Rentrak's research operations combine a talented base of experts in media research and TV ratings, statistics, technical writing and adoption of new products. We require not only the highest technical abilities, but also curious minds that revel in the popular culture, enabling us to combine the best right- and left-brain worldviews, and thus provide the industry with comprehensive and applicable intelligence and insights.
The goal of Rentrak's research department is threefold:
- Help Rentrak realize its vision of being the premier provider of integrated consumer video and entertainment databases that provide relevance to marketers, distributors and content providers.
- Infuse Rentrak's syndicated products and services with the highest quality of research design and execution, ensuring accuracy, reliability and relevance in all the metrics we produce.
- Provide clients, partners and associates with actionable and accurate analyses through Rentrak's custom work.
Ask a Researcher:
Bruce D. Goerlich
Chief Research Officer- Areas of Expertise:
- TV ratings development and program ratings estimation
- Research for media planning and buying
- Econometric analysis of marketing data
- Diffusion of new product innovation across the population
Michael J. Vinson, PhD
Vice President, Statistical Sciences & Analytics- Areas of Expertise:
- Analysis, data mining, and insights from large data sets
- Development of new algorithms for obtaining novel insights
- Detailed statistical analytics
- Data quality metrics, exception resolution, and error analysis
Bruce Goerlich
Bruce Goerlich joined Rentrak in August 2009 as the company's chief research officer. Throughout his 25-year-career at leading advertising agencies, he has been a driving force in the development of new and actionable media research approaches including the adoption of new media technologies, TV optimization, econometrics and understanding consumer lifestyles.
Prior to his position at Rentrak, Mr. Goerlich was most recently president of strategic resources at ZenithOptimedia, North America. Additionally, he served as chairman of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and was president of the Market Research Association. He has also served as a guest lecturer in advertising and research topics at Columbia University Business School.
Committed to maintaining close ties to advertising industry leadership, Mr. Goerlich continues to serve as co-chair of the Advertising Research Foundation's 360 Media Planning Committee and is a frequent speaker and contributor to research industry forums including the “ARF Audience Measurement 4.0” conference, European Society of Marketing Research and the American Marketing Association.
Mr. Goerlich graduated from Williams College and completed graduate work at Washington University and the New School for Social Research. His published works include a co-authored paper, presented at the 2001 International Print Research Symposium, about using Internet techniques for print research, which won the Chairman's Award. Mr. Goerlich resides in New York City and enjoys volunteering with St. Luke's In The Field Hospital Visiting Team.
Michael J. Vinson, PhD
Michael Vinson, PhD brings a unique blend of expertise in mathematics and theoretical physics as applied to media and advertising to his role as Rentrak's vice president of statistical sciences & analytics. Most recently serving as senior vice president and managing director of digital insights and analytics at Starcom Media Vest Group, Dr. Vinson has also previously worked at erinMedia where he was granted seven patents relating to mathematical methods for estimating demographics from privacy-compliant digital set-top box data during his time as the company's chief research scientist.
Before joining the advertising and media industry, Dr. Vinson, who holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Chicago, was an academic and educator. He completed his post-doctoral work at Syracuse University in Physics, won a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and do research in computational physics at Yarmouk University in Jordan, and also served as Chairman of the Department of Physics at Shippensberg University in Pennsylvania.
