ESOMAR 36

Kantar’s Profiles division has over 20 years’ experience in delivering quality online samples. Established in 1996, the Profiles division’s panels grew organically under the Lightspeed brand until the acquisition of GMI in 2011. This added panels in 13 new countries, taking Lightspeed’s total panel coverage to more than four million panellists in 38 markets. Today, we provide access to more than 150 million permission-based respondents globally across 130 markets via our proprietary panels and our audience network of specially vetted partners.

Our reach and 4,800 proprietary profile attributes are the largest in the industry. In 2021, we conducted over 60 million surveys, including a mix of both tracker and ad hoc studies. Our digital data collection and connection services are meeting high privacy and data protection standards.

We have been recognised over 50 times in the last 10 years. We are proud to service over 4,000 clients, which include some of the world’s fastest growing and most valuable global and local brands.

Kantar is the world’s leading evidence-based insights and consulting company. We have a complete, unique and rounded understanding of how people think, feel and act; globally and locally in over 90 markets. By combining the deep expertise of our people, our data resources and benchmarks, our innovative analytics and technology, we help our clients understand people and inspire growth.

We are experts at collecting and connecting data you can trust. With our industry leading survey design and sampling methodologies, we collect data from self-reported answers to appended profiles using the Kantar’s audience network and tech-enabled research solutions. Through our network and expertise in online profiles, we deliver automated access to first-party data compliantly, with speed and at scale.

We have central and local teams that monitor sampling performance. These resources will feedback and input into the continuous improvement of our sampling processes, practices and algorithms.

The framework for sampling best practices is defined centrally and cascaded to local teams to execute training on sampling techniques. We have online self-managed modules for sampling training and local teams also provide assisted learning on sampling practices and processes for existing employees and onboarding new employees.

The Kantar Profiles division offers a range of data collection services, including sample-only, fully managed programming and fieldwork, agile and automated surveys and connected data solutions.

In addition to data collection services, we support data processing (i.e., data cleaning, verbatim coding and data weighting) and data visualisation (i.e., dashboards, crosstabs and charting services).

Panels

These are databases of potential participants who declare that they will cooperate for future data collection if selected, generally in exchange for a reward/incentive. This includes traditional access panels, co-branded panels, or opt-in databases of individuals who agreed to complete research projects and also undertake other nonmarket research activities (watch ads, download an app, complete marketing offers, etc, also known as loyalty programmes, or rewards communities within GPT (Get paid to) sites.) Loyalty card and subscription databases are included here if there is a continuous relationship with members who understand the commitment asked of them.

Intercepts

This includes intercepts from offer walls, affiliate networks, social media or other platforms to drive traffic to a survey. Intercept is an approach where potential participants are asked to take a survey for a reward while they are engaged in another activity such as playing an online game, reading news, or some other online activity. Intercepted participants may be previously unknown to the sample provider or may have been pre-identified and profiled through a prior survey experience.

When managing fieldwork, Kantar Profiles division uses our owned, high-quality research panel (LifePoints) in addition to a vetted and approved list of suppliers accessible through our Kantar Profiles Audience Network. More than 80% of the top sample sources can be accessed through our propriety API-driven network.

Kantar Profiles division’s LifePoints respondent panel is an actively managed research panel. Our panel is composed of people who made a conscious decision to participate in online surveys through a double opt-in registration process. Kantar panels are used solely for market research purposes.

When we blend sources together, the initial blend is often driven by feasibility (i.e., how many completes can each source provide). This blend is then maintained over time for the project and/or client. Generally, there is a small plus/minus term around the blend to ensure deliverability of completes. However, this term is set at a level that will not impact data results. We also set demographic quotas to help maintain consistency.

LifePoints is the Kantar Profiles division’s highly engaged, owned and exclusive online panel. It is only accessible through Kantar Profiles Audience network and is not available for resale.

To build a high-quality panel, it is necessary to use many panel recruiting partners. That’s why Kantar works in partnership with both broad-reach portals and special interest sites, resulting in a diversity of panellist profiles. Our partnerships enable us to target and recruit hard-to-reach source groups when required.

Employing different recruitment messages further diversifies the panel composition. We also leverage social media as a recruitment source.

