Trends

This Week in Research {twir}

Written by:

Michael Hess

March 21, 2025

14 minute listen

Welcome to twir — the weekly show delivering AI-powered summaries of market research news and insights. Each week, we scan and ingest media from top blogs, podcasts, articles, and reports, distilling the key trends shaping the industry. Best of all, twir episodes learn and get smarter over time, building a POV on an archive of past news and trends.

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Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (March 7-14, 2025)

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AI and Tech Innovations

Ketch introduced a “Progressive Consent” solution designed to transform user data consent collection. The platform promises to improve engagement by embedding context-specific consent requests at relevant moments in the user journey, replacing traditional cookie banners.
Relo Metrics enhanced its sponsorship analytics tools using NVIDIA’s AI technology, automating logo detection and delivering instant insights into sponsorship visibility and ROI across sports media. This accelerates AI-powered sponsorship measurement significantly.
Stravito upgraded its GenAI-powered research assistant, adding Focus Mode, Snapshots, and multilingual support. These features improve focus, summarize key findings automatically, and support insights searches in over 100 languages, benefiting global research teams.

B2B Research & Insights Developments

Peekator rolled out a new survey dashboard design, enhancing researchers' user experience significantly. The new dashboard features tailored visualizations for each question type, automatic sorting, intuitive color shading to highlight insights, and single-page navigation with dynamic filtering options—including AI-generated codes. Users can also generate AI-driven PowerPoint presentations complete with actionable insights, summaries, and conclusions directly from survey results.
Attest released a platform update allowing brands to directly compare feedback from current customers against target prospects. This solution highlights differences in reactions, enabling marketers to optimize strategies more effectively.
Fair Response, a new U.S.-based consumer research panel, launched aiming to improve online sample quality. Founded by industry veterans Matt Gershner and John Taliercio, the company intends to better compensate respondents and address persistent data-quality concerns.
The U.S. Census Bureau began fieldwork for its inaugural Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES), consolidating seven separate surveys into one. Covering roughly 298,000 businesses, AIES will provide comprehensive annual data on business revenues, expenses, and assets to policymakers and analysts.

Funding & M&A Activity

Omni, a business intelligence platform based in San Francisco, raised $69 million in Series B funding. The funds will help Omni expand its unified analytics tool, which combines structured data models with SQL flexibility.
Silicon Data, a market intelligence provider focused on the semiconductor sector, raised $4.7 million in seed funding. The company simultaneously released new analytics tools, offering real-time market insights and performance benchmarks specifically for GPU hardware platforms.
Sensor Tower acquired Video Game Insights, a UK-based gaming data provider, expanding Sensor Tower’s analytics coverage into PC and console gaming. The acquisition allows combined tracking across mobile, Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox ecosystems.
Yottaa, a digital experience analytics firm, acquired SpeedSense, a Canadian provider of site speed monitoring solutions. The acquisition integrates SpeedSense’s proprietary Sensai technology into Yottaa’s e-commerce optimization platform.
AI-driven knowledge startup Onyx secured $10 million in seed funding for its enterprise-focused research AI, capable of exploring company knowledge bases intuitively across platforms like Salesforce, SharePoint, GitHub, and Gong.

Partnerships & Collaborations

dunnhumby partnered with ad-tech provider Osmos to enhance retail media solutions, integrating predictive AI targeting with in-store shopper behavior data. The partnership offers retailers accelerated, highly personalized ad programs.
Datavault AI and NYIAX established a multi-year alliance creating a secure marketplace to monetize proprietary data assets. This collaboration allows businesses to list, price, and trade data transparently, leveraging blockchain and AI-powered pricing.

Leadership Changes

Material (formerly LRW Group) appointed Laila Worrell as CEO, succeeding Bill Kanarick. Previously Material’s co-Chair, Worrell brings extensive digital consulting and private equity experience, aiming to accelerate growth through behavioral science and advanced analytics.
Cadent + AdTheorent appointed Doug Rozen as President and Jeff Driskill as CFO. Rozen, former CEO at dentsu Media Americas, and Driskill, previously CFO at Analytic Partners, join to scale the firm's AI-powered advertising analytics solutions.
ANA’s cross-media measurement initiative Aquila expanded its executive team, appointing Tina Daniels (President & COO), Jed Meyer (Chief Revenue Officer), and Josh Chasin (fractional Chief Research Officer). This team will advance Aquila’s privacy-compliant audience measurement solution for cross-media analytics.

