Opinion Leader Research (company)

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Opinion Leader is a market research company based in the United Kingdom that uses a range of qualitative, deliberative and quantitative methods.

The company was founded in 1992, and in 1998 Opinion Leader became part of Chime Communications plc, the holding company for several public relations, research, and advertising and marketing companies.

The company works for a wide range of clients from the private, public and voluntary sectors. In early 2007, Opinion Leader ran The Bigger Conversation on behalf of Sky which allowed them to listen to and engage with almost 200 consumers about The Bigger Picture, Sky’s responsible business campaign and initiatives.

On September 18th 2007, Opinion Leader conducted nine simultaneous events, connected via video conferencing, bringing together more than 1,000 patients, members of the public and staff to consider the case for change for the NHS Review, set up by Professor Lord Ara Darzi to ensure that the NHS is fit for the future, not the past.

Opinion Leader has been shortlisted for Research magazine’s top prize in the Research Excellence & Effectiveness Awards 2007: Best Agency. They have also been shortlisted by AQR for this year's Prosper Riley-Smith Qualitative Research Effectiveness Award for Ofcom on regulating food promotion to children.


[edit] Public sector clients

The company has been engaged by UK Government departments, including, between 1998 and 2007 [1]:

Department Costs Total cost Details
International Development £38,247, £43,000, £50,309 £121,556 [1], [2]
Health "£1.05 million"[2], £47,763, £68,860, £48,175, £4,773, £71,675, £70,500 [3] £1,361,745 [3][4]
Treasury £19,021, £133,237[4] both ex VAT £152,258 [5]
Work and Pensions £794,130 £794,130 [6]
Education and Skills £153,484 inc VAT [5] £153,484 [7] [8]
Justice £42,917, £33,399, £15,490, £56,964, £4,700 all inc VAT[6] £153,470 [9] [10] [11]
Duchy of Lancaster Data withheld citing cost Unknown [12]
Culture, Media and Sport None None [13]
Total at least £2,736,643

Compiled from Hansard records of Parliamentary debates and Written Questions [14]. Efforts have been made to address duplication arising from multiple mentions of payments in the record including where figures were rounded. Generally, MPs do not state whether a VAT component is included, where stated this information is noted above.

[edit] Controversy

According to the Observer, OLR was investigated by the Market Research Society[7] for its links to Labour, but cleared of any wrongdoing[8].

In September 2007, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and Green Alliance considered formally withdrawing from a consultation process on Nuclear Power which was to be run by Opinion Leader Research on behalf of the Government. The coalition complained that an informative document to be provided to 1,100 stakeholders as part of the process was biased in favour of Nuclear Power[9]. The stakeholders were to vote on the basis of the information provided.

[edit] References

  1. ^ In a written answer from Gareth Thomas to John Bercow on Tuesday, 14 September 2004 quote: "In 1998"
  2. ^ Written answer to Mark Hoban 16 July 2007 - shows this was a payment made via the Central Office of Information
  3. ^ Written answer to Mark Hoban by Ivan Lewis 21-June-2007 - contains a list of direct payments
  4. ^ A Written Answer dated 18 Jun 2007 from John Healy mentions a separate figure of £50,955. It is not clear if the £133,237 includes this value or not
  5. ^ User's own research
  6. ^ Users own research
  7. ^ Pendennis "MRS will not comment on individual cases, and has not reached any findings yet, but confirms it has the power to impose sanctions on OLR"
  8. ^ Pendennis "Speedy vindication for Gordon Brown's pollster friend Deborah Mattinson and her company Opinion Leader Research"
  9. ^ New nuclear row as green groups pull out - "At least six groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and Green Alliance, claim the government is distorting the evidence... The process is being run by Opinion Leader Research (OLR), a market research organisation"