We operate separate panels for specialized audiences, e.g., IT Decision Markers and Physicians. For very low incidence projects, we are efficient at onboarding broad or targeted groups via sample partners.

In addition to owned panel assets, our private Kantar Profiles Audience Network is comprised of an approved and validated list of suppliers we manage. Only suppliers that meet our quality standards do we have agreements in place with to join and remain in our network.

Our LifePoints panel is composed of people who made a conscious decision to participate in online surveys through a double opt-in registration process. This means that it is not built overall to be a specific of a population (e.g., no-one is rejected based on demographic).

The life of the panellist in an actively managed panel is closely monitored to ensure effectiveness and usability. Several methodologies are used by Kantar to recruit panellists to the LifePoints panel, including opt- in email, co-registration, social media and e-newsletter campaigns, as well as affiliate networks.

To build a high-quality panel and remove the inherent bias that could result from using one or a few recruiting sources, we believe it is important to use a diverse set of recruitment sources that utilise a variety of recruitment methods. Kantar measures recruitment sources on multiple metrics to track both activity and engagement by demographic group, which contributes to the quality of data from our panellists. We are currently not using probabilistic methods or referral programs. We use the same methods across all geographies with the proportions varying by market.

Kantar understands the importance of data and panel quality and was among the first to implement technology-driven quality programs. We will continue to deliver new quality methodologies to provide clients with the highest panel quality in the industry.

Kantar invests significantly in the development and technology of our unique and proprietary quality and verification tools. They include a series of real-time checkpoints that new panel registrants pass through while completing the panel registration survey, as well as when they enter a new survey.

Registrants who fail these checks are unable to join our panels and cannot participate in surveys. Kantar’s verification survey-entry and registration checkpoints include:

• Proxy Detection: Detects a proxy server used to mask the registrant’s true IP address and past fraudulent activity

• IP GeoFencing: Locates the registrant’s country location via their IP address and determine their eligibility for registration based on country-specific rules

• Email Address Verification: Queries our database to ensure the email address is unique (all registrants must verify their email addresses through a double opt-in registration process)

• Digital Finger Printing: Detects duplicate respondent entries within a single survey and blocks their entry

• Honesty Detector: Patented pre-survey technology that identifies over-reporters and blocks them from entering a survey upon failure.

In addition, for several panels, we verify the registrants’ postal address and zip / postal code against a current local address directory.

For in-survey duplication process, we utlise a combination of cookie and digital fingerprint technology. This allows us to block survey respondents who attempt to complete the same survey from multiple panels and those who attempt to take a survey multiple times using different identities. Kantar’s U.S. panels utilize Verity®. Verity® determines if respondents are real via an external database look-up of their names, mailing addresses, and email addresses. For IT and B2B studies, we can implement custom versions of our Patented Honesty Detector questions.

The Kantar Profiles division’s proprietary double opt-in panel is LifePoints. The LifePoints website and app is the epicentre of our panel members activities.

Lifepointspanel.com is where our community registers, learns about and participates in new surveys and studies, interacts with our community section, checks their incentive balances, and more. Our mobile app is also branded LifePoints.

The model we currently provide is from a managed service with our teams setting up and selecting sample based on the client requirements or delivering sample through API integrations.

As part of the process, we can provide an overview of the sources used.

We have in record in our database of the source of each survey responder and completer in a survey. We know through our research that sources can provide different results and keeping the contributions consistent is key to tracker and normed based surveys.

In addition to our proprietary research panel, we have built network of approved suppliers and have an API integration into our system for most of them.

We have extensive knowledge of working with our proprietary research panel and other suppliers, and normally advise our client on the sources to use on a particular survey. If there is a specific sample design reason, we will work with clients on additional sources that could be used that are not part of our extensive network.

We have an extensive experience of the suppliers we work with in addition to our proprietary research panels, and we would select the sample source based on the knowledge and suitability for a particular survey.

Sample selection:

Sample is selected based on the client specification. We use panellists profile data to target the panellists to select for sampling.

Quotas:

National representative quotas are set using age, gender and based on Census data. Otherwise, quotas are set as per the client requirements and based on targetable data we have for our panellists.

