Kantar was founded in 1992 and characterizes itself as "data, insights and consulting company". It has more than 30,000 employees working in 100 countries in various research disciplines, including social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behavior and public opinion. It is part of WPP, and its global headquarters are in London, UK. In April 2019, Kantar unified all its legacy brands, such as Kantar TNS, Kantar Millward Brown and Kantar Worldpanel, into Kantar. Major competitors include GfK, Nielsen and Ipsos. In 2019, WPP sold a 60% stake of Kantar to Bain Capital Private Equity. Kantar's valuation was c.$4.0bn.
History
Acquisitions
British Market Research Bureau Limited – BMRB which was established in 1933, London were acquired by the group in 2009 and merged into Kantar Public in 2016. The subsidiarie TGI – Target Group Index of BMRB which was established in 1969 was split and merged into the Kantar Media brand in 2009. On 24 October 2018 it was announced that the WPP board approved plans to sell Kantar Group.
Former brands
Kantar Consulting
Kantar Consulting was formerly Kantar Vermeer, Kantar Added Value, Kantar Retail and Kantar Futures, and is a marketing and sales consultancy.
Kantar Added Value
In October 2004, three Kantar companies – Added Value, Icon Brand Navigation and Diagnostic Research – combined under the "Added Value" name. Kantar Added Value focuses on brand marketing, consumer insight, innovation and communications optimization.
Kantar Retail
Kantar Retail is headquartered in London and has over 400 employees and offices in 15 markets around the globe.
Kantar Futures
Kantar Futures offers subscription services and consulting regarding future trends. Formerly known as The Futures Company, Kantar Futures was formed through the integration of The Henley Centre, HeadlightVision, Yankelovich and TRU.
Kantar Health
, a consultancy and marketing organization serving the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics and devices industries, was formed in 2009 from Consumer Health Sciences, MattsonJack, TNS Healthcare and Ziment. The company has over 40 offices throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and India. In 2014, Kantar acquired the control of Brazilian company and expanded operations to Brazil and Latin America.
Kantar IMRB
Kantar IMRB is a multi-country market research, survey and business consultancy firm established in 1970 that offers a range of syndicated data and customized research services. With over 1200 employees, IMRB is one of the largest providers of market research in India in an industry estimated to be worth a minimum of $187 million. As the oldest extant market research company in India, IMRB has been responsible for establishing the first and only household panel, the first television audience measurement system and the first radio panel in the country. IMRB International's specialised areas are consumer markets, industrial marketing, business-to-business marketing, social marketing and rural marketing.
Kantar Media
Kantar Media offers a range of media insights and audience measurement services through the analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social and outdoor media worldwide. Kantar Media was formed from WPP Group’s acquisition of TNS Media and KMR Group in 2010. Kantar Media became Kantar’s rebranded insight, media evaluation and audience measurement company. In 2014, Kantar Media acquired a majority stake in the issued share capital of Precise Media Group Holdings Limited in a £70m deal. In the same year, Kantar Media acquired IBOPE Media, the main TV audience and ad investment measurement company in Brazil. Kantar Media has within it organizational subsidiaries, such as Kantar Media North America, which are legal corporate entities in their own right.
Kantar Millward Brown
Kantar Millward Brown was founded in Warwick, England in 1973 and acquired by WPP Group in 1990. Kantar Millward Brown is a global research agency specialising in advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Kantar Millward Brown works across a range of industries and categories, and has a number of specialist practices: BPRI Group, Millward Brown Digital, Firefly Millward Brown and the Neuroscience Practice.
Kantar Public
Kantar Public works with clients in government, the public sector, global institutions, NGOs and commercial businesses to advise in the delivery of public policy, public services and public communications. It has offices in 12 countries worldwide.
Kantar TNS
In 2008, Kantar TNS was acquired by WPP and included in Kantar. In February 2009, Kantar merged TNS and Research International.
Kantar Worldpanel
runs continuous consumer panels and specializes in shopper behaviour.
Lightspeed
Lightspeed was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Warren, New Jersey, United States. The company operates in North America, Europe and Asia. It provides global online market research services, specializing in using the Internet as a data collection platform to provide research through building and maintaining panels subject to quality and representative sampling standards. Specialty panels range across industry sectors such as financial services, health care, business-to-business, automotive, family and more. Lightspeed also provides custom panels to address specific client needs. In 2007, it conducted over 20 million online surveys for clients.
