Thompson-Lightstone has been chosen as the supplier to conduct the five-market pilot study leading up to CanadaÔÇÖs largest and most complex readership study, ComBase.
Thompson Lightstone & Company, a Toronto-based research firm, is one of CanadaÔÇÖs largest market research companies. Founded 1977 by Ian Lightstone and Ivor Thompson, it now boasts more than 50 full-time employees in Toronto, 15 in its associated company in Montreal (Centre des Research Contemporaines) and 350 CATI-equipped interviewing stations and is considered a recognized leader in its field.
Ivor Thompson, who has directed all of the print media studies conducted by Thompson Lightstone, will manage the project. Thompson was the project manager for the four years during which the company handled the main PMB study. He also manages the biannual Quebec Daily Newspaper Study conducted under the auspices of PMB (the Quebec version of NADbank).
For a number of years, Mr. Thompson was a member of the Board of Directors of CARF and a member of its Technical Committee. While a member, he served as member of the committee that extended the CARF media research guidelines to encompass business publications. He currently serves on the Board of the Canadian Survey Research Council and is the Vice President/President-elect of the Professional Market Research Society.
Raj Matuk will be working primarily in the technology and media areas. His focus for more than a decade has been in the area of sampling, a key component to ComBase. Raj has managed the sampling function on the largest media studies in Canada including NADbank and the PMB main study.
ComBase Project Manager Elena Dunn noted that ComBase will require the highest levels of expertise possible, particularly in the area of market definition and sampling, as well as the manpower to be able to handle potentially tens of thousands of interviews in hundreds of markets across Canada at the same time. She said that Thompson Lightstone is one of only a handful of market research companies with those resources.
ÔÇ£We are excited that Thompson Lightstone will be partners in this important undertaking,ÔÇØ said Dunn.
The Pilot Study will go into field in September with preliminary results available to the advertising community in early 2002. Markets to be measured will be Toronto (ON), Red Deer (AB), Yorkton (SK), Killarney (MB), and Campbellton (NB). The markets were selected to represent a variety of population groups and geographical areas.