GfK Wins ARF Innovation Award For Breakthrough Brand, Customer Experience Research

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A team of five GfK experts in brand and customer experience won the Advertising Research Foundation’s 2013 Bronze Award in Innovation for their groundbreaking approaches to consumers’ evolving experience with brands.

“With technology reshaping the consumer landscape, we at GfK celebrate those who bring fresh ideas to the marketplace. We cannot wait to see where these great minds will take us in the years to come.”

The awards were presented today at the ARF’s Great Mind Awards ceremony, which concluded its 2013 Re:think conference in New York City.

“I am very pleased to see the industry recognize GfK’s stellar talent and commitment to innovation,” said Matthias Hartmann, CEO of GfK. “With technology reshaping the consumer landscape, we at GfK celebrate those who bring fresh ideas to the marketplace. We cannot wait to see where these great minds will take us in the years to come.”

The Innovation award winners were Danica Allen (Global Director, Brand and Customer Experience), Oliver Hupp (Division Manager, GfK Germany), Raimund Wildner (Managing Director, GfK Verein), John Wittenbraker (Global Director of Innovation, Brand and Customer Experience, GfK), and Helen Zeitoun (Global Head of Brand and Customer Experience, GfK).

Drawing on extensive R&D and client engagements, this GfK team developed a new human-centric approach to understanding and managing the way experiences stimulate the growth of brand relationships and drive better business outcomes for marketers. This results in a fusion of brand and communication with customer experience to help marketers manage from the perspective of how people “live the brand” rather than simply how they perceive it.

In addition, at the Great Mind ceremony, GfK’s Nicole Tomei Zwolinski (Vice President, Marketing Communications) won a President’s Award for outstanding service to the ARF.

About GfK

GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than 12,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to EUR 1.51 billion.

To find out more, visit www.gfk.com/us or follow GfK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GfK_en.