Millward Brown partners with OpenAmplify to unlock consumer sentiment

Semantic technology delivers scalable understanding of respondents’ attitudes towards brands

NEW YORK — Global research agency, Millward Brown, and Semantic Web Platform, OpenAmplify, have teamed up to provide brands with a deeper understanding of what respondents really mean in their answers to surveys. The partnership adds value to the brand tracking and other studies conducted by WPP-owned Millward Brown, by using semantic technology to bring a human level of understanding to the analysis of verbatim consumer responses. The new service analyses verbatim data from Millward Brown studies to identify and understand what the respondent is saying about a product, service, or brand. The incorporation of OpenAmplify’s technology means the service can rapidly and automatically distinguish what is being said as negative, positive or neutral through automated coding and analysis. In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of what the consumer is saying, the partnership also enables a more cost effective, scalable analysis of open responses from research studies. OpenAmplify’s advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) is able to comprehend the topics, intentions, actions and emotions expressed in text. It results in a more accurate interpretation of the response, avoiding mistakes associated with simple word frequency analysis. Jorge Alagón, head of Global Innovations, Millward Brown, said: “The need to open our tracking studies to listen to the consumer’s actual words in order to complement responses to closed questions, has increased over the years. “As brands become wise to what is being said about them, tracking studies increase in size, length, and complexity which makes including a human element difficult and expensive. “We are very excited about working with OpenAmplify as the partnership helps us to put the human meaning of words and phrases into our automated analysis. “This adds value to the service we offer our clients, and helps to achieve our vision for helping brands better understand their consumers.” The service has been rolled out globally to all Millward Brown companies and licensees, for English language research projects, and has already proven useful for understanding consumers’ experiences with the financial and package goods sectors. Mark Redgrave, CEO, OpenAmplify, said: “We are delighted to bring to Millward Brown a level of analysis that was previously only possible through time-intensive manual coding. “The ability for OpenAmplify’s technology to understand sentiment, as well as intentions and actions, is helping brands to better know their customers and engage with them on a level that was simply not possible previously. “The really exciting thing for Millward Brown’s clients is that because the new service is easily scalable, brands can quickly get qualitative insights from quantitative research.” For more information, please contact: OpenAmplify Sam Grace (UK) +44(0) 207 869 8314 openamplify@marlinpr.com Nicole Matthews (US) 646.202.9773 nmatthews@horngroup.com Millward Brown Miquet Humphryes, Associate Director, Global Communications & Marketing (T) +44 (0) 1926 826179 (E) miquet.humphryes@millwardbrown.com Katie Pearce, Global Communications & Marketing Executive (T) +44 (0) 1926 826227 (E) katie.pearce@millwardbrown.com About OpenAmplify OpenAmplify (www.OpenAmplify.com) is a semantic web service that brings human understanding to content. OpenAmplify uses patented Natural Language Processing technology, mimicking the human process of language understanding to identify the significant topics, brands, people, perspectives, emotions, intentions, actions and timescales contained in online text. The Web service returns the meaning in English-language content in usable and actionable data structures including XML and RDF, thereby enabling other solutions providers to create value, profit and grow.