Epinion grundades år 2000 av Sören Justesen och 2003 bestämde sig Mogens Storgaard Jakobsen för att ansluta sig till företaget. Sedan några år arbetar Epinion i Sverige för att öka sin marknadsandel inom research samt etablera sitt namn inom “digital audience measurement services” med nyckelkunder som Google och SmartClip. Dagensanalys.se fick nöjet att träffa Mogens och ställa några frågor om Epinion, deras produkter och lösningar samt hans egna erfarenheter inom research.
Epinion är ett fullservice institut som till en början levererade sina tjänster till den enbart den danska marknaden. Över tid har företaget vidgat sin marknad och inkluderar nu även Nordeuropa och Asien. Företaget erbjuder idag datainsamling, kampanjanalyser, undersökningar inom samhälle & opinion, undersökningsdesign, statistik analys, kundundersökningar och marknadsundersökningar. I Sverige är den störste kunden Swediavia och för dem mäter Epinion flygpassagerarnas nöjdhet på alla svenska flygplatser.
I år omsätter Epinion 160 miljoner danska kronor och förväntar sig en god vinstmarginal.
Epinions dotterbolag UserReport fokuserar helt på området ”digital audience measurement services”. Genom att erbjuda gratis webbplatsanalyser har UserReport samlat in hundratusentals panelister runt om i världen. Bara i Sverige har Epinion över 200.000 cookie-panelister och cirka 100.000 survey-panelister. Panelisterna följer man genom att tagga webbsidor med script som fångar upp deras Cookie. Cookien är laddad med demografi som webbplatsägare får ta del av i onlinerapporter. Förutom cookien har UserReport konverterat över hälften av panelisterna till att delta i webb-baserade undersökningar som man får inbjudan till via e-post. Bland företagen som idag använder UserReports tjänster finner vi Google, MMS, Smartclip och många fler.
Idag har företaget 440 anställda varav 300 är intervjuare.
What was your vision when you started working for Epinion?
When I first started in research I was a consultant in TNS doing opinion polling. My first taste for research left me wishing for more and I felt that it should be possible to deliver deeper insights to clients. That is when I had my first vision of creating a company that combined high end data collection with advisory services somewhat higher up in the Value Chain than is common for most MR companies.
In Denmark Epinion is a household name. How come?
The key that unlocked the door to become a market leader was the insight to position not only ourselves as a high caliber data collector but also as consultants with deep insight into our clients problems and opportunities. This together with an understanding of where the market is heading changed it all. Over time our clients opened up opportunities for us to also become deeper involved in the field of in-depth analysis.
Also, among our most well known surveys are the danish election polls and through these we became a household name by pinpointing the correct election results several times over. We won that contract with Denmarks National Radio (DR) by showing first class data collection and analysis capabilities.
Today you are not only based in Denmark. What other markets do you operate in?
The international aspect of the business came much later as a result of business demand from across our borders. Today we have operations in Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, England, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.
Do you conduct any niche field studies today?
We provide our services to a number of different types of companies. One of our niche services is Airport-passenger satisfaction. Today you can find interviewers from Epinion in Arlanda airport and Heathrow airport, as well as others.
What was the idea behind launching the service and company UserReport?
Back in the year 2005 we won a contract for the Danish government department for digital services who wanted to find out which public homepage internet users thought was the best one at the time. We conducted standard pop-up surveys and delivered our reports to both the web masters and our client. The web masters was so happy with the survey that they wanted us to continue with them and also develop them further.
Since many of the other research companies had cumbersome methods when collecting data we swiftly gained ground. By developing our services further, backed by the web masters, we discovered a very successful way of delivering value to the Webmasters. We decided to create a separate company that would focus solely on developing our methods further and grow our market share in audience measurement. Today, more than 15.000 sites across 80 different countries use our tool.
What is your favorite market research moment?
When I started in research straight out of university at TNS Gallup I was assigned the responsibility to run all the polling for the Danish Euro Referendum in the year 2000. I remember that at a point in the running of our daily polls up to the election, I published a poll saying that it would be a no-vote for the Euro Referendum. It was the first poll in the market that clearly revealed that it would be a no-vote in Denmark. When we went public with this insight the Danish stock exchange took a 4% dive. My boss at the time called me up and said ”Mogens never do that stuff again without telling me”. My boss was a very wealthy man and his shares along with others had just lost 4% of their market value. So my poll took several billion DKK off people´s wealth in less than a day. This was the first time I learned that research really meant business.