By Kevin McCauley
WPP’s Penn Schoen Berland polling firm has acquired First Movies International, market researcher and consultant to studios including Disney, Paramount, Sony Picture and Twentieth Century Fox.
Though mostly noted for advising President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, PSB has been in the entertainment and media business since 2001. Jon Penn heads that unit.
The PSB and FMI combination will offer a full-spectrum of consumer market research including franchise management, green-light research, marketing positioning, test screenings, focus groups, creative advertising testing, box office tracking, exits, and home entertainment.
Mark Penn, CEO of PSB and Burson-Marsteller,said of the deal that “it’s essential that our “entertainment clients, like our corporate clients, have a finger on the pulse of their consumers in every corner of the globe.”
FMI has offices in Los Angeles and London
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