IRI Partners with Workforce Management Specialist

Retail and healthcare data giant IRI has partnered with workforce management specialist Gigwalk to provide retail intelligence to CPG brands.

Following the deal, IRI's Liquid Data predictive analytics and insights platform will be combined with insights from Gigwalk's Mobile Crowdsourcing solution, which offers access to a network of more than 750,000 mobile-enabled contractors (known as 'Gigwalkers'); and with workforce management solution Gigwalk Enterprise. The firms say companies can now manage and deploy an on-demand workforce to collect retail data and intelligence, anytime, anywhere, and on any specific job or task.

Clients can also measure and optimize brand lift by feeding Gigwalk retail execution data into the IRI Advantage platform; and the partnership will also offer consumer and shopper marketing intelligence through custom surveys and mobile panels.

Gigwalk CEO David Hale says the firms' combined resources will help consumer brands make educated business decisions based on what's happening in the store in real-time. Andrew Appel, President and CEO of IRI, adds: 'Obtaining immediate and actionable data is the key to understanding how your brand is faring at the retail level. By joining forces, we will give our customers real-time visibility into their daily operations so they can derive maximum return from their retail marketing activities'.

Web sites: www.iriworldwide.com and www.gigwalk.com .