CEO Series

May 8, 2013

A Brave New World: Thoughts On The Research Now/Vision Critical Partnership

An interview with Kurt Knapton (Research Now) and Scott Miller (Vision Critical) about the partnership and the future of market research.

Leonard Murphy

by Leonard Murphy

Chief Advisor for Insights and Development at Greenbook

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future-vision

 

Today a clearer vision of the Brave New World of marketing insights emerged through the announcement of the strategic partnership between Research Now and Vision Critical. Here is the core of the announcement:

Vision Critical, the leading provider of insight community technologies, and Research Now, the global leader in digital data collection, today announced a strategic partnership to provide Research Now clients and prospects with Vision Critical Insight Communities. The combined offering provides businesses and organizations with a deep understanding of specific consumer insights for select markets.

The Research Now global sales and delivery teams will now offer and fully support Vision Critical Insight Communities to benefit its clients and prospects. Vision Critical Insight Community technologies enable businesses and organizations to engage directly with hundreds to tens of thousands of customers on an ongoing basis to gain feedback and insights. Through insight communities, clients are able to gather, analyze and translate customer feedback into quick and meaningful business decisions. Continuing to evolve with the industry, Research Now offers clients the benefits of comprehensive customer insight communities.

“We’re excited about teaming up with one of the largest research service providers in the industry to offer Vision Critical Insight Communities to the Research Now audience,” said Scott Miller, group CEO of Vision Critical. “Research Now is a true innovator in research and we’re pleased to see the company drive insight communities to its clients by choosing Vision Critical as a strategic partner.”

“Our passion for building quality online panels for our clients is at our core,” added Kurt Knapton, president and CEO of Research Now. “Vision Critical’s Insight Community technology allows us to offer the most customized private panel solution available, now fully integrated with our advantaged panel assets.”

Big news indeed.

Full disclosure: I knew about this a few weeks ago, and suggested to all involved that an interview with Kurt Knapton and Scott Miller would be interesting and would help the industry get a bit more contextual understanding of what this deal means for all the stakeholders involved, but also to think about the potential implications for the industry as a whole. Luckily they agreed to humor me, so Kurt, Scott and I had a chance to chat for a bit and they have been generous enough to let me share it with you.

It’s a wide ranging interview and very meaty. We explore the deal a bit deeper than the press release allows for, their motivations for going down this path, impact on clients for both companies and the broader implications for the industry as a whole.

About 1/3 of the way into this video we really get into the vision these leaders share about the emerging future of the industry and that deserves close attention; they recognize that two hallmarks of the future of research are engaging with consumers on their terms, and leveraging multiple data streams for a holistic view of the consumer at an individual level. The Vision Critical Sparq platform is the hub of that engagement strategy (with mobile, social, etc… feeding it) while the Research Now sample platform is the data repository that will enable that integrated view.

Frankly, if you are a leader in this space, this should be required watching. I think their take on where the industry is today and where it is going is spot on. These aren’t guys who take blind risks; they have shareholders, Boards, hundreds of employees and clients and touch the lives of millions of consumers around the world every day. They see the massive change the industry is undergoing and are positioning their companies for success in the future.

We used the Adobe Connect platform which isn’t very friendly to embeds, so click on the image and it will open up a direct link to the video in Adobe Connect:

 

RN & VC Interview

Link to interview: http://nyama.adobeconnect.com/p6hznyzio7u/

 

So what’s my take on this deal?

First, I’ve known Kurt for a long time; when I was CEO of Rockhopper Research e-Rewards was my primary sample supplier (although partner is a more accurate description of  how they engaged with us) and I have profound respect for his integrity, brilliance, and business sense. He’s a former Accenture & Booz Allen Hamilton guy and the story of when he was working with Accenture and convinced Brierly & Partners to launch e-Rewards in the beginning of the online era is a testament to his ability to see the future. He is also a good man, as I know first hand from my experience at Rockhopper. That counts for a lot in my book.

I’ve known the Vision Critical team for just as long, although only in the past year have I gotten to know Scott well and the same is true for him: he is a good man who has gone out of his way to help people, is incredibly smart, and is a clear-eyed visionary leader who took over what was effectively a large family business and is driving it forward in new directions and with great results. Let’s not forget he was CEO of Synovate North America, and was a driving force behind their explosive growth and successful sale to Ipsos. He has a proven track record of success.

Why the character references?

