The Market Research Event

TMRE TV: Alicia Rankin, NFL

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:25:00 +0000

At The Market Research Event 2011, Marc Dresner sat down with many of the industry's leading researchers to discuss their strive for the best insights in addition to how they work with fellow researchers to find the insights they are striving for better research and insights. This is TMRE TV.

This week, we're featuring our interview with Alicia Rankin, Head of Research and Fan Insights, NFL. The research department at the NFL works with every department in the NFL along with the 32 clubs to develop the best fan experience possible. They do their research with the fan in mind, with the goal to make the NFL experience the best possible.

Watch Alicia's interview here:

In Alicia's interview, she encourages researchers to understand the business they're doing research for as best they can then bring actionable insights to teams that fit their customer database. What is one of the best initiatives you've seen come from actionable insight you've presented to your product teams?

The Market Research Event 2012 will take place November 12-14, 2012 in Boca Raton. We're in the final stages of production! To stay up to date on the latest news and information on the event, sign up for updates. Also, register now to save $500 off the standard rate! Be sure to mention code TMRE12Blog.

What to look for next week at The Audience Measurement

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:11:00 +0000

As we prepare for The Audience Measurement Event next week, let's take a look at some of the great articles which highlight the experience next week in Chicago.

Facebook will be on hand to present "Measuring Paid, Earned, and Social: From Reach to ROI". Speaker Fred Leach joined Audience Measurement Speaker Joel Rubenson for a pre-event conversation looking at marketers can best use Facebook and some of the best ways to measure success. View the blog post here. Fred will be speaking on Monday, May 21 at 1:30PM.

Joel Rubenson also spoke with Catherine Roe of Google, who discussed the digital measurement and usage for many CPG companies. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here. Catherine Roe will be speaking Wednesday, May 23 at 11:15AM.

Deb Roy, Director, Cognitive Machines Group, MIT MEDIA LABS & Co-Founder & CEO, Bluefin Labs, will be presenting "Closing the Gap between Social Media & Mass Communication" on Tuesday, May 22 at 8:30AM. He'll be looking at the connection that can be formed between television and social outlets. View the blog post here.

TiVo will look at a similar topic when they present "The Three Screens: Understanding Consumption & Multi-Tasking Patterns" on Monday, May 21 at 4:00PM. Jonathan Steuer, TIVO, will look at how to combine information on how to collect and analyze from more than just the television. Read more about his presentation here.

Beth Uyenco of Microsoft and Jo Rigby of Omnicom Media Group will be on hand to present "Leveraging Mobile's Muscle along Shoppers' Path to Purchase" analyzing how consumers use their mobile phones on their path to purchase. You can see this presentation on Monday, May 21 at 1:15PM. For more about this presentation, see the blog post here.

These are just a few of the many presentations you can look forward to at The Audience Measurement Event taking place next week, May 21-23, 2012, in Chicago, IL. As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us, mention code AM12BLOG and receive 15% off the standard rate. If you have any questions about the event, feel free to email Jennifer Pereira.

Introducing uSamp’s Mobile Market Research and Polling Application

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:12:00 +0000

Mobile marketing is fast becoming the solution of choice for researchers and marketing professionals looking for instant, onsite feedback. With uSamp Mobile Solutions you can conduct research that gauges customer experience — at the time that it is happening — providing you with relevant insights and validated, actionable data. Additionally, uSamp Mobile Solutions provides you with the tools you need to:

Conduct mobile diary studies – Understand how people use your product, brand or service by asking them to share their experience while they do it in real time

Stimulate brand engagement – Understand which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and use the resulting data to help you develop and deploy more effective marketing campaigns

Conduct surveys with the added bonus of geo-validation – Ask questions anytime, anywhere, and ensure that every answer is valid. Request a photo or video along with feedback for higher quality results

Measure ad awareness and exposure – Embed images and videos to test ad concepts. Ask respondents to recall an advertisement upon check-in to a location. Track respondents, inviting them to take a survey if they have passed by a location that exposes them to a specific ad or outdoor board.

Get instant feedback after an event – Learn what worked and what didn't during a sponsored event. Use the QR code on the back of a concert or movie ticket, launch a survey following a trade show or in-store product demo.

Click here for more information.

About uSamp: uSamp, the Answer Network, is a premier provider of technology and survey respondents used to obtain consumer and business insights. uSamp's solutions and SaaS platform transforms the way companies gain intelligence to make better, faster decisions about their products and services by tapping into uSamp's 8 million global panel of survey respondents. Through uSamp's proprietary technologies for self-serve survey authoring, self-survey sampling, and private-label panel management, companies have on-demand access to millions of profiled survey respondents. uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with five offices throughout the United States, Europe and India. uSamp ranked #11 in the 2011 Forbes America's Most Promising Company List. For more information please visit www.usamp.com

Be Enlightened with The Market Research Event 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Last year, The Market Research Event brought together over 175 Speakers, over 140 Best in Class Sessions,speakers from more than 17 countries challenging every participant to be enlightened on the state of market research. Speakers challenged attendees to bring value to the insights they presented with their market research data and to have an innovative mindset.

