STARRING 

• Gian Fulgoni, Chairman and co-founder, comScore

As well as popping into see Max during our recent US trip, we also caught up with Gian Fulgoni of comScore in the Chicago office (their HQ is in Virginia where CEO Magid Abraham and much of the engineering team is based).

comScore is one of the main providers of internet measurement and competes with Nielsen Online (formerly Nielsen NetRatings), Compete.com, Hitwise, and Quantcast as well as others. That said, comScore and Nielsen are generally considered the bigger boys of the bunch given how often their share data is cited in the media (e.g. monthly shares in the lucrative online search market).

The internet measurement sector is very technology-hungry. In the early years, comScore literally ate up millions of dollars to get its IT infrastructure established and working right. It has one of world’s largest databases as a result of the oceans of data being sent back daily from panelist PCs (a widget records their internet activity, with their permission, and siphons it, along with detailed transaction data, over to HQ). These efforts were rewarded when, in 2007, comScore was annointed one of 47 technology pioneers at the WEF in Davos.

2007 was arguably a good year for comScore’s initial investors. 2007’s IPO provided for a much-needed liquidation for this band of investors who backed the firm since 2000, including after the dotcom bust when venture financing virtually dried up.

At one point comScore’s market cap hit $1bn; it’s still pretty amazing to think that a company that has only been trading for around seven years is already worth over half as much as TNS, a widely admired and solid growth firm, but one still largely based around traditional research techniques.

In this short chat with Gian, we discuss an area that he’s passionate about: why ad. dollars are only slowly moving online. It’s that old chestnut: online finally commands a significant amount of consumer attention (compared with other media such as tv), and yet still only commands a fraction of the advertising dollars spent on tv and other mass-market media. We also ask him about whether Facebook is worth the reported $15bn, the conversation having taken place shortly after Microsoft made its investment.

comScore is Gian’s second business success. Prior to this, both him and Magid led IRI through a period of rapid growth. And in-between, he found time to invest in Gibsons, a successful steak restaurant in Chicago (which we, of course, had to sample – very yummy!).

Series:MarketingTalk

 STARRING 

• Praveen Gupta, Director and co-founder, Cross-Tab

On a recent trip to India we were keen to learn a bit more about the state of the research industry there and were pleased when Praveen Gupta invited us over to Cross-Tab’s Bangalore office for a chat.

Must admit that not having been to India for a long, long time, we didn’t know what to expect in terms of the state of development there. You hear about a sub-continent that is home to both extreme poverty and some of the most technologically advanced organisations in the world as a result of churning out probably more science graduates than anywhere else on earth.

Bangalore is one of three cities, alongside fellow southern cities Hyderabad and Chennai, vying for the super high tech crown. There’s an incredible buzz as you travel down surprisingly modern streets from the airport. We later learn that the local mayor did this strategically to give the impression that all of Bangalore was like that whereas this is only the case for certain ‘key routes’.

We got to know about Cross-Tab when we wrote about them hiring a global CEO from Microsoft (Kumar Mehta, a former top executive there). Cross-Tab’s claim to fame is both as a pioneer in MR outsourcing and, apparently, “the only full service online research agency in India”.

In this short chat with Praveen, a co-founder and modern-day Indian entrepreneur, we hear about…

• MR outsourcing (and how this accidentally became one of their strengths)
• Online research in India
• The middle class
• The super rich
• Indian entrepreneurism
• The market for MR
• Future challenges
• Blog mining

The full chat with Praveen was quite a bit longer and highly informative and stimulating. We’d like to thank him again for the warm hospitality.

Below is a teaser featuring the following bods while we beaver away on the full edits…

• Sean Pillot de Chenecey, Captain Crikey
• keynote Oliver James, psychologist, author and broadcaster
• William Higham, Next Big Thing
• Dr. Nick Southgate, Grey Advertising

Thanks to guest hosts Sarah Davies, Alison Fydler and Chloe Fowler for their sterling work.

Do remember to subscribe to ResearchTalk (top left sidebar) so you get the full podcasts as soon as they’re out. And as always, feel free to embed the video on your own blog/website.

