The first decade of the 21st century was of consolidation of the large market research groups in Brazil, a process that was well advanced by the end of this decade. Little by little companies that showed greater growth during the 90’s were being acquired by these global groups that came to dictate how the market operates.
As mentioned, the American company Nielsen and the English company Research International already had activities in Brazil before the turn of the century. Nielsen acquired CBPA (Brazilian Research and Analysis Company), to be its ad-hoc research arm.
Ibope, which has a very unique history, is an exception of the Brazilian company that was not acquired and instead expanded its activities abroad, differentiating itself as a Brazilian market research multinational.
At the end of the century, the French company Ipsos acquired Novacion and later Marplan and experienced great growth throughout the decade. Without question, it can be said that Ipsos was the most prominent company of this decade, reaching a level of revenues close to that of Nielsen and Ibope, the two market leaders, and passing RI, which was until then the great symbol of ad hoc research.
Also at the end of the century, the English company Millward Brown starts a project to turn itself independent from Ibope, to which it was associated, a process still underway in the 2010’s.
After the turn of the century, the Spanish company Inner starts operations autonomously in Brazil, without acquiring any local company. Among other companies, Inner was acquired globally and becomes part of the Synovate group.
The German company GfK acquires Indicator and , lastly among the global giants, the English company TNS acquires Interscience, purchases the part of Ibope in the partnership it had with LatinPanel, and finally, is acquired by the also English media group WPP, which decides to combine its two research arms: RI and TNS.
This group of companies – Ibope, Nielsen, Ipsos, GfK, TNS RI, Millward Brown and Synovate – accounts for close to 75% of the Brazilian market research market. Other global groups continue to come to Brazil, setting up operations or acquiring local companies, but the dynamic operation of the local market, in tune with the global market, is already established.
Some prominent names of this period were Rodrigo Toni, Paulo Carramenha, Valkiria Garre, Sônia Bueno, Manuel Lopes, Beatriz Arbex, among others.
