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"Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”

Do you immediately recognize the above quote? Well, if you do and you also find the color orange cheerful and productivity enhancing, then chances are you would be a great fit here at Crowd Science. Beyond a love for The Princess Bride and all things orange, we are a having a lot of fun creating our corporate culture. Crowd Science is a company where you have the ability to make a difference in the products that we create and in the environment we work in. Perks include ‘round the clock snack availability, high-quality coffee & espresso, a fridge solely dedicated to beer, comfy chairs, Apple laptops & big monitors as well as lunch delivery twice a week (hey, we aren’t Google-sized….yet). As a company founded by Aussies, we also enjoy attempting to play cricket! So if you are already familiar with the rules of the game, well then, you are already ahead of most of us.

We are currently looking to fill Engineering, Research (Toronto), Marketing and Sales positions, so if you think you have what it takes and are excited to make your mark at Crowd Science then send us your cover letter and resume to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Make sure to list the title of the job you are applying for in the subject line, but you already knew that didn’t you? Smarty pants.

Click here for the Crowd Science jobs page

The Newest Crowd Scientist – Corey Leibow, President & CEO

We broke some important news this week. Our friend, Corey Leibow, is joining us as President & CEO. We’re just a tad over two years old now, but we have big plans here at Crowd Science and we’re going to need all the help we can get to pull it off. Corey – with his experience building great products and great teams at companies like Cadence and Mercado – will be a critical part of that.

We began life as a little engineering and research group working on some difficult data collection problems. With the support of great clients like Meredith, Everyday Health, and Federated Media, we’ve tripled the size of our team and increased our ambitions tenfold. A new type of market research is emerging and we’re going to do everything we can to help our clients take advantage of it. Including hiring world-class CEOs.

Welcome to the team, Corey!

The full press release is available in our press section.

Martini Media Announces Milestone Affluent Study with Crowd Science

Today we are excited to announce a new study on affluent consumers with our friends at Martini Media! The full release is below.

...

San Francisco, CA – Jul, 2010

Martini Media, a media network representing the world’s largest targetable affluent audience, today announced the launch of the groundbreaking Martini Affluent Study with partners Crowd Science, Morpheus Media, and the Luxury Institute. The Martini Affluent Study will generate deep audience profile data about the 45M unique affluent consumers across a publisher network of 1,100 sites in lifestyle & business. Martini Media will bring the findings and insights of this targeted research study to the public in Q3 of 2010.

“Our study is so unique because we look at the specific behavioral profile of each respondent, and the context of that response, to control, verify, and supplement the survey data itself. These behavior–survey profiles are not only interesting, they are very valuable in helping us serve our clients,” says Skip Brand, Martini CEO. “We are very excited to take advantage of Crowd Science’s best-of-breed online market research platform in our study, and are certain that this will hugely increase the overall understanding on the media side, while simultaneously growing the overall field of research.”

“Martini’s focus on the affluent audience makes them a very interesting research partner for us,” says John Martin, Crowd Science’s co-founder & CEO. “Because we combine behavioral and survey data, our research applications are able provide a much more comprehensive view of the affluent audience. That helps Martini’s brands get better value for their inventory in the media and advertising community.”

Martini’s Affluent Research Platform, powered by Crowd Science, to date has brought key proprietary insights to partners, including a wealth of understanding into Financial Advisor engaging with their businesses & lifestyles online, and a unique finding on automobile make and model purchase intent amongst consumers at HHI $100K-$249K versus HHI $250K+.

Morpheus Media, an independent digital agency, and the Luxury Institute, will be co-sponsoring the study, providing guidance to ensure utility to all brands seeking to understand and reach the $100K+ HHI audience online.

Shenan Reed, Morpheus Managing Director, says: “It is research like this that allows us to better serve our clients and their customers. We are thrilled to be working with such great partners to help break new ground. ”

Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, finds the groundbreaking nature of the study in line with the goals of the Luxury Institutes goals. “We always look to innovate and cooperate in leading edge research,” Pedraza states. “This multi-dimensional research concept breaks new ground in the luxury industry.”

The Martini Affluent Study & Conference is expected in October, 2010. In addition to solidifying their prominence in the area, the study is expected to make Martini Media the thought leader of the affluent, online space.