Expert Insights & Thought Leadership

AI in Market Research – Hype vs. Reality: Leonard “Lenny” Murphy discussed AI’s role in research, noting that while AI boosts efficiency and analysis significantly, it cannot fully replace human-led research. Murphy emphasizes maintaining human oversight to ensure context, ethics, and creativity in research insights.
GreenBook’s “The Prompt” Video Series: GreenBook’s Susan Griffin and Lenny Murphy explored current market research trends and the growing impact of AI. The video emphasized how research firms should clearly articulate their human-driven value propositions alongside responsible AI adoption.
Leveraging Google Trends for Insights: GreenBook published guidance by Ashley Shedlock on effectively using Google Trends data for market research, highlighting how analyzing consumer search behavior can identify emerging trends, uncover market opportunities, and inform strategic decisions.

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briefd: Market Research & Insights (3-27-26)

Market research weekly update for March 20-26, 2026: Qualtrics synthetic panels, quantilope Category Twins, Nielsen leadership changes, and M&A deals.Welcome to briefd: Market Research & Insights – your weekly intelligence briefing on the market research industry. Each week, we scan leading MR publications, blogs, and news sources to surface the developments that matter. Please note, briefd is AI-generated and may occasionally make mistakes. Edition Summary: Market Research & Insights Trends (March 20 – March 26, 2026) AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research Qualtrics Launches Synthetic Consumer Panels for Market Research At X4 2026 in Seattle, Qualtrics announced synthetic consumer panels for U.S. audiences that simulate how consumers respond to research questions. The capability enables companies to test product ideas and marketing messages more quickly than traditional methods, with expansion to UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand planned for the first half of 2026. quantilope Debuts Category Twins Synthetic Research Product The insights firm launched Category Twins on March 17, building AI replicas of specific audiences for early-stage research from clients' own brand health data. The synthetic data solution uses metrics from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and automatically updates with each new tracking wave, allowing brands to instantly create twins for different segments. Kantar Partners with Quilt.AI to Co-Develop Innovation Tool Kantar announced a strategic partnership with Quilt.AI on March 18, including a non-equity financial commitment to co-develop joint offers. The first product from the alliance is EvaluateExplorer, a new innovation tool combining both companies' capabilities. Zeta Global Launches Superintelligent Agent Athena Marketing platform Zeta Global made its superintelligent agent for enterprise teams generally available on March 25. Athena converts enterprise data into predictive answers for CMO-level users, powered by advanced OpenAI models and backed by Zeta's proprietary database. B2B Market Research Developments Basis Global Partners with AnswerRocket on AI-Driven Research London-based brand intelligence and market research firm Basis Global announced a partnership with solutions consultancy AnswerRocket. The collaboration promises to use AI to improve how market research is done rather than replace traditional methods. Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions Smartly Acquires INCRMNTAL for Real-Time Marketing Measurement New York-based ad tech company Smartly agreed to acquire INCRMNTAL on March 17, an AI-powered platform providing real-time insights into incremental impact of cross-channel marketing investments. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal brings together campaign optimization and always-on measurement capabilities. Accord Marketing Acquires London Insights Consultancy Acacia Avenue London-based insights consultancy Acacia Avenue was acquired by Accord Marketing on March 11. Acacia Avenue, founded in 2002, provides full service qualitative and quantitative research for clients across Europe and North America, and will continue operating with its existing team while gaining access to Accord's infrastructure and resources. Ipsos Acquires Seventh Decimal for Out-of-Home Measurement Ipsos announced the acquisition of Seventh Decimal on January 27, a research technology company specializing in Out-Of-Home audience measurement. Established in 2019 and headquartered in the UAE, Seventh Decimal will benefit from Ipsos resources to scale its operations. Barcelona Startup Uxia Raises EUR 1 Million in Pre-Seed Funding Barcelona-based Uxia, which automates user testing with AI-generated synthetic users, announced a pre-seed funding round of around EUR 1 million. The funds will fuel product development, talent acquisition and international expansion for the B2B research technology platform. Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes Nielsen Names Three Senior Leaders Supporting Key Client Segments Nielsen announced three strategic senior appointments on March 24. Seth Ladetsky was named Head of Global Sports, Trevor Fellows will lead advertiser and agency relationships, and Matt Devitt will oversee national publisher accounts. All three report to Amilcar Perez, Chief Revenue Officer. Ipsos Appoints Alexandre Boissy as Deputy CEO Ipsos announced on March 24 the appointment of Alexandre Boissy as Deputy Chief Executive Officer, effective April 7. Based in Paris and reporting to CEO Jean Laurent Poitou, Boissy will oversee Operations, General Secretariat, Legal, and Corporate Communications globally. He brings over twenty years of executive experience from the Air France-KLM Group. Kantar Appoints David Gompel as UK Executive Managing Director Kantar appointed former Valtech leader David Gompel as Executive Managing Director in the UK on March 10. Gompel brings over 25 years of experience in digital transformation, data and marketing, having most recently served as CEO Europe at digital consultancy Valtech. Rodeo13 Appoints Four Non-Executive Directors to New Board Marketing consultancy for the insight sector Rodeo13 appointed four Non-Executive Directors to a new Board on March 16: Nikki Lavoie, Shazia Ginai, Paul Griffiths and Steve Henke. The establishment of the Board reflects the company's commitment to diversity of thought and ensures operations keep up with rapid growth. Ipsos Appoints Nathan Brumby as Chief Platforms and Technology Officer Ipsos announced the appointment of Nathan Brumby as Chief Platforms and Technology Officer on February 23, effective February 16. The appointment signals the company's continued investment in technology infrastructure and platforms to support its global market research operations. Expert Insights & Thought Leadership Quirk's Dallas 2026 Highlights Industry Focus on Speed and AI The Quirk's Event Dallas 2026, held March 10-11, confirmed that agility was the word of the show as brands face pressure to make decisions with less time and smaller teams. Digital twins emerged as one of the buzziest topics, with brands using AI-built personas to simulate consumer behavior and test decisions quickly. ESOMAR LATAM 2026 Conference Held in Rio de Janeiro ESOMAR LATAM 2026 took place March 22-24 in Rio de Janeiro under the theme Floresça, focusing on growing ideas, inspiring connections and shaping thriving markets. ESOMAR partnered with Globo, the largest media company in Latin America, for content collaboration and visibility around the event. Quirk's Virtual Event Explores The Changing Consumer Quirk's Media hosted Quirk's Virtual – The Changing Consumer on March 25, featuring sessions on insights playbooks for strategic decision-making and how TikTok and EyeSee are exploring shifts in consumer behavior and the creator economy's role in turning cultural signals into commercial outcomes. Industry Debate Intensifies on Synthetic Data in Market Research Qualtrics research shows 62% of market researchers have already used synthetic data, and 71% believe it will constitute the majority of research within three years. The synthetic data market is projected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2024 to $8.2 billion by 2029, with industry bodies like ESOMAR and MRS expected to publish validation frameworks within two years.

March 27, 2026

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The Great Consolidation in Market Research

A decade of mergers, acquisitions, and private equity deals that reshaped the global market research industry — from billion-dollar platform plays to quiet tuck-ins that redrew the competitive map.

March 23, 2026

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This Week in Research {twir}

This Week in Research (March 13–19, 2026): IQVIA and NVIDIA launch agentic AI platform, Kantar partners with Quilt.AI on EvaluateExplorer, Smartly acquires INCRMNTAL, Publicis buys AdgeAI, Comscore reports flat 2025 revenue, Nielsen cuts ad tracking in 137 markets, Basis Global and AnswerRocket form AI partnership, plus leadership moves at Omdia, Angus Reid, dentsu, and more market research industry news.

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