The World's Biggest Small Company

Synovate - a leading global market research company - has posted a rather interesting video on YouTube, called the World's Biggest Small Company.

This video is fascinating on a number of levels:

- The image of the tall and short man discussing the advantages of Synovate being both big and small was visually arresting.
- The message was somewhat interesting, with Synovate claiming they don't have a corporate headquarters and that they are borderless. This helps them offer personalized, flexible, and responsive service.
-This is the first time I've seen a market research company advertise via a YouTube video - that, in and of itself, made the video stand out for me.

I've worked with Synovate many, many times in my career and agree that they are a great market research company. And they have offered me great customer service.

But, is it possible for a company that is ranked #9 in the 2008 Honomichl Top 50 list of market research companies and has achieved global revenues of nearly $1 billion to persuade us that they are small?

While I generally liked the ad, the entire time I was watching the video, the words kept hitting the B.S. meter. I kept thinking, really? Plenty of behemoth companies offer personalized, flexible, and responsive service. And in today's world of email, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, many companies talk about the global walls being erased. So that leaves Synovate standing on only one leg ... no corporate headquarters. That, in and of itself, doesn't say a whole lot about how they do their jobs or service me.

All that being said, I still found the video and its delivery on YouTube to be rather fascinating. And, it certainly didn't harm my image of Synovate in any way.