About Martini Media Network

Martini Media Network is a horizontally focused media company reaching American consumers with household incomes over $100,000 –25% of the US internet population. Sophisticated audiences require sophisticated strategies – Martini's high-engagement media in Lifestyle & Business, robust custom solutions & formats, deep data, targeting & technology, ensure success for Advertisers, Publishers & Consumers. With our invite-only publisher network of world-famous traditional titles & new media sites, Martini seeks to revolutionize the role of the media company in the 21st century with expertise in audience aggregation, technology solutions and advertising execution.

Follow Martini on Twitter at @martini_life.

About Crowd Science

Crowd Science is redefining online market research by combining the benefits of web analytics and survey research in a single research platform. This revolutionary approach enables easier, faster, and more accurate online research results via low-overhead and highly automated research apps, opening up a new world of research possibilities. With the innovative Crowd Science Research Platform, proprietary SmartSample methodology, and growing suite of special-purpose research applications, Crowd Science is helping publishers, brands, agencies, and ad networks generate better insights that increase ad sales, inform editorial decisions, and demonstrate the ROI of marketing programs.

Upcoming OMMA Metrics Event

Join us at the OMMA Metics event in San Francisco on July 22nd! Meet some of the Crowd Scientists at our table to learn more about our turnkey online market research products and even enter to win a custom Flip Video HD camera!

Use our code for discount passes OMMAMMSPDisc when registering

For questions or to set up a time to meet with one of our Crowd Science reps while you are in the area contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Also, follow us on Twitter @crowdscience to get OMMA Metrics event updates 

A Middle Ground for Market Research

There's something about market research – specifically online market research – that has always struck me as odd. When somebody has a question that requires some sort of data collection project to answer, there are only two ways to approach it:

1. crack open SurveyMonkey and DIY; or
2. engage a full-service research vendor.

Spend a bunch of time, or spend a bunch of money.

If you're not a trained researcher and/or don't have access to a capable technical resource, the do-it-yourself option is fraught with risks around sampling and questionnaire design, and many times bad data can be worse than no data at all. And who has unlimited budgets to engage a full-service research vendor every time you want to take your customers' temperature?

This binary choice – DIY or full service – makes no sense to me. Why is there no middle ground? Shouldn't there be an Ikea of market research? Some assembly required.

It's true that a lot of the research that we do is custom by nature but, in fairness, a lot of it isn't. Much of the research data that we use on a regular basis is pitched against indexes and norms. This research, by definition, is standardized. I don't know how many times we have to write and rewrite questions around basic demography such as age, gender, and income. The same goes for ad effectiveness studies and the "standard" set of questions around brand metrics. Pound for pound, researchers are more nimble than most when it comes to copying and pasting content within Word and Powerpoint, but there are n things that their intellect would be better served doing (where n is a very large number).

As such, in the current reality of shrinking research staffs and budgets, it seems inevitable to me that a large part of the future of online market research will be in the form of easy-to-use, cost-effective research apps – packaged products that bottle a set of good research practices and solve a particular, specialized research problem. Certainly, that's what Crowd Science is betting its future on.

We can choose to embrace this new model and take advantage of it's inherent benefits, or continue to be held hostage by unsophisticated research tools or expensive full-service research projects.

Get Deeper Customer Insights: What Drives Satisfaction and Loyalty?

A Webinar in the Crowd Science “Best Practices in Online Market Research” Series
Hosted by Sandra Marshall, VP Research, Crowd Science, Inc.

Wednesday, May 19th, 2:00 PM EDT (New York) // 11:00 AM PDT (San Francisco)

Register for this event: http://bit.ly/loyalty_19_may

Join Crowd Scientists Sandra Marshall and Alyson Gausby as they review how key driver analysis can be applied to online survey results to provide interesting and valuable insights.

You will find out:
- When to trust the survey respondents (and when not to)
- The value of asking the right questions
- How to best focus your resources on improvement

Register for this event:
http://bit.ly/loyalty_19_may

Measuring Advertising Campaigns Online

Measuring Advertising Campaign Effectiveness and Impact

Thu, Apr 29, 2010 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM EDT

http://bit.ly/ad_campaigns

This session will show how a new automated online application can accurately measure Ad Campaign results. Crowd Science's Campaign Profiler application has already signed on such high-profile online publishers as Everyday Health, BlogHer, and Halogen Network as charter users.

