IPSOS & Techneos Creating 'Citizen Journalism' With Mobile Market Research Tools at the Royal Wedding

VANCOUVER, May 3, 2011 - Hundreds of smartphone owners participated in a mobile digital
ethnography study related to the lead up, event and conclusion of the Royal
wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

The IPSOS study used the Techneos mobile platform to reach people on
their smartphones and asked them to share their thoughts, photos and other
point of experience information about the event.

The mobile survey "app" proposed questions about where people were
watching the Royal Wedding, who they were with and how they felt,
particularly in relation to the British Monarchy. The Techneos mobile survey
"app" was used by each respondent multiple times over the course of a few
days on their smartphone mobile device, whether they use an Android, Apple
iOS, RIM, Nokia or Windows Mobile operating system.

Respondents were encouraged to upload photographs of how they were
celebrating the wedding and to capture their location using the phone's GPS
system so that sentiment data across the UK could be geographically shown.

The mobile digital ethnography provided real time structured data on
people's thoughts and experiences of this historical event that was not
possible to be captured in real time using other research methods.
Respondents participated enthusiastically, sharing photos, GPS coordinates
and commentary on their experiences in real time.

A mobile digital ethnography project of this kind is particularly well
suited to the United Kingdom, where smartphone penetration is at 31% (Ipsos
Media CT Report, Q1 2011).

"Rather than asking how people felt about the Royal Wedding a few days
later when people had been exposed to all the press, we were able to offer
our client validated, in the moment research which helped us to get closer to
the thoughts and behaviour of people in the moment of truth." said AJ
Johnson, VP at Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange. "On Friday many people shared
their thoughts on social media through their mobiles. We went one step
further and used Techneos' SODA app to gather insights at the point of
experience, from real people, in real time through the mobile devices in so
many of their pockets."

IPSOS and Techneos were chosen to facilitate the mobile research based on
their previous collaboration on the breakthrough mobile digital ethnography
project, The Great British Weekend, which won the companies a Next Generation
Market Research (NGMR) award in 2010.

About Techneos Systems Inc.

Techneos is an innovator in market research with 15 years experience.
They use mobile apps to get closer to the truth of what is actually
happening, on the terms of the respondents. They feel that if you are
relevant, ask in real time and use the tools inherent in smartphones that you
will tease out richer data from respondents in their natural environment.

Using mobile survey, feedback, panel, ethnography and digital diary
solutions on any mobile device (including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia
and Windows platforms) they gather data of peoples' expectations, motivations
and intentions for partners and customers in over 50 countries worldwide and
in over 200 languages.

www.techneos.com

About IPSOS Open Thinking Exchange

The Open Thinking Exchange is the innovation center of Ipsos, an
independent company which ranks fifth among global research firms. Our
mission: to challenge convention, take risks and use our collective
intelligence in the service of our clients to foster innovation. We do so
through knowledge, storytelling, new technology and collaborative platforms
to make data and human insights more accessible, more understandable, more
meaningful and more actionable for people across the globe.

www.theopenexchange.org

    Contact

    Joeline Cross
    Director of Marketing
    Techneos
    jcross@techneos.com
    +1-604-435-6007 x111

    AJ Johnson
    Vice President
    Ipsos Open Exchange
    aj.johnson@ipsos.com
    +44-20-73-47-3183

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