Sample is sent out based on the sample plan that is agreed upon with the client. For example, some plans start with harder to achieve groups first (i.e., young males), others are based on other requirements (i.e., balanced starts).

We recommend allowing some flexibility on quotas (quota tolerances) to ensure we can deliver the completes required within the agreed fieldwork timelines.

Fieldwork:

Fieldwork is monitored at regular intervals in our field management platform and survey platform to track achievement by quota. When a project is not on track to achieve the quota requirements or overall completes within the agreed timeline, pre-agreed interventions are taken (i.e., relaxing quotas, reducing / removing device caps, flexing sources) or there is an escalation to the client where approval is required to adjust the plan to enable us to deliver the client’s needs.

We profile our LifePoints respondents both upon joining our panel and throughout their panel journey. Immediately after registration, we collect a core set of demographic variables related to age, gender, household size, number of children, finance, as well as variables used to determine socio-economic level.

Over the respondent’s lifetime on the panel, we continue to build their profile by collecting their data on automotive, business and occupation, mobile, media, smoking, food and beverage, travel, health conditions, and other categories. This is done through a well-balanced combination of dynamic screening and supplemental questionnaires which respondents can choose to take during their survey taking experience on the LifePoints portal. A portion of the profiling data points are now set up to update once a year, and the remaining profiling points will be set up to update once a year after Q2 2022, if applicable.

We have many profiling variables and geographic information mapped with partners that are integrated on the private Kantar Profiles Audience Network.

LifePoints panellist profiling data can be easily appended to the survey dataset upon request: basic demos are included while pricing of optional extended profile attributes varies. In addition to the extensive profiling data that we collect directly from LifePoints panellists, we have many third-party relationships that enable insight for select markets into digital behaviours, household-level segmentation, and other categories. All the coverage mentioned above varies by market.

We would need the following information to assess feasibility and estimate price:

• Fieldwork country(s)

• Length of interview

• Incidence rate

• Number of completed interviews required

• Demographic requirements (i.e., age, gender, region)

• Quota requirements (i.e., any hard quotas by demo)

• Preferred / required fieldwork duration (i.e., shorter time in field can impact feasibility)

We agree source blends upfront based on the feasibility assessment, budget and our sourcing recommendations. If we have assumed we will only need to use our sample, but in field performance means we need to supplement our sample with a third-party, we have recommended source blends we will use that fit within the agreed budget with the client.

If the client has preferred suppliers they would like us to use that are not part of our recommended blends, we will use those upon request. This may require a revision to the budget and price if adding the client preferred supplier exceeds the commissioned budget. The project manager will flag any needs to add sources in field and their recommendations to the commercial teams who will notify the client.

We do not use a traditional “router” as standard. We manage our panellists survey interactions by displaying a selection of survey opportunities on their LifePoints portal.

This include a combination of surveys that they have been specifically selected for and other open survey opportunities from. The panellist then selects one of the surveys they wish to participate in. Upon finishing the survey, the panellist will be returned to the LifePoints portal where a refreshed list of surveys will be offered.

Not applicable

Our LifePoints panels are a portal-based experience where we use email notifications to push our members to log into LifepointsPanel.com to see a complete list of surveys available to them at the time they log-in.

The invitation instructs the respondent to log-on to lifepointspanel.com to access their list of available survey. Once the panellist is logged into the LifePoints website, they can see how many LifePoints are eligible to be earned for each survey and the length of interview. If it is a diary study, an icon will indicate that is an ongoing survey.

An automatic queuing system sends email invitations at designated times stipulated by the Kantar project manager in consultation with the client. The survey link directs respondents to the LifePoints member home page. Survey invites are not a one to one to the number of survey available to each member. Our panels are a portal-based experience where we use email notifications to push our members to log into LifepointsPanel.com to see a complete list of surveys available to them at the time they log-in.

The invitation instructs the respondent to log-on to lifepointspanel.com to access their list of available survey. Based on research on research, Kantar recommends sending respondents generic survey invitations with limited information about the survey. Generally, our survey invitation emails notify the respondent of an opportunity to share their opinions and, if applicable, informs them of the opportunity to earn rewards, as called LifePoints. The invitation instructs the respondent to log-on to lifepointspanel.com to access the survey.

