LINK becomes YouGov Switzerland
Since December 2021, LINK has been part of YouGov, an international market and social research, data products and data analytics company. In this context, LINK will become YouGov Switzerland. You will no doubt have various questions about this. The answers to many of them can be found in the FAQ below. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with your contact person at LINK.
Who is YouGov?
YouGov is an international online research data and analytics technology group. With operations in the UK, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, YouGov has one of the world’s largest research networks.
YouGov has its own highly engaged panel of 24 million registered members in nearly 60 countries. This panel delivers thousands of data points every day on the opinions, attitudes and behaviour of consumers. This continuous and accurate stream of data on the opinions and values of people around the globe, combined with YouGov’s research expertise, yields exclusive insights for intelligent decision-making processes and informed conversations.
The company was founded in 2000 and today employs more than 1,650 people in 39 offices around the globe. YouGov’s turnover grew by 11% last year and today reaches GBP 169 million (approx. CHF 211 million).
Steve Hatch has been CEO since August 2023. He has over 30 years of experience leading high-growth marketing and media companies. He served as Facebook’s first Regional Director for the UK and later became Meta’s Vice President for Northern Europe. Hatch also has a strong background in strategy roles and has been involved in industry initiatives, advocating for cognitive diversity in the workplace. Previously the company was led by Stephan Shakespeare, one of the two founders. The offering is divided into four pillars: Explore (Research), Plan (Audience intelligence), Track (Brands & Campaigns) and Activate (Campaigns). YouGov is listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (ticker: YOU) and has a market capitalisation of GBP 1.5 billion (approx. CHF 1.9 billion).
Further information on YouGov can be found at: https://corporate.yougov.com/about
Information on the range of services can be found at: https://business.yougov.com
Will I keep my usual contact persons?
The brand merger has no influence on our consulting services. You will continue to receive the best possible advice and service for your project by our Swiss research experts. Apart from the unforeseeable natural staff turnover or project-related changes of contact persons, your usual contact persons will remain.
Will the brand merger have an impact on data quality?
The merger has no impact on the quality of the data. Just like LINK, YouGov places the highest value on data quality. The internationally renowned and independent Pew Research Institute confirms the high quality of YouGov data.
What happens to the LINK Panel after the merger?
As part of the brand merger, the LINK Panel will be transferred to the existing (technical) structure of YouGov. All adjustments have been thoroughly tested and prepared over the long term. This approach made it possible to avoid any methodological influences resulting from the integration. Participants in Switzerland continue to be recruited from within Switzerland in accordance with the highest methodological standards. These actively telephone-recruited panel members can be targeted at any time.
We are also able to offer our clients additional participants in Switzerland as well as from various YouGov panels around the world.
Will the Swiss panel continue to be actively recruited?
Yes, the Swiss panel will continue to be actively recruited and the personal details of the participants verified. The classic telephone invitation to participate in the panel will also be expanded to include online measures in order to better represent target groups that are difficult to reach by telephone in the Swiss panel. This improves the representativeness of the composition of the Swiss panel and also enables us to map individual target groups for our clients in greater detail.
Will projects be handled as usual?
Yes, projects will be handled with the usual high quality and comprehensive service. Additionally, with certain projects access to YouGov’s international infrastructure and synergies with our ways of working means we can process even faster.
Will I continue to receive Swiss market expertise?
Our clients continue to receive market-leading expertise for the Swiss market from resident researchers. Clients with international projects also benefit from the many years of expertise of YouGov researchers worldwide. Adding to this, our clients will continue to receive project support from Switzerland and in the language relevant to them.
Will the costs for projects change?
The brand merger has no effect on the price structure of the offering. The prices continue to be based on economic framework parameters.
In which formats will I receive my data in the future?
Our clients will continue to receive their data as usual. In addition, the results for certain projects will be delivered in YouGov Crunch, an online-based dashboard solution. This makes it possible to get a quick and intuitive overview of the results, to create, analyse and visualise target groups with just a few clicks, and to easily share data sets, specially created dashboards and analyses with teams and project partners. You can find out more about Crunch on the Crunch.io website here: https://crunch.io/
Will there be changes in the product portfolio?
As part of the YouGov Group, the range of services and products for our clients is expanding. At the same time, products developed in-house and tailored to the Swiss market, such as the Swiss Brand Observer (SBO), Predictive Promoter Score (PPS) or our TenantCM, will be continued. Apart from this, all research methodologies will continue to be offered. Of course, we will continue to update and optimise our range of products and services for the Swiss market in order to be able to offer our clients demand-oriented and innovative research solutions for their questions. In addition, the brand merger will benefit you by expanding our offering to include services and products from the YouGov Group.
What does the brand merger mean for the data protection of my projects?
We continue to be a Swiss legal entity and fully adhere to and guarantee compliance with the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) in our data processing. Additionally, data protection is a top priority for YouGov. The data of our clients’ projects will continue to be treated with the usual high level of care. Further information on YouGov Governance can be found here. You can find YouGov’s client and marketing privacy policy here.