2025: Reflecting on exciting developments in Norstat’s continued growth journey

The year is coming to an end. The days are getting longer, and it’s finally Christmas.

It is a great privilege to once again have the pleasure of thanking all of you for the trust you have shown Norstat. We are never better than our last project, and we do not take your continued support for granted. This year, as last year and the years before, we happily observe that the products and services we bring to the market resonate and that we continue to grow. We have never collected as much data as we have in 2025, and we have never delivered more projects to more clients.

In a macroeconomic climate that continues to be challenging, and in circumstances where it can be hard to separate the truth from its opposite, our data becomes critically important. European companies and countries are under both growth and cost pressure. Bringing accurate data to the table so the correct decisions can be made has never been more paramount than right now. We cannot afford to squander. High-quality data is the most affordable insurance against wrong decisions and has an incredible return on investment. Data to trust for decisions that matter.

A few years ago, we updated our purpose to “an enlightened society is a better society.” I immediately felt that it resonated. We are all aware that there is more misinformation floating around than ever. Various players – often with questionable agendas, or worse – fill the airwaves with skewed and tainted information. We deliver the truth, and that truth is only possible if the source is high-quality data. We are the voice of the European consumer, taxpayer, and voter. We at Norstat won’t change the world, but we do know when the world changes. That is a responsibility we proudly, but also with immense humility, manage.

Given the importance of high-quality data, it should come as no surprise that we have continued to increase investments in our panels, the indispensable data source, this year as well. Never have we had a stronger offering than we do right now. Directly related to data supply was our acquisition this fall of SampleSolutions. SampleSolutions has a unique and highly complementary technology for data supply and is especially strong on the B2B sample side. We have already noticed how well our increased B2B offering has been received across Europe. In addition to the great tech capabilities that came with the acquisition, we have had the pleasure of welcoming more than 30 new colleagues from Skopje. Skopje is, by the way, a fascinating city I recommend that everyone visit.

This year, we have made several giant leaps on the product and solution side. We have zero ambitions to deliver consulting or to offer opinions on which decisions companies should make based on the data we collect. We are a data collector and a production company. We do, however, have every ambition to broaden our geographical footprint and make our data more available, understandable, and easy to use. That’s why we created Norstat Express in 2021 and, this year, brought our new digital platform MyNorstat and Norstat Studio to market.

Where Norstat Express delivers answers from 500 Europeans within an hour, Norstat Studio allows all clients to manage their own data. It enables data processing, visualisations, and, with the help of AI, live PowerPoint presentations with descriptive comments. You can actually talk to your data. Starting from January, PowerPoint presentations will be available in your own templates. Norstat Studio is enabled by MyNorstat, our new platform – a digital home and library for all your projects. We are glad to bring the technology we have worked with behind the scenes for years to the market. We are also absolutely confident that this will be a time-saver and the quickest way from data collection to analysis, consulting, and decision-making. We will continue to develop and refine both Norstat Express and the digital solutions within MyNorstat – stay tuned.

It wouldn’t have been Norstat if we didn’t survey our clients and employees about how they think and feel about working with and for us. Maybe the highlight of the year was receiving all-time high scores from both the internal and external elements in our ecosystem. I can promise that we will not rest; we will push forward, as dedicated as ever, to deliver high-quality data and be present when you need us. Our ambition for next year is to operate a 24/7 service in a company where the sun never sets. We will make sure to enjoy ourselves while doing it, never taking our eyes off the primary objective: delivering data you can trust for analysis and decisions that matter.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Erling J. B. Eriksen, CEO of Norstat