Topics:

• TOUCH – how to determine if a campaign has reached its intended audience
• RECALL – how to assess basic brand metrics of recall, usage and loyalty
• IMPACT - how to measure creative and message recall, brand testing and attribute testing

Who Should Attend:

• Online Publishers and Media Site Managers
• Digital Advertising Experts
• Brand Managers
• Advertising Sales Executives
• Online Research Specialists

Listen in as the Crowd Scientists explain how to get rapid, accurate, cost effective metrics regarding advertising campaigns in the digital realm. Crowd Science Campaign Profiler was designed to be more accurate, easier to use and more cost effective than existing manual measurement solutions.

Thu, Apr 29, 2010 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM EDT

http://bit.ly/ad_campaigns

Twitter, iPhone & Android Surveys: Best Practices Review

On Wednesday, April 7th, we will be hosting an audience measurement webinar.

Register Here:

Twitter, iPhone & Android Surveys: Best Practices Review

Recent surveys by the Crowd Scientists regarding attitudes, adoption and usage for Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace) and Smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) can serve as a Best Practices test laboratory for advances in the level of audience intelligence that can be obtained.

Listen in as Sandra Marshall, VP Research and Crowd Scientist, gives a walk through on the state-of-the-science in online surveys. Sandra will be using the Twitter/Facebook Social Media survey as a blueprint on how to define, execute and interpret valid online opinions. The topics are interesting; the results are scientific; and the need for better audience measurement is growing rapidly.

When: Wednesday, 7 April 2010 at 1:30PM to 2:15PM EDT

Where: Online via web conferencing

Who: Sandra Marshall, VP Research and Crowd Scientist

Why: Because you will need better surveys in 2010 to sell advertising, improve ad campaigns and obtain deep visitor demographics and attitudinal data.

Register Online:

Twitter, iPhone & Android Surveys: Best Practices Review

iPhone Overwhelms Blackberry and Others in Smartphone Loyalty: Crowd Science Survey

The latest primary research from Crowd Science...

June 23, 2009 - Silicon Valley, California. Four out of ten Blackberry and other smartphone users would switch to Apple's iPhone, as their next smartphone purchase, according to a recent survey conducted by Crowd Science via their advanced audience research platform and open research network. On the other hand, only 14% of non-Blackberry smartphone users would switch to a Blackberry for their next purchase. Meanwhile, a vast majority of iPhone users (82%) are loyal to the iPhone brand.

"These results reflect the great challenges Blackberry faces in stemming the iPhone stampede," said John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. "They are also a great example of the kind of insight that can be gleaned when rigorous sampling and research techniques are applied to online populations," said John Martin. "In the days ahead, we'll lean on our research platform and continue to gauge the mindset of smartphone users and address the changing mobile landscape, including the Palm Pre, the iPhone 3G S and other up-to-the-minute developments."

Other survey results include:

• iPhone users outpace other smartphone owners in their use of a wide variety of phone functions – ranging from Internet and email to music, WiFi and GPS.
• Compared with Blackberry users, iPhone users report a significantly higher overall satisfaction level with their phone. In particular, iPhone users are more satisfied than other smartphone users with their phones' screen size, navigation, availability of add-ons, and video playback.
• A large majority of smartphone owners (71%) use them for both business and personal usages, with only 3% using them for business alone.

This study was conducted across the Crowd Science open research network, a group of websites from a wide range of topic areas serving over 20 million unique visitors profiled by Crowd Science's audience measurement technology. Through random probability sampling, respondents aged 14 years and older were invited to participate. Those accepting the invitation comprised the final sample of study participants. Data collection was conducted from May 19 to June 8, 2009.

For a complete synopsis of the study, including charts, please see
     Smartphone-Survey-Results (PDF)

Register Now For The “Measurement in 2010: Avoiding ‘Hybrid’ Confusion” Webinar

There is an audience measurement event on Wednesday 20 January. This live session will dig into the new 'Hybrid Model' for deep audience demographics. If you are responsible for online research or advertising sales, this is a 'must attend' event.

Register for The Audience Measurement Event

AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT 2010

• Wednesday, 20 January at 10:00 PST

• Speakers:

John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science

T.S. Kelly, Media Strategist

Register Online Now