Walking along endless lines of panel providers, fieldwork companies, software providers and focus group venues, can be dull and tiring at times. Ray Poynter gave me a good idea on how to keep your mind alert and interested. Look at the booths from a distance and try to figure out what the company is actually doing and selling.

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It turned out in most cases surprisingly easy and not only because I know many of the companies from before, but a couple of them were really hard to crack. To keep up the feeling of mystery, we resisted the temptation to walk up to the booths and ask right out about their business (they didn't bother approaching us either). Can you help us guess what these companies do?


Actisku sells TV screens, or? One thing we can say for sure: they are not clear.


This is Clear. At least the name of the company, their business is a different issue.


Good Meal Included was not only at the Insight Show to serve tasty sandwiches for lunch. They also had a business teasing the English visitors, whose team had just been kicked out of the football world cup. Good luck selling anything to the majority of the visitors.


"No matter where your research takes you - we'll be there." Uuuh, scary. Don't turn your back at these guys!!!


Positive Data Reinforcement? Please do reply? Primarily delivering rubbish?


Not sure these guys fit into this category. At first glance I was completely clueless, but they did have one of the best designed broschures of the entire fair, explaining it all, placed in a way that made it easy to grab as you passed by. I guess I wanted to include the picture as the stand was one of the coolest around.


Except for providing jobs for Mr McCallum and Mrs Layton (or was it the other way around?), it is hard to see what the business for this company is.


We know what you are thinking. Why all this complaining? Could you do it better yourselves? Of course not! To begin with, a name like "Scandianvian Market Research News" really doesn't give you a clue to what we are doing, does it? But there were exhibitors at the Insight Show who managed to be clear, concise and who got their message through at the first glance. Just to mention two of them:



At last a company really focusing on something, in this case Neuroscience.


A name like The Thinking Shed could lead your thoughts in just about any direction, but the booth designer leads you firmly back to what sets this qual company apart from others.


Henrik Hall
SMRN

A common comment after the Danish Market Research Day, arranged by us last Thursday, was that the content of the presentations was even better than last year, at least for skilled researchers on the supplier side. We very much appreciate such compliments, although we can not really say we are surprised. We spend a lot of time and effort finding and selecting the best speakers, together with a high class programme committee. The only thing we feel that we can improve until next year - but this is an important point - is that we want at least one end client in this committee. Could you help us find one? We have tried hard but failed in the past.
In this article, you can download most of the presentations from the day and experience a glimpse of the high quality - again or for the first time.

The DMD party was held at First Hotel with a three-course dinner and drinks in the bar followed by a late evening at Norstat office. Norstat are famous for their tasty sausages at midnight. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos at First Hotel, but we have a few from Norstats after-party. It would have been more had we not gotten caught up in Wii-bowling.

During the intermissions attendees and exhibitors had a chance to network, talk about products and services while enjoying a coffee or danish pastry.

While the auditorium was filled with attendees I took some pictures and spoke to exhibitors.

Henrik, myself and 120 delegates have gathered at Cinemaxx in Copenhagen for the Danish Market Research Day (DMD). The day will showcase some of the best from Europe and gather the danish market research industry for one day of learning and networking. In this article you can see some pictures taken only minutes earlier.

With three weeks left to the most important MR event in Denmark, DMD, we are proud to present the final line-up of speakers. There is a good mix of Danish and international speakers, including contributions from the other two Scandinavian countries, and the mix of different subjects, ensures that the day will display a lot of the variety we see in todays market research world. In this article, all presentations and speakers are presented at length, as well as the final time schedule for the day.

US speech analytics specialist CallMiner is aiming for further rapid expansion after closing a $4m Series C round of funding.

Det nybildade danska undersökningsföretaget Voxmeter fortsätter erbjuda Catinets analysprodukter och anställer även ett stort antal medarbetare från Catinet, som i somras försattes i konkurs.

Panel provider GMI experience increasing demand for consumer panels in Germany and Spain. In response, the company opens an additional office in Hamburg and has increased panel sizes in both countries by 50-60% the last year.

Medieanalysföretaget Infopaqs senaste politikbarometer visar på övervikt för allianspartierna i antalet partiomnämningar, och i enlighet med flertalet partisympatimätningar.

