MarketTools Announces ZoomPanel Tech

Business Wire, June 24, 2009

The First Panel to Deliver Fraud-Free IT Sample

SAN FRANCISCO -- MarketTools, Inc. today announced ZoomPanel™ Tech, a 100 percent real, unique, and engaged panel of information technology professionals used for providing opinions to market researchers. ZoomPanel Tech is the only IT panel to use TrueSample validation technology to ensure that each panelist is a real IT professional providing knowledgeable and thoughtful responses. ZoomPanel Tech addresses the industry-wide need for targeted, quality IT sample, enabling researchers to conduct fraud-free online market research with this important sub-segment.

According to an April 2009 report from Forrester Research Analyst Brad Bortner titled Market Researchers Demand High Panel Quality: “Online panels have stormed the market research industry, offering access to inexpensive samples quickly—but at the same time, firms report anxiety about the quality of the sample because of an inability to verify respondents’ identities and concerns about proving that the panel is truly representative of the targeted population. These concerns are present for B2C sample and are amplified for B2B sample due to smaller relevant sample populations, a disinclination of senior decision-makers to take many surveys, and the potentially corrupting effects of higher B2B incentives.”

MarketTools’ ZoomPanel Tech is the only panel to ensure fraud-free IT sample by passing all panelists through a three-step process:

• 100 Percent TrueSample: Each prospective panelist must pass through the TrueSample certification technology to ensure that all panel participants are real, unique and engaged;
• Only IT Sources: The panel is meticulously sourced from leading IT-focused content publications, not general consumer-focused sources;
• IT Knowledge: Panelists are pre-screened through rigorous industry screeners designed to catch people who claim to be IT professionals, but have no IT knowledge.

“MarketTools TrueSample technology has been enabling fraud-free consumer sample for the research industry since 2008,” said John Oren, EVP Panels and Communities at MarketTools. “With ZoomPanel Tech, we’re applying our unique technology to IT sample, giving our clients the industry’s first completely fraud-free IT panel.”

Participants are also pre-profiled on more than 100 business-to-business (B2B)-specific attributes and another 30 IT-specific areas of expertise—from network operations to business intelligence software to applications security—delivering highly targeted sample so researchers can quickly and efficiently segment the panel as needed.

Pricing and Availability

MarketTools’ ZoomPanel Tech is available now. Pricing varies depending on the desired level of targeting and length of the study. For more information, please contact sales@markettools.com or visit www.markettools.com/zoompaneltech.

About MarketTools

MarketTools is the leading provider of Customer Insight Management solutions for the world’s market leaders. Through a unique combination of best-in-class insight and feedback platforms, quality-assured global panels, and research innovation, MarketTools enables companies to innovate and identify new opportunities, optimize product success and build customer loyalty. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market-leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. MarketTools’ premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes MarketTools.com, ™ Zoomerang,™ CustomerSat,™ TrueSample,™ , ZoomPanel ,™ and ZoomPanel™ Tech.

MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: www.markettools.com.