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Scottsdale, Ariz., Jan. 21, 2010 - Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) hosted a distinguished group of consumer packaged goods (CPG) executives at the inaugural Analytics Innovation Advisory Board held today at the Phoenician Resort located in Scottsdale, Ariz. Establishing an industrywide framework for accelerating innovation in commercial and marketing analytics aimed at step-changing performance in the CPG industry was the primary objective of the event.

Distinguished professor and author Ian Ayres assisted with facilitation of the dialog among 14 industry executives from the majority of the top 15 global CPG companies. Ayres is the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School, a professor at Yale\'s School of Management and author of "SuperCrunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to be Smart."

The group discussed new methods in applying analytics to support a wide range of CPG and retailer functions, including pricing, trade spend optimization, shopper marketing, marketing resource allocation and return on investment, consumer/shopper insight integration, and forecasting. In addition, a panel of leading practitioners and media specialists discussed advances in digital media targeting and measurement and the integration of social media into traditional analytical models.

"The coming of age of advanced analytics is here," said Ayres. "Those companies that can augment their institutional knowledge with a depth of analytical rigor will win and win big in the market. Innovation will continue to be the driving force in what separates average performers from Wall Street heroes. Innovation in analytics and insight development will create the precision and speed necessary to create opportunity, capture advantage, and execute at even the most nuanced levels."

Rob Holston, Analytics Innovation Advisory Board leader and IRI's senior vice president of Modeling and Analytics Solutions, added, "The leadership and forward thinking residing on this board will accelerate the delivery of our vision and our continued relevance to the industry. We will be to continuous business intelligence what Google has been for search by orchestrating the powerful combination of scalable technology, an open data environment, and innovative rapid modeling capabilities, with a set of integrated user applications. Paramount to our enhanced analytics model will be a highly capable global team possessing a keen understanding of our client's business drivers."

"Competing on analytics, especially predictive analytics will be the core element of our client's strategic platform for growth," said IRI EVP, Division President of Modeling and Analytics Patrick Cummings. "Shopper behaviors have changed dramatically during the last two years in unforeseen ways. It remains unclear whether shoppers will return to historical behavior patterns during the near term, or retain some or all of the practices seen during the recession. Organizations like this board will allow clients to contribute to shaping the industry's evolution while calibrating their own analytics agendas."

About IRI

IRI is the world's leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.