3mins | Produced @ AQR Trends Day ‘07 | More podcasts in this series

Series:Events Series:AQR Series:Trends07

 Sponsored by 

 STARRING 

• Andrew Cooper, MD, Research Now
• Nicolas Metzke, MD, Ciao
• Panos Manolopoulos, MD, YouGov
• Val Karruck, SVP Client Services, Toluna

This JuiceCast has been produced by ResearchTalk for BrainJuicer. BrainJuicer’s Chief Juicer, John Kearon, has kindly allowed us to host the podcast as a service to the community, to stimulate debate and innovation

Timeline [19m15s]
00m00s Introduction.
00m40s The opportunity for growth.
03m32s The emergence of Research 2.0 and community.
04m36s Where’s the innovation?
06m54s Opportunities for medium-sized agencies.
07m47s Winning brands and business models in 5 years time.
09m42s Facing the prospect of maturity.
11m07s Shifting clients towards using innovative mid-sized players.
13m01s The temptation to use traditional methodologies.
15m33s Opportunities for using mobiles in research.
16m19s Will online field & tab steal significant business from full-service?

Notable Mentions
BrainJuicer.
Clear Ideas.
Conquest.
Gfk.
GMI.
Hall and Partners.
Harris Interactive.
ICM.
NOP.
Nunwood.
Research 2.0.
SSI.
TNS.
Vodafone.
Web 2.0.

Thanks to RP Cushing Recruitment for furnishing a location for this conversation.

Series:Commissioned Series:JuiceCasts

 GUEST  Online research pioneer Pete Comley, Chairman of Virtual Surveys

 TOPICS  YouGov quadruples profits; BrandIndex tracker & word of mouth; Web 2.0. VS: Staying independent; Accidental genesis of VS and early challenges; Research 2.0; Blogging; Future challenges

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  Al Gore, BSkyB, Current TV, Ed Keller, Eric Berne, ESOMAR, The Future Place, Google, Greenfield Online, Harris Interactive, Henley Centre, Keller Fay, MySpace, Quentin Ashby, Ray Poynter, RI, Stephen Phillips, Trish Comley, YouGov, YouTube

Music Brother Love and Matthew Ebel from the PMN

Series:Weekly

 GUEST  Researcher, prolific author, entrepreneur, blogger and podcaster Paul Hague, co-founder and Director, B2B International

 TOPICS  Rationale for copious writing; TNS and other non pure-plays struggle in online research; pharmaceutical and medical research; report from the Marketing Week MR Forum by Tim Williams, ICG; challenges with startup #2; business benefits achieved from blogging and podcasting; new B2B Intl office in China

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  AQR, B&MR, Chrissie Hague, Ciao, Dunlop Rubber, dunnhumby, Fiona Jack, Greenfield Online, Harris Interactive, Julia Cupman, Martin Hayward, MRS, Nick Hague, Tesco Clubcard, TNS, YouGov

Music Brother Love and Little Thom from the PMN

Series:Weekly

 GUEST  Ian Wright, MD, OTX Europe

 TOPICS  From $0 to $3m turnover in 9 months; the consumer appetite for video downloads and implications for the movie industry; the first free legal music download service; MR industry letting down graduate trainees; virtual reality research; validating the link between emotive advertising and strong brands

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  AOL, BMRB, (Sony) Bravia, David Brandt, Disney, Honda, IPSOS, MRS Conference, Robert Heath, RSL, Shelley Zalis, Universal Music

Music 2006 Pl@stic Soul and Geoff Smith from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Weekly

 GUEST  John Kearon, founder and Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer

 TOPICS  Good financial results from online researchers; Addressing declining participation rates; John’s winner and loser of the week; AQR’s 25th anniversary; Rant of the week; BrainJuicer wins Philips global Insights Testing

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  AQR, Bill Gates, Birds Eye, Cadbury, iD Factor, Ipsos, James Surowiecki, Martin Glenn, Melinda Gates, Millward Brown, Philips, Research Now, Rosie Campbell, Siamack Salari, TNS, Unilever, Warren Buffet

Music 2006 Pl@stic Soul and The Clintons from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk
Series:Weekly

 TOPICS  MRS online research conference report (quality, panel duplication, qual, blogs, future); Ciao opens Australia office; Untapped panel opportunities; Challenges and outlook for the online research industry and Ciao

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  Brunswick Group, Darren Noyce, George Terhanian, GfK NOP, Graeme Trayner, Greenfield Online, Harris Interactive, Nick Watkins, Pete Comley, quepasa.com, Ray Poynter, SKOPOS, Virtual Surveys

Music 2006 Pl@stic Soul and The Clintons from the PMN

Series:Weekly

 STARRING 

• John Kearon, CEO and founder, BrainJuicer
• Michael Warren – michael.c.warren *at* btinternet *dot* com (Host)
• Rod Connors, ex. Nike UK, and Jan Harley, Unilever Ventures (Contributors)

PODCAST
Back in 1999, a couple of clever guys had a really good idea. They created a system for getting people quickly to the information they wanted. They created Google.