Because these guys just made a big move that will potentially impact every single player in the market research industry globally. When companies as important to an industry as these two are join forces, a measure of trust is needed, because the reality is that if they set their minds to it they could do much to disrupt the businesses of even the largest of players.

Think about this: whether you’re a tech company, full service agency, consultant, client, deal in qual or quant, or are big or small odds are that you do business or compete (often both in the sample part of the business!) with these firms. Research Now is the Microsoft of MR; they are part of most projects through their sample business (especially if it’s B-toB) and as such are a deeply integrated business enabler for global MR. And if Research Now is analogous to Microsoft, Vision Critical is closer to Apple: the bold innovators with a sleek and stylish offering that may have a smaller user base, but have set the standard for new thinking and a keen design sensibility for the industry. Together they power much of the research industry in one form or another.

But their objective isn’t to use their unique statuses in the industry to take away from full service agencies; instead they want to empower. And I believe their sincerity.

Similar to Survey Monkey, Google, and Qualtrics they are sending a message to research companies that technology will continue to be the driving force behind the functional aspects of research and the role of most research agencies will be focused on the consulting piece of the business by delivering insights enabled by that technology. The tools used to collect and manage the data that drive insights is the purview of technology companies now more than ever before. They are the tool makers; we are the mechanics. They are clearly listening to the marketplace (especially clients) and are crafting solutions to deliver on the demand for more integrated capabilities that capitalize on the broader social and technological shifts we see rapidly evolving in front of us.

I don’t see this as a particular threat to other MROC providers either; most of them have already built full service solutions around their businesses and are moving up market into a consultative role; their businesses will continue to grow driven by their service business, not their tech. Those firms (Communispace, Insites, etc…) will continue to be somewhat tech agnostic; they will plug in new capabilities as needed to continue to meet market demands. I don’t expect to see them lose market share as a result of this; their value proposition is different.

However, it will create more competitors for them, and those competitors may have a few advantages driven by access to Research Now sample:

  1. Decreased cost of acquisition for community members
  2. Increased speed of recruitment
  3. Integrated incentive systems

To a great extent, this now positions Research Now as one of the biggest “DIY” players in the market, although in this case they clearly are planning on their primary client base to be agencies. They already have the keystone of research: access to consumers. They also have a suite of proprietary data collection tools including mobile, social media, micro-surveys, and traditional surveys. Now they have communities, proprietary panels, and the robust tools embedded in Sparq to wrap around all that and can deliver to their clients a very robust end-to-end platform  that can support new business demands for the foreseeable future.

Empowering indeed.

On the Vision Critical side of things, their core identity is as a tech company. They have evolved to deliver the needed full service capabilities to meet client demand and I suspect they will continue to follow a dual path of technology driven innovation and world class full service support, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see them begin to put more emphasis on the tech business now to create some truly groundbreaking solutions in the near future.

Overall I see this as a great win/win for agencies, clients, and of course Research Now and Vision Critical. But there are always losers in these deals, so who will that be? I think that answer is the same as it ever is during periods of disruptive change; those who fail to adapt to the new world order.

Near the end of my interview with Kurt and Scott they both chime in with a very telling point. Recent reports from Nielsen, WPP, and Ipsos regarding the decline in their traditional research businesses should not be construed that market research is declining; rather the revenue is being redistributed to non-traditional players, many of which are primarily technology players and who often engage with marketing and IT groups within clients vs. insights groups. As they go on to point out, their businesses are thriving and experiencing very healthy growth. I suspect the same is true  for most tech-driven firms.

Are budgets being reallocated? Without a doubt. Tracking surveys are being shifted to social media or micro-survey models, more client spend is going to tools to measure behaviors and unconscious drivers of decision making than attitudinal and self-reported data. Mobile in all it’s permutations is growing more quickly than online ever did (since we reached the tipping point last year) , especially in emerging markets. Companies that are following those trends and adapting their business models will continue to grow. Those that have been slow to adapt to changing client demands or built their businesses off of easily disrupted products (like trackers or data syndication from outdated methods) are feeling the pain and will continue to do so.

The Research Now/Vision Critical deal contrasted with declining traditional research should serve as a loud alarm bell to all involved in this industry that the tide is turning rapidly and innovation must be the focus of the future. The choice is ours on whether we listen or not, but I suspect more and more leaders will see the opportunities inherent in this brave new world and will make the right choices for their businesses just as Kurt and Scott did.

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The views, opinions, data, and methodologies expressed above are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policies, positions, or beliefs of Greenbook.

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