In an attempt to increase its footprints in the field of digital audience measurement and offer new capabilities in the area of Audio, Digital, and TV content recognition, France based multinational market research and consulting firm, Ipsos has announced the acquisition of Intrasonics, a leading provider of audio recognition technology based in the UK.
Intrasonics has been a key partner in helping to develop Ipsos’ proprietary passive measurement solution, MediaCell which is at the heart of some of Ipsos’ recent success in audience measurement. These include the award of the Dutch National Media Onderzoek (NMO) contract to deliver a total media audience measurement solution in the Netherlands, together with Kantar and, also, the Broadcast Research Council (BRC) of South Africa’s decision to nominate Ipsos to create a new, future-ready Radio Audience Management Survey (RAMS).
Commenting on the acquisition, Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India said, “It boosts our audience measurement offering providing clients with most updated technology in measuring viewership or listenership, especially in the times of multiple screens.”
Jerome Schalkwijk, Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Intrasonics said, “We’re very excited to combine our expertise and passion for audio technology with Ipsos’ understanding of market research and their global reach. Together, we’re perfectly positioned to develop new markets and to revolutionize the audience research market.”
Liz Landy, Audience Measurement Global Service Line Leader, Ipsos, said, “With the rise of digitally streamed media, audio watermarking is crucial to help understand how and where audiences are consuming different types of content. Intrasonics has been a key partner in helping us authenticate audience behaviors for Ipsos iris in the UK. This acquisition is another step to ensure that we provide our clients with future-ready products.”
Welcoming Intrasonica to the Ipsos family, Didier Truchot, Ipsos’ CEO & Chairman, added, “This acquisition allows Ipsos to couple its audience measurement capabilities with the latest technology and techniques. We are proud to welcome Intrasonics to the Ipsos family and take a new step to help clients understand how audiences are consuming new media.”
Referring to the objective behind the acquisition, Ginus Tiemessen, founder of Intrasonics commented, “I am proud that our close cooperation has become permanent. The combination of Ipsos’ global audience measurement network with Intrasonics’ high-tech competence center in Cambridge will offer great opportunities and even better service for all our clients. The team is eager to help create the new product market combinations that this collaboration will bring.”