For LifePoints panellists, we can either use a fixed incentive (based on expected LOI) or the incentive can be variable based on the observed (median) LOI from completes in field.

We can also set custom incentives for LifePoints panellists in specific target groups/selected panellists. (For example, we can set a custom (higher) incentive for panellists who complete all stages of a diary/re-contact survey, or for respondents who put extra effort into study like (i.e., uploading a video or downloading an app).

Respondent satisfaction is based on a standard set of questions asked at the end of the survey. It is not mandatory for our panellists to answer the questions and has no impact on the incentive they receive for completing the main survey.

The answers are used to enhance our panellists’ survey experiences and are passed to our internal programming teams and clients to continuously improve questionnaires. We ask additional survey satisfaction questions after many surveys we field that every respondent can answer. Surveys with low respondent satisfaction scores are reviewed daily and where possible, corrective action taken. Data is available at client request.

Our project team shares all relevant information with clients during and after the project is finished. It is our usual practice to update our clients with vital statistics such as incidence rate and length of interview after the first 24 hours of fielding to help determine the direction of the rest of the fieldwork.

In addition, the following information is available on all projects fielded by Kantar upon closure:

• Completes

• Actual incident rates

• Actual length of interview

• Screen-outs, and where they screened (if we script)

• Quota Fulls

• Dropout rate (and by question if we script)

• Recontact rate (Diary studies only)

Kantar stores detailed survey participation data for each panellist. This includes survey response status and the date and time each survey was started and completed. We select sample based on a number of factors including our panellists’ prior participation levels to reduce over utilisation, this includes a global threshold on the number of surveys completed over a specific period of time.

Apart from standard demographics and profiling information, Kantar stores a database of comprehensive data on each individual panellist including:

• Recruitment partner

• Registration date

• Time and date of each survey participation

• Result of each survey invitation – complete, screen out, quota full, drop out, no response

We can supply individual level data that is not considered personally identifiable information to a client on request.

In addition to the checks that are applied to the Profiles proprietary LifePoints panels, LifePoints panellists and all respondents from other sources go through a gateway before they are passed onto a specific survey.

The gateway includes a duplication check (using digital fingerprint and cookie information) to mitigate the same participant entering the surveys from multiple sources and a check. It also includes respondent validity checks (using IP and device browser details).

If a participant exceeds the thresholds set, then the participant is blocked from entering the survey.

The sample source and blend are agreed upfront. Sourcing and blend management is done through the Kantar Profiles Audience Network platform to ensure consistency for trackers.

In addition, based on agreed standards, we ensure flexing of the source is within the agreed guidelines to ensure consistency. We make use of automated reporting to monitor the blends on a weekly basis and adjust as needed. These reports are readily available.

For our proprietary LifePoints panels, we monitor performance of the panellists over time. This includes overall survey behaviour.

We can adjust the status of a panellists based on information we assess both automatically and manually. Each panel status allows us to manage a panellist’s interactions, such as if they can login into the panel or if they are offered surveys.

We maintain and monitor an internal dashboard to review the status of the quality metrics of the panel over time.

For every survey where we program, host, and deliver survey data, we ensure the checks are appropriate for the survey and discussed with the client.

Typically, there is a speedster flag at standard. This checks that the time it takes a participant to go through the survey is within the range expected.

Other checks that we often incorporate, but are not at standard, include open-end and straight-line checks.

The Kantar privacy policy builds trust with panellists. We have implemented a global privacy policy which meets the highest standards (including the European GDPR) while addressing local regulations and practices. Our panellists agree to our privacy policy when they register with our panels. The policy is available at all times on our LifePoints website. We also reference our policy in the emails we send to our members. Our panel privacy policy can be found at: https://www.lifepointspanel.com/privacy

We are also working with our clients to ensure that when they field a survey with us, critical data such as personal data/PII, sensitive data or children’s data, are collected safely. We have developed internal processes and guidelines to help our clients; we have also developed internal and external training approaches.

