research agencies (MRAs) surveyed agree that SMMA can complement insights from custom and/or ad hoc quantitative and qualitative research.

When asked specifically about the potential that SMMA has:

• 65 percent of all responding companies agree that SMMA will become a substantial channel for market research in the future.
• 63 percent of all responding companies agree that SMMA has immense potential to drive consumer insights.

“What’s clear from the study is that the market research community is ‘switching on’ to the power and insight potential of social media data,” commented Michael Mayers, Vice President of Business Development at Conversition.

The survey also found that:

• 85 percent of MRAs believe that human intervention is still needed to maintain the quality of social media data.
• 58 percent of MRAs believe that data quality issues (e.g. spam, erroneous data, and difficulty of understanding the demographic profile of respondents) currently restrict the use of SMMA for insight purposes.

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Mayers adds, “Social media data represents an emerging research channel, and data from social media can be a rich source of information for consumer insights. At the same time, perceptions over data quality are an issue, and our response is that whether managed by the client or the vendor, social media data requires the involvement of experienced and knowledgeable humans to provide those all important checks and balances.”

Methodology
Fieldwork was conducted between August 19 and September 15, 2011 among 601 clients of Research Now based in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The breakdown by country was as follows: United States (344), United Kingdom (165) and Canada (91).

About Conversition
Conversition is an online social media data collection business unit based in Toronto, Canada and New York, NY. Conversition listens to consumers by applying scientific principles to the collection and analysis of social media data. Its strength lies in combining the expertise of respected market researchers with an in-depth understanding of social media.

About Research Now
Research Now is the leading global online sampling and online data collection company. With over 6 million panelists in 38 countries worldwide, Research Now enables companies to listen to and interact with real consumers and business decision makers in order to make key business decisions. Research Now offers a full suite of data collection services, including social media sampling, and operates the Valued Opinions™ Panel and e-Rewards® Opinion Panels. The company has a multilingual staff located in 22 offices around the globe and has been recognized for four consecutive years as the industry leader in client satisfaction. Visit http://www.researchnow.com to learn more.

Press Contact:
Heather Milt
1-206-200-8207
hmilt@researchnow.com

For a copy of the full report, please email hello@conversition.com.

openview: e-Rewards acquires Conversition

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

e-Rewards acquires Conversition: A Marriage of Social Media and Market Research

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Faria Rahman
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Last week, e-Rewards acquired social media market research agency Conversition. Conversition applies scientific principles to the collection and analysis of social media data. Its solutions include TweetFeel, MatterMeter and EvoListen. Its product EvoListen, which is currently under development, collects data from online social media outlets; cleans, filters and weighs it, and then formats the information into quantitative data sets. This will allow e-Rewards’ clients to listen and analyze what customers are saying on social media.
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Read the full article here.

MR Web: e-Rewards Buys Conversition Strategies

Monday, May 16th, 2011

e-Rewards Buys Conversition Strategies
May 11 2011

e-Rewards, the parent of online panel firm Research Now, has acquired social media market research agency Conversition Strategies, just two years after its launch by former Ipsos and NPD executives Jean Davis and Tessie Ting. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Conversition, which has bases in the US and Canada, applies scientific principles to the collection and analysis of social media data. Its flagship product EvoListen collects data sourced from online social media outlets; cleans, filters and weights it; and then formats it into quantitative data sets.

Read the rest of the mrweb announcement here.

Research Live: E-Rewards to buy social media researcher Conversition

Monday, May 16th, 2011

E-Rewards to buy social media researcher Conversition

11 May 2011 | By Brian Tarran

US— E-Rewards, the parent company of online panel firm Research Now, has agreed a deal to acquire social media research agency Conversition Strategies.

The business was founded in early 2009 by two former Ipsos executives, Jean Davis and Tessie Ting, and its primary product is the EvoListen platform, which collects data from social media sites, cleans and filters it and applies scientific sampling and weighting to report the results, formatted into quantitative data sets.

Read the rest of the Research Live announcement here.

Forrester’s Take on the E-Rewards Acquisition

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Roxana Strohmenger of Forrester shared some of her thoughts on what Conversition + e-Rewards means. An excerpt of her article follows.

Our Take: What e-Reward’s Acquisition Of Conversition Means For The Market Research Industry

Posted by Roxana Strohmenger on May 11, 2011

Late last night the market research vendor landscape became a little more consolidated with the announcement that e-Rewards reached an agreement to acquire Conversition Strategies. This is not the first, nor probably the last, move that e-Rewards will take in growing a versatile offering in the market research industry. In 2009, e-Rewards, acquired UK-based online panel provider Research Now, which allowed it to become an online panel provider with global reach. And in 2010 e-Rewards acquired Peanut Labs, which enhanced its panel by offering a social media specialty sample that is recruited and surveyed through social and gaming networks. The acquisition of the Conversition platform EvoListen will allow e-Rewards’ clients to listen and analyze, in a market researcher’s terms, what consumers are saying on social media.