Svensk väljaropinion är ett nytt väljarindex sammanställt av Novus Opinion för Ekot. Resultaten från Demoskop, Novus, Sifo, Skop och Synovate vägs samman. En metod som internationellt brukar kallas "poll of polls".

Aegis Group plc has announced a significant improvement in its 2010 interim results. Total revenue rose 4.2% to £663.3m, representing organic growth of 3.2%. The upturn in large part reflects a rebound at MR arm Synovate.

Half-year revenue within WPP’s consumer insight division rose 2.4% on a like-for-like basis and accounted for more than a quarter of the group’s total revenue for the period, making it the second-best performing business division within the marketing services giant.

Canada-based online data collection specialist Itracks has teamed with web application firm MutualMind to develop social media monitoring software specifically for users in the market research industry.

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), a provider of technology-enabled solutions for global market research, is partnering with TXT4CRM, the mobile engagement company, to offer mobile market research solutions. GMI announces GMI Mobile beta, with short SMS-based diary tracking, customer satisfaction, polling and purchase intent studies to augment traditional market research.

Europarådet har i ett meddelande till ESOMAR förtydligat att marknadsundersökningar inte omfattas av förslaget att begränsa användning av cookies och web bugs på webbplatser som används av marknadsundersökare, t.ex. vid användandet av webbenkäter. Förtydligandet innebär att MR branschen slipper ytterligare ett administrativt betungande regelverk.

Google kommer att tillåta att tredje part köper andras varumärken som sökord i Google AdWords från och med den 14 september. Efter att Google har fått rätt ända upp i EG-domstolen att låta tredje part köpa varumärkesskyddade ord ändrar de din sin varumärkespolicy i Sverige och i övriga Europa.

Annonsmarknaden har fortsatt att utvecklas starkt under sommaren och annonsvolymen för juni var 14 procent högre än förra året och för juli 34 procent högre än 2009. Sökmotormarknadsföring och kvällspress är stora vinnare, medan DR/Annonsblad tappat mest.

Radiolyssnandet minskar i Sverige och mest av allt tappar reklamradion. Lugna Favoriter, som MTG Radio valt att skrota på de flesta marknader, rasar 29 procent, visar Sifos tredje radiomätning för 2010.

How to keep track of whats trendy on the world’s largest social network, Facebook?  Find out what’s hot, what’s news, and discover the latest meme. Mashable.com just released an updated review of 5 web sites that outperform Google's and Bing's "social search" tools.

The US data collection company Western Wats announced the release of {n}fusion sampling – a sampling methodology that expands and diversifies the reach of online sampling frames beyond managed panel. {n}fusion sampling is the process of infusing Western Wats’ managed panel, with additional samples from Mobile Phone Users, Phone to Web recruits, Social Communities and River respondents.

Sedan början av augusti i år har Finska Digium etablerat sig i Stockholm för att ta upp kampen med Questback, Quicksearch och andra enkätverktyg/feedback system i Sverige. Questback har sedan förvärvet av Easyresearch 2008 blivit den dominerande aktören på den annars mycket fragmenterade svenska marknaden.

In the US, web usability specialists Brian Krausz and Joe Gershenson have launched GazeHawk, a new technology firm which aims to make eye-tracking ‘affordable for everyone’.

The yearly ESOMAR world congress is fast approaching. For a number of years, we have provided the fastest, largest and most edgy coverage of this mega-event. Thanks to our good cooperation with software provider Dapresy, Athens 2010 will be no exception.

Genom Novus nya väljarbarometer från augusti, genomförd av Norstat via telefonintervjuer, bekräftas det jämna valläget hålla i sig efter sommaren. Socialdemokraterna och Moderaterna får ungefär samma väljarstöd och det är ett mycket jämnt läge mellan de två regeringsalternativen. Det är en historiskt ny situation att Socialdemokraterna och Moderaterna ligger så jämnt i väljarstöd några veckor före valdagen.

GfK has raised its 2010 sales and income expectations following a 12.3% rise in second quarter sales to EUR 328.7m, and a 9.4% rise in first half sales to EUR 609.6m. The firm now expects a 6% rise in sales for the year, which is double its original projection.