VCCP Group Launches Calico to Revolutionise Market Research Operations

Watermelon Research, part of VCCP Group, today announced the official launch of Calico, a new technology-focused market research operations agency.

With a mission to make their clients’ lives easier the new agency aims to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for specialised Insight agencies to get all of their operational needs from just one provider.

Calico is brought to market by Mark Squires, CEO of Watermelon Research, a leading CX agency that drives tangible business improvements for large organisations across a range of sectors.

Mark Squires, CEO of Watermelon Research said, “At Watermelon, we’ve always taken a client-focussed approach to our business, immersing ourselves in our clients’ cultures and ways of working, integrating with them and acting as one team.

“Our goal with Calico is to provide this same service to the rest of the industry and deliver best-in-class operations to other agencies that want to focus on insight and analysis, rather than supplier management and operational headaches.”

Backed by a team of seasoned experts and powered by state-of-the-art technologies, Calico is primed to deliver on its three core business propositions: complex survey scripting, global fieldwork and data services.

Calico will manage all MR operations including translations, quality procedures and data processing, and will be led by David Adley, who started his career at Facts International’s operations centre in 2010 and has been Watermelon’s director of operations since 2020.

David Adley, managing director of Calico added, “Our in-house team of programmers and client managers not only understand the principles of market research, but also the pressures of our industry, and our goal is to provide a transparent and trustworthy service to our clients” said David, adding “The team we’ve put together really loves what they do and can’t wait to get out there and work with other passionate researchers to provide a hassle-free solution to MR Ops.”

The name Calico draws inspiration from calico cats, who proudly display three colours in their coats, and Calico will similarly present three clear business priorities:

• Expert survey scripting - from the simple to the highly complex (including max diffs, conjoints and integration with external software), Calico’s in-house team of programmers script surveys in multiple platforms and optimise survey design to deliver engaging and user-friendly interfaces.

• Efficient and tailored global fieldwork - Calico partners with dozens of consumer, B2B and specialist panels, deploying and blending them independently and impartially based on their suitability to provide the best solution for each and every project.
• Quality-focussed data solutions - utilising market-leading automated in-survey checks alongside a large in-house team of QC specialists, Calico will provide ultimate flexibility on how data is processed and provided, backed up with state of the art data security and protection, with ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials accreditation.