This announcement is significant for the market research industry because it:

• Reaffirms that social media is a source for consumer insights. Forrester’s Technographics® data shows that more than 80% of online US consumers regularly use social media. And this high level of engagement is not exclusive to developed markets. Even emerging markets like Brazil and China are voracious consumers of social media. In market research, we need to be where our consumers are, and now more than ever, social media is that channel. What sounds better, access to 6 to 8 million actively engaged online people globally, which is typically what you find with global online panel providers, or access to more than 600 million active online people? With that wide scope of access, it should be a no-brainer that social media is an important channel that we should be using to gather consumer insights.

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Read the rest of the article here.

The article also appears on RW Connect.

The Great Conjunction: Conversition discussion on the Greenbook Blog

Monday, May 16th, 2011

After the announcement that E-Rewards would be acquiring Conversition, the Greenbook blog posted an article discussing the possible implications for the research industry. An extract follows.
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The Great Conjunction: What the e-Rewards and Microsoft Acquisitions Mean

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One of my favorite movies as a kid (well, really it still is!) is the classic Jim Henson fantasy “The Dark Crystal”. Filled with pseudo-mystical profundities of various sorts, one central element was the race to have certain players in the drama in place before the stars aligned in the “Great Conjunction”, when magical things would happen. Well, we’re seeing our own version of the Great Conjunction occur now, exemplified by the e-Rewards acquisition of Conversition Strategies and the Microsoft purchase of Skype.

The Conversition acquisition positions e-Rewards to converge social media data with traditional research to form a compelling offering based on integrating these two complementary data sources. I am certain that they are also working on a mobile offering, and when they announce that they will have three of the primary channels of consumer insight collection together: The Great Conjunction for market research.

Read the rest of the article here.

Life beyond surveys: Research Live Interviews CEO Chris Havemann

Monday, May 16th, 2011

After last week’s announcement that E-Rewards would be acquiring Conversition, Research Live was quick to speak with our new CEO. An extract of the interview follows.
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Life beyond surveys

The acquisition of social media research firm Conversition might seem like something of a departure for online survey specialist E-Rewards, owner of Research Now and Peanut Labs, but CEO Chris Havemann says it fits perfectly with his vision of the group as a provider of digital data in a rapidly evolving industry.

This acquisition seems like something of a departure for E-Rewards. Conversition don’t do surveys, which have been your stock in trade for quite some time. Would you agree?
I wouldn’t say it’s a departure, it’s a complementary thing. Stepping back and looking at what the E-Rewards group does, we are in the business of providing data to drive insights. As the research industry evolves, it’s starting to think about the different sources of data it can tap into. There’s life beyond survey research, we know that. Behavioural research is a growing area and social media research is something that is still very early days, but we think our clients will want access to those forms of data.

Read the full interview here.

e-Rewards, Inc. Announces Agreement to Acquire Conversition Strategies

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Plano, TX – May 10, 2011 – e-Rewards, Inc., a global leader in digital data collection and reporting, today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Conversition Strategies.

Founded in February 2009 by former IPSOS executives, Conversition is a pioneer in the Social Media Research industry, and was formed to capitalize on the emerging trend to perform market research within the social media channel. The primary product offered by Conversition is EvoListen^®. A patent-pending technology, EvoListen collects data sourced from online social media outlets, cleans and filters the data collected, utilizes scientific sampling and weighting to report the results, and then formats it into quantitative data sets.

“With over half a billion consumers worldwide engaging in social media platforms today, we believe social media listening will continue to become an increasingly important way for businesses to collect valuable insights around the needs and wants of their customers,” said Chris Havemann, President and Chief Executive Officer of e-Rewards. “Our acquisition of Conversition will allow us to further accelerate our social media strategy while enhancing the research capabilities we offer. We remain committed to equipping our clients with innovative products that help with the collection and analysis of digital data.”

Commenting on the announcement, Tessie Ting, Co-founder of Conversition said, “We are thrilled about combining the benefits of more traditional online survey research with those of social media research. Through this acquisition, e-Rewards will continue to strengthen its position as the leading global digital data collection provider with an expertise in social media research.”

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About e-Rewards, Inc.

e-Rewards, Inc. is a global leader in permission based digital data collection and reporting. With over 1000 employees worldwide, it operates a strong portfolio of brands including Research Now, e-Miles, and Peanut Labs. For more information, visit www.e-rewardsinc.com.

Press Contact:
Ashley Harlan
VP, Corporate Communications
+1 214-365-5000
aharlan@e-rewards.com