Privacy regulations keep changing and are getting tougher around the world. We accompany our clients and help them aligning their practices to current standards. When a client commissions a project with Kantar, we talk about data protection upfront to ensure that the project will be set up accurately. We ask our clients if they collect personal data, sensitive data or children’s data. If they do so, we drill down and work with them on privacy compliance. Kantar also complies with the research industry standards from the following organizations:

• European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR)

• European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA)

• ARF

• DGOF

• Market Research Society

• AMSRS

• Insights Association

• British Healthcare British Intelligence Association (BHBIA)

• Baqmar

• Jmra

• Kora

• Moa

• Mria-Arim

• MRS Singapore & MRS New Zealand

• Women in Research

• American Marketing Association (AMA)

• Italian Society for Opinion and Market Research (ASSIRM)

• Intellus Worldwide

At Kantar, we have developed a Data Protection Framework which meets the highest standards. This approach is global in principle even if we customize it locally as required by the business.

Our aim is to operate globally within this framework, meeting de facto the strictest data protection laws, reducing the risk for us and more importantly for our clients. Our framework is being revisited regularly due to new data protection regulations flourishing around the world.

Our framework is led by the Kantar Group Data Protection Officer (DPO), supported by Kantar Divisional Data Protection Leads and our global network of Data Protection Champions.

In our privacy policy, we inform panellists about the kind of data we collect and the legal basis we use for each purpose. Our approach is to select the most appropriate legal basis, depending on the situation and the type of data we collect.

Regardless the purpose, we do that in full transparency with our members and we always balance the risk and the benefits for all parties (panellists, our clients, Kantar). By selecting the most appropriate legal basis, we reduce the risk for Kantar and our clients.

Our panel members have access to their privacy settings on our panel portal. In that area of their panel account, they can change their preference at their discretion. They can change all the consents set a panel level, including cookies.

Our Global Compliance team reviews regulations constantly around the world, which would affect the way we incentivize our panel members and survey participants.

The collection of children data is one of the required checks that we perform when a project is commissioned to Kantar’s Profiles division.

We systematically engage with our clients to understand why children data is collected and how it will be processed. We define with our clients if the child will be on their own or if the parent will stay during the interview and with all details in hands, we deploy a protocol to interview children in compliance, depending on the situation and on the country.

We have a documented and organised process in place to respond to potential data incident, starting by the uncover of what could be an incident to the review of the situation by Kantar Group DPO.

Our people are fully trained on this matter. All projects commissioned by clients to Kantar Profile division are subject to our terms and conditions (https://www.kantar.com/profiles-terms-conditions/). In our terms, we state that our retention policy is 12 months, exception made of our clients requiring custom terms.

Kantar Profiles division has high standards aligned on Kantar Group IS standards. All the technologies we used and all the vendors we use are systematically assessed from IT/IS and data protection perspective.

We have established security management controls which ensure the protection of the Personal Data that we process. The Kantar Data Classification and Data Handling Policy outline the requirements to help ensure that data is processed appropriately and securely at all times.

Our network uses several layers of security to prevent unauthorised access to its systems and data, including complimentary technologies at the endpoint that are monitored 24x7.

• Where data is secured on database servers, application servers, and network servers they reside on backend servers that are behind layered firewall architecture which are managed by IT.

• Where data is secured in the cloud, Kantar operates cloud landing zones to ensure resources are implemented and managed in a consistent and secure way.

• We use ISO standard user access controls and password policies and leverage multi-factor authentication for SaaS services such as Microsoft 365.

• Client specific data is stored in restricted access data directories controlled by Access Control Lists.

• Inbound remote access is controlled through firewalled encrypted VPN tunnels authenticated with two factor authentication for those that require it in the course of their work.

• All offices are audited annually by Kantar Internal Audit against the Kantar IT Framework. Kantar has also implemented a Cyber Security Framework that is aligned to NIST CSF and NIST 800.53.

Our Healthcare panels and project management teams globally within the Profiles division (including Australia) are ISO 20252 certified for healthcare market research and panel management.

The audit recognises the development and continued evolution of our Healthcare Research Management System (RMS). The improved standard promises more transparency to our clients and considers the latest industry standards on IT Security and Data Protection. This certification is provided on a global basis.