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May 2012
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When new media was new

Ten years ago this week I started a job that was to change my life, heading up a new BBC audience research team in what was then called the ‘New Media’ division.

And it really was new: BBC Online was a mere two-and-a-half years old, it had 3 million monthly unique users (it now has nearly [...]

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Am I ‘Nuts’ or am I right?

I had a look at the Guardian’s Magazine ABCs report card today and saw that the circulation figures for Nuts, Loaded AND Zoo are all down over 20% (year on year).  At first I took this to mean that the UK’s male population had grown up a bit- perhaps opting for slightly more ‘intellectual’ alternatives. [...]

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Brandheld at the MRG Conference

The Brandheld bandwagon continues to roll: The MRG has asked us to present the findings at their conference in Malta in November, which means that Simon gets to add another country to his list of ‘countries I’ve visited’ – of which there are currently 4.

This is all very exciting, but something of a pyrrhic victory as [...]

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Would embracing its roots help the Film industry keep the projectors rolling?

I have always preferred to watch films on my own. When I love a film, I am happy with paying the money to watch it in a room filled with strangers but too often I feel oddly exposed by a bad film experience. A feeling I sense more acutely surrounded by others.

In the past, I [...]

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“Children who watch television more likely to be bullied”

More bad science and telly-bashing combined in today’s Telegraph. So, “children who watch television are more likely to be bullied”. In my school the opposite was true. One kid didn’t have a TV. So we kicked him.

Of course, the report in question doesn’t actually conclude that “children who watch television are more likely to be [...]

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Welcome to Adele

Our efforts to recruit great researchers without spending all our money on recruitment consultants is starting to bear fruit (ho ho) with the arrival of Adele Kent-Lemon. Adele joins us as a qualitative Research Manager from HPI, just in time to take part in our 5th birthday celebrations.

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New additions to the team

It’s been an exciting past week here at Essential as we have made a couple of key appointments.

Nils Arnold has joined us as Director of Quantitative Research. As many of you will know, Nils is a heavyweight quant researcher and econometrician, having previously worked as Head of Marketing Sciences at Ipsos MORI, Associate Director at [...]

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Gadgets: no longer discretionary items

AdAge reports today on an interesting survey from the Consumer Electronics Association in the US, which offers some evidence that consumers no longer see new technology as a discretionary purchase – but as an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. And they are sacrificing clothes and food to pay for those smartphone upgrades. (Sort of.) [...]

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Merry e-Xmas

We’ve had a deluge of Xmas eCards in our inboxes over the last few days. Which is lovely of course. My favourite has to be this effort from BBC Worldwide.

Seasons greetings.

Stuart

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TiVo and the VOD holy grail

Essential is of course platform-neutral, independent and impartial when it comes to media. But as a Virgin Media customer, I am almost salivating with excitement about the announcement today of this potential tie-up between Virgin Media and TiVo.

Although the FT describes it as a ‘rebuff to Project Canvas’, I’d imagine this has got [...]

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