TNS's innovation hub finds new ways to add real value to the research game

Ansie Lombaard

Lombaard brings with her extensive experience, having received a doctorate in research methodology and worked extensively in academia and parastatals. She has worked at TNS for the past eight years, spending time in operations and a client-facing role, meaning she has a deep understanding of how the company works and what is needed to take it forward.

To keep TNS ahead of the pack, she shares that the innovation hub's biggest focus at the moment is to establish a mobile research offer that confidently and securely delivers against clients' expectations. This means spending time on pilot project and case study development, testing diverse samples and platforms from potential new providers, as well as working closely with the TNS global team.

In addition, Lombaard mentions that her team is currently working on an advanced solution within the context of location intelligence. TNS already has a very experienced in-house geographic information system (GIS) capability that allows it to spatially integrate primary and secondary data in a visually powerful way. It is now taking this offer into the future by combining it with a cloud storage system that will make it possible to publish interactive maps straight to the cloud. This means that TNS's clients will have interactive and dynamic access to mapped data.

Speaking of interacting with data in new ways, with neuromarketing becoming more and more of a buzz word, Lombaard shares that TNS is working with a company specialising in this area. This is in a real effort to understand how neuroscience and neuromarketing stand to add value to clients, positioned within the context of the research company's brand and communications offer.

Of course, these innovative steps are of little use if they are not made part of TNS's offer to its clients. With this in mind, Lombaard emphasises that all streams of innovation that are pursued must have concrete deliverables that can be taken into business, within a specified time frame. In other words, clients will not merely be hearing about the exciting new projects TNS is working on, but will see the real benefits of these in the near future.

Lombaard ends, "TNS delivers quality and value through insights that will help our clients make the right decisions for their business. We have the best people in place who are brave enough to explore and master new ways of generating the kind of insights that will support such decisions and have a real impact on their business."

About TNS

TNS advises clients on specific growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and stakeholder management, based on long-established expertise and market-leading solutions. With a presence in over 80 countries, TNS has more conversations with the world's consumers than anyone else and understands individual human behaviours and attitudes across every cultural, economic and political region of the world.

TNS is part of Kantar, one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups.

Please visit www.tnsglobal.com for more information.

About Kantar

Kantar is the data investment management division of WPP and one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups. By connecting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 28,500 employees work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com.