At around the same time, John Kearon was embarking on a similar quest for marketers. Getting in-depth research fast was widely viewed as an oxymoron.

To say that BrainJuicer’s seven-year journey was full of ups and downs is an understatement – a rollercoaster ride would have been smoother. And at one point, John’s dream was close to being shattered.

This is real edge-of-the-seat stuff. So if you want to understand what it takes to build an innovative research organisation designed for the 21st Century then take a listen.

Sound: We apologise for the below-par audio quality.

TIMELINE [33m35s]
00m00s Introduction.
01m46s What makes BrainJuicer distinctive.
02m16s The thoughts of a client.
02m44s Why John decided to start a business.
04m06s Why John switched from his first business to start BrainJuicer.
05m13s The origin of the BrainJuicer name.
05m51s Performance in the early days.
07m26s The barriers to early growth.
08m33s The turning point.
10m14s A rare animal – marketer turned researcher.
12m16s BrainJuicer’s first client – Nike UK (Rod Connors).
13m57s Securing funding from Unilever Ventures (Jan Harley).
16m23s Arriving at a fair valuation of the business.
18m42s Was it worth giving up a 40% stake in the business to Unilever Ventures?
19m37s Advice for potential entrepreneurs.
21m34s Example of an innovative project (for Nicky Boud, Cif, Unilever).
24m35s Better NPD forecasting using ‘Predictive Markets’.
26m58s The role of marketing in BrainJuicer’s success.
28m03s What next for BrainJuicer.
28m55s Barriers to growth.
31m11s When will John know whether the mission has been fulfilled?

SOME QUOTES (not indicative of the whole podcast)
On being distinctive: “We’re a quantitiative agency that can actually deliver qualitative understanding.”

On the decision to leave a larger business: “I’m much more creative than I am a politician!”

On the decision to start a business: “I seem to have gone from a large successful company (Unilever)…to a small startup…I’m rather hoping that my career will be a parabola and start to build something larger again.”

On developing revenues: “Somehow at Brand Genetics, my first company…it felt easy [to generate business]…it seduced you into the fact that setting up a company was easy…but at BrainJuicer what was supposed to take four months and 40,000 pounds, in reality took two years…and 400,000 pounds.”

On pioneering: “It was completely new, no one had every done this before…the natural question..had my whole career been in software development, would we have got there quicker and made less mistakes?”

On the launch of BrainJuicer: “I’d set out with great hope before the dotcom bubble burst…it burst five months later and that was a pretty shaky moment, but we ploughed on in our garage.”

On the turning point: “[My wife said] Darling, I know you’re a genius but could you get one of those high paid jobs you used to have…a genius who’s earning is preferable to just a genius.”

On the appeal of research: “I was, and remain fascinated by trying to tell the truth…it’s as much about the people I’m trying to hire…people who are very good at working a problem.”

On the first client: “[Rod Connors, Nike UK] is a very innovative guy, he takes risks and he took a big risk with BrainJuicer…Nike do very little research…and it needs to be very innovative.”

On the funding – Jan Harley, Unilever Ventures: “John had said he could feedback very, very quickly…so I said if you are that good, can you by the end of the day get feedback from everybody…he came back with a presentation…from about 50 people!”

On the funding negotiations: “…[at one point] we were diametrically opposed and there was a stony moment where everyone could see the deal disappearing…I just laughed!”

On becoming an entrepreneur: “I gave a talk to some students…I spent 20 minutes trying to put them off.”

On a recent innovative study: “We started off with something that we pioneered, Predictive Markets [based on the theories of James Surowiecki]…to see if it was more accurate than current monadic testing…in seven out of seven tests…the [Predictive Markets] crowd is getting the perfect result.”

On BrainJuicer marketing: “…let’s just say that it’s much less thought-through and planned than it might seem.”

On the future: “There is an opportunity to change the way market research is done…we’re a 4million pound company…we can actually compete with the very largest research companies…the internet is a disruptive force.”

On the barriers to growth: “The biggest barrier is convervatism…buyers and sellers are perfectly evolved to suit each other.”

On meeting the mission: “BrainJuicer will be a $500m total business…ten years from now [from $8m today].”

On the future of research: “MR as a total category could be twice the size it currently is.”

Music Theatrimus and The Blue Mile from the PMN

Thanks to KD Consulting for sponsoring this podcast.

Series:Sponsored