InterMedia announced that it has been awarded a GSA Schedule contract, effective June 8th, 2011. The contract allows InterMedia to offer its cutting-edge research products and services to the federal government more quickly and more efficiently.

Tim Cooper will be the new Research Director at InterMedia, effective June 2011. Tim comes to us from the BBC World Service Trust, where he has overseen a global network of 50 researchers in 17 countries.

InterMedia, the global research-based consultancy, announced Tuesday the appointment of Vivien Marles as Managing Director of the company’s Africa branch office, which is set to open in Nairobi, Kenya on 9 May 2011. Marles, a distinguished research professional with deep experience in Africa, will lead and expand InterMedia’s operations in this high-priority region.

Marles comes to InterMedia from Synovate Pan-Africa (formerly, The Steadman Group) in Nairobi, where she has been Research Director since 2006. She was also founder and director of The Steadman Center of Applied Research, a unique capacity-building initiative run in partnership with Strathmore Business School in Nairobi.

Andrea Marmolejo, an investment advisor focused on environmental and sustainable projects in Africa, India and the UK, is the latest appointment to InterMedia UK’s Board of Directors.
Andrea set up the advisory and private placement team at UNLtd Ventures, which targets social investments in developing countries, and has also worked with the World Bank as well as with clean technology and impact investment funds. “We’re very excited to have Andrea join our InterMedia team,” says InterMedia Chair, Ambassador Richard Carlson. “Her knowledge and breadth of experience in the public and private sectors globally, as well as a keen understanding of how best to meet developing world issues and needs, will be invaluable in advising and guiding the growth of InterMedia UK.”

Growth in the use of mobile money services in Tanzania gained considerable pace during 2010, but usage rates still lag well behind those seen in neighboring Kenya, according to a new research report from InterMedia's AudienceScapes team.
The report, "Mobile Money for the Unbanked: Lessons from Tanzania," draws on the AudienceScapes  national survey of Tanzania conducted in mid-2010 - roughly two years after the first mobile money service was launched in the East African country. The report shows that 11.5 percent of Tanzanian adults (or 2.75 million out of an adult population of 23.9 million) had used a mobile money service by that time.

The use of mobile phones has seen significant expansion among lower-income Zambians in the past year, but cost and other factors remain barriers to regular use for many, a new report from InterMedia's AudienceScapes team reveals. The report also looks at the recent arrival of mobile money services in Zambia, which shows that, for the time being, their use is dominated by those who are already “banked”; i.e., using formal banking services such as bank accounts.

Zambian women lack basic information about family planning and maternal and child health (FP-MCH), a new AudienceScapes report from InterMedia report finds. And despite Zambia’s high teen pregnancy rates, youth (15-24) in the country don’t seek out FP-MCH information as much as those in older age groups. The report suggests using customized messaging and mobile phones as information channels to help close the information gap.

Hannah Bowen, an InterMedia researcher working on projects throughout Africa, has been named as one of three finalists for ESOMAR’s Young Researcher of the Year Award. An international jury chose the finalists based on their projects’ “practical applications and ability to affect world change.” Hannah’s entry explores the impact of digital technology in Sub-Saharan Africa—how researchers can address barriers preventing a wider adoption of new media technology and ways in which public and private entities can better reach and serve the diverse populations there.

Dr. Gerry Power, newly appointed managing director of InterMedia in London, was recently awarded the International Communication Association’s (ICA) “Communication Research as a Collaborative Practice” award at the organization’s 2010 conference in Singapore. The award, which recognizes outstanding collaborative techniques to address emerging problems in media and communication, highlighted Dr. Power’s work as Director of Research and Learning at the BBC World Service Trust, the position he held before joining InterMedia.

The Board of Directors of InterMedia, the global media and
communications research company, today unanimously appointed Robert T. Coonrod as InterMedia’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
“Robert Coonrod is the ideal person to lead our organization. He will bring great vision, experience and leadership skills in taking InterMedia to its next level,” said Ambassador Richard W. Carlson, Chairman of InterMedia’s Board of Directors. “We are a leading resource for clients around the world. Bob Coonrod will help us with new opportunities by expanding the range of services we can provide.”

Gerry comes to InterMedia from the BBC World Service Trust, where he has been serving as Director of Research and Learning for the past five years, working across radio, television, internet and mobile platforms. He is credited with building up the Trust’s knowledge management practice, making research a fundamental strategic part of all communication for development projects and for establishing a highly motivated award-winning global network of researchers that spans 14 countries.

InterMedia was contracted by the Evaluation Division in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State to complete a five-year evaluation of an innovative high school student exchange program—the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program—established in the aftermath of September 11. Since 2003, more than 3,480 students from 25 countries with significant Muslim populations—Afghanistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Palestine, Malaysia and Yemen among the best-represented—have taken part in the program, which provides scholarships for secondary school students 15-17. Students spend up to a full academic year in towns and cities throughout the United States to attend high school, engage in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and to share their customs and culture with Americans.

Peter Goldstein, director of online communications at InterMedia, recently travelled to Austria to introduce participants in the Salzburg Global Seminar to the AudienceScapes project, a treasure trove of media, communication and demographic data and analysis that will be a vital resource for the international development community.
The first segment of the project, an in-depth interview report of how policy makers and influencers in Ghana access and disseminate policy-relevant information, is due for release in the next several weeks. 

Several new team members will lend their expertise to InterMedia’s latest initiative: a qualitative and quantitative research program, supported initially by a $1.29 million two-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at improving development project success rates through more effective communication to the general public, as well as to policymakers, in the developing world. 

InterMedia today announced a new program, aimed at improving development project success rates through more effective communication to the general public, as well as to policymakers, in the developing world.   
The program, supported initially by a $1.29 million two-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is made up of a pair of closely-linked initiatives:

• InterMedia will launch a quantitative and qualitative research program in Africa to fill knowledge gaps in how people gather, share and shape news and information, particularly as they relate to development.
• InterMedia will launch an interactive website “AudienceScapes” to disseminate data and analysis from the Africa research program as well as research on communication, media use and information sharing covering several other developing regions.

InterMedia’s 2008 national surveys in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, show vast differences in perceptions of media freedom, satisfaction with the information provided by the media, and the amount of media choice and access, not only from country to country, but also between different demographic groups within each country.

Domestic politics appear to be a root cause of fluctuating levels of support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the past 12 months among the populations of the Balkans—Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia. Montenegro saw a significant drop in support for NATO membership in the past year (following a large increase after independence in 2006); support in Serbia has remained fairly steady. Bosnia—where internal tensions are at their highest levels in years, putting the country squarely back on the international agenda—saw a significant increase in support for membership between 2007 and 2008.

InterMedia today released a new report that takes a closer look at shifting perceptions of NATO membership among the populations of 12 countries of the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. All the countries are potential NATO members. The report also analyzes NATO’s recent efforts to reach out to broader publics, many of whom are too young to recall NATO’s pivotal role in the Cold War.