Press Release 3rd December 2002

SKOPOS Online Panel Revenues Grow,
New Deals with likes of Ask Jeeves, BMW and eBay

Further to recent positive announcements on profitability, SKOPOS today announce that the proportion of their full service business generated from online work has grown and now exceeds over 45% across all of Europe and indeed over 65% in the UK.

This makes the company distinctly different from other full service MR agencies operating in international markets weighed down by their costly reliance on interviewer-based data collection.

The SKOPOS Euro-Panel of net users across the continent enables this specialist channel to work successfully and profitably for SKOPOS, contrary to some media pundits’ continued criticism and scepticism. SKOPOS has primary operations in London, Paris, Cologne and Berlin – and secondary units for Spain and Italy – enabling integration of information at the local level.

As examples of this success, long-term online research contracts have recently been signed with Ask Jeeves, BusinessWeek, BMW and eBay to name but four (and illustrating the mix of online and offline companies).

The benefits of online panel-based research for such clients are simple: less costly, speedier, interactive surveying of identifiable groups (target audiences).

The mutual benefits for both respondents and researchers are also active, unlike with other methods (e.g. CATI). Surveys can be done when and to some extent where respondents like, and they are rewarded for this through both compensation and information/feedback (and so continue to respond). This is the future of profitable market research.

Strong growth is predicted for SKOPOS in 2003. This will come from its online work, as well as international surveys - and applied research in vertical sectors such as automotive, finance, media and mobile telecoms.


SKOPOS Media Contacts:

Olaf Hofmann, Managing Director, SKOPOS GmbH, Cologne
Olaf.hofmann@skopos.de
Tel: +49 (0) 1735458371

Darren Noyce, Managing Director, SKOPOS UK, London
Darren.noyce@skopos-mr.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 208 747 4591