May 28, 2008 08:00 ET

Peanut Labs Announces Internal Advisory Board to Resolve Market Research Data Quality Issues Through Technology

Renowned Market Research Leaders Join Peanut Labs Board to Discuss and Enact Technological Solutions Like OptimusID™ to Fight Suspect Online Survey Responses

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - May 28, 2008) -

News Facts

• Peanut Labs today announced the formation of its Optimus Advisory Board, to study the problem of fraudulent online responses in order to create best practices around data quality using digital fingerprinting and other technologies.
• Assembled with industry-leading researchers and end-client brands, the board will find forward-looking solutions to prevent the further corruption of market research data by professional survey takers and market research fraudsters.
• The results of this evolving discussion will be incorporated into technologies like OptimusID, Peanut Labs' patent-pending, proprietary algorithmic method to 'fingerprint' a survey taker's computer without using cookies or downloads, for accurate measurement of individual online responses.

Inaugural members include:

• Amy Raihill, Consumer Insights Manager, Shell Lubricants
• Artie Bulgrin, SVP Research, ESPN
• Chuck Miller, General Manager, DMS-AOL
• Greg Durkin, VP Research, Warner Bros
• Henry Schapiro, Vice President, MarketCast
• James Mendelsohn, VP Corporate Strategy, Capital One
• Josh Chasin, Chief Research Officer, comScore
• Justin Fromm, Research Director, ABC Television
• Kristin Luck, President, Decipher Inc.
• Mike Donatello, Director of Research, USA Today
• Patricia Graham, CMO, Knowledge Networks
• Patrick Glaser, Director, Respondent Cooperation, CMOR
• Rich Ratcliff, EVP, Carbonview Research
• Ron Gailey, SVP and Director of Research, Washington Mutual
• Simon Chadwick, Partner, Cambiar
• Steve McHugh, Senior Vice President, Millward Brown
• Steve Oi, Senior CIM, Kraft Foods

Situational Analysis

• Advertisers and marketers rely on quality market research data to make critical multi-million dollar marketing and product development business decisions. With online panels offering a cheaper alternative to traditional panels, they have become the primary panel source for market research professionals. As this alternative has increased in adoption, the number of market research "spammers" or bad respondents has also increased.
• According to a 2005 comScore report, less than 1 percent of Internet survey takers account for 30 percent of all surveys taken, outlining the magnitude of professional survey takers.
• According to a 2007 study by Burke, 14 percent of responses across 17 leading online panels were unusable or bad.
• Until OptimusID, market researchers have not had any technological help in controlling these fraudulent activities affecting data quality, making it increasingly difficult for researchers to obtain the highest quality audience insights they seek. Manual methods of cleaning data are highly time and labor-intensive.

Peanut Labs Quote

"Bad respondents and fraudulent survey takers continue to corrupt online data quality, costing marketers millions in wasted research dollars each year. Low quality data adversely affects the reputation of the entire market research industry. With that in mind, we called upon some of the top minds in the space to offer their input and expertise to help us combat this problem as we look to find a technological solution to improve online data quality."

-- Ali Moiz, Chief Operating Officer of Peanut Labs

Optimus Advisory Board Member

"Initiatives like the Optimus Advisory Board help bring the market research field together to ensure that the research we undertake yields the highest-quality results."

-- Justin Fromm, Director, Sales & Strategy Research, ABC Television

About Peanut Labs

Peanut Labs is changing the status quo of market research with the company's newest product, OptimusID™, a patent-pending technology filter used to vastly improve the quality of online sample data. Peanut Labs' Sample3.0 product uniquely links researchers to online sample via social networks and online communities worldwide including MySpace, Facebook, and Google OpenSocial. More information about Peanut Labs can be found at www.peanutlabs.com.