NFO Worldwide Launches InsightExpress

Market research firm NFO Worldwide launched InsightExpress, a new Internet company formed to provide real-time consumer input to decision-makers in companies of all sizes.

The new company will leverage the worldwide client experience and panel expertise of NFO Worldwide, which says it is North America’s largest and the world’s third largest custom market research company.

Supported by the unique visitor profile driven targeting services of Engage Technologies, Inc. and funded by NFO, General Atlantic Partners and Engage, InsightExpress will provide marketing, sales, customer service, advertising, and planning professionals with real-time access to targeted consumer audiences and to existing customers via their own lists.

NFO said it has raised $25 million for the new company in venture capital from General Atlantic Partners and Engage. NFO Worldwide will maintain a 50 percent equity interest in the consolidated venture.

InsightExpress will enable decision-makers to test new ideas, screen new concepts, gauge customer satisfaction, survey employees, test advertising and gather insight into the needs, attitudes and behaviors of consumers.

“InsightExpress launches us into a new frontier of market intelligence, allowing us to provide powerful tools that will enable companies to increase their speed to market and their competitive edge,” said William E. Lipner, chairman and CEO of NFO Worldwide.

“We see InsightExpress’ fully automated services as a breakthrough innovation that will greatly expand the market research business.”

InsightExpress provides a Web-based, market research and data delivery system that enables clients to: create professional quality surveys in minutes using templates; select desired respondents from demographic groups defined by gender, age, major metropolitan area, and other special interest areas; choose the number of desired responses; and receive real-time, tabulated and graphically displayed results via the Web.

Average price will be about $1,000 per survey, the company said.

Engage will provide access to more than 35 million anonymous consumer profiles in the Engage Knowledge database.

Using Engage’s profile database, InsightExpress will be able to recruit online survey respondents through highly targeted online advertisements. The service is expected to be fully operational in late November.