We at TMRE Challenge You to Be Enlightened:

This year, to continue all researchers that attend to be enlightened, Daniel Kahneman, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus, Princeton University, Nobel Prize in Economics, Best-Selling Author, Thinking, Fast and Slow will be joining us to present "Marvels and Flaws of Intuitive Thinking." In this presentation, he will be focusing on the two modes of thinking: fast and slow. While we are are aware of most of our decisions in the slow mode, the fast mode of thinking guides the majority of our days. He is most well known for his contributions, with his late colleague Amos Tversky, to the psychology of judgment and decision making, which inspired the development of behavioral economics in general.

For more information on The Market Research Event 2012, sign up for email updates. The Market Research Event will take place November 12-14, 2012 in Boca Raton, Florida. If you'd like to register to join us today and mention code TMRE12BLOG to save $500 when you register before June 8!

Who can you meet at The Audience Measurement Event this month?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:33:00 +0000

With less than two weeks until The Audience Measurement Event, time is running out for you to register and reserve your spot at this high-caliber knowledge exchange. Focused on the business value AND actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption - The Audience Measurement Event is 100% practical in every way. It will take place this May 21-23, 2012 in Chicago, IL. If you'd like to join us, register today and mention code AM12BLOG and save 15% off the standard rate!

Who has already signed up to join us? Companies signed on to attend include:
A&E Television Networks * Acxiom * Arbitron * Ball State University * BET Networks * Bluefin Labs * Bowers & Wilkins * Bravo Media * Chadwick Martin Bailey * Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement * ConAgra Foods * Discovery Communications * Facebook * Foresight ROI * GfK MRI * GFK-Knowledge Networks * Golden Gate University * Google * Hearst Magazines * Innerscope Research * InsightExpress * Intel Corporation * Intuit * JetBlue * Kimberly Clark Corporation * Kraft Foods Inc * Management Science Associates * MediaNet * MindShare * Momentum Japan * Moveo * National Football League * NBC Universal * Omnicrom Research Group * Pandora * Publix Super Markets Inc * Razorfish * Rubinson Partners * Sanofi Aventis * Scripps Network * Spark Communication * Sprout * Starcom Mediavest * SymphonyIRI * The Allant Group * The Modellers * The Nielsen Company * TideWatch * Time Warner Cable * TiVo * Traffic Audit Bureau * Turner Broadcasting System * Univision * Wall Street Journal

Visit the webpage to find out more about The Audience Measurement Event.

Audience Measurement Podcast: Market Research at Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:38:00 +0000

The Audience Measurement Event taking place this May 21-23, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on the business value and actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption, the event features a robust agenda filled with real world-case studies and new, never before seen content by visionary thinkers and industry pioneers. In this exclusive Podcast, Joel Rubinson sat down with Fred Leach of Facebook to discuss things such as why Facebook is important to marketers, why companies should consider brand pages and ways to measure the activity on Facebook. If you'd like to register to Joel, Fred, and many others for this program and mention AM12BLOG, you'll receive 15% off the standard rate! Visit the webpage to download the brochure and find out more about this year's event.

Download the Podcast here.

Read the transcript here.

Read an excerpt from the podcast:

Some marketers who may be are naysayers will say that people are not so willing to welcome brands into their world in Facebook. What would your response be to that?

Fred Leach: We have lots of evidence that shows that people really want brands in their lives and they use brands to describe themselves. So, we see people connecting to lots and lots of pages on Facebook every single day. It’s about 100 million people connecting to a page on a given day. I think the other thing here is that a lot of brands are on Facebook. We’ve got just over 2.5 million websites that are integrating with Facebook. So, users are really connecting with lots of different things and they really want a rich social world. Brands are part of that rich social world.

That suggests that, over time, marketers are getting more and more sophisticated at leveraging all the ways in which they can connect their marketing efforts and goals to their Facebook presence. Can you describe briefly how you’d paint the timeline of how marketers have evolved in their use of Facebook?

Fred Leach: Definitely. I think initially marketers really thought just to build up their fan bases on Facebook and so they were focused on building lots of connections. Lots of people liking their brands and they are really evolving more into engaging their fans and influencing them to think about new things about their brand to represent their brands in a new way. A lot of them have really focused on the changing way in which they have to communicate with social media, which is to say that where there used to be a standard one-to-many messaging strategy, now brands are having conversations with people who really like them and they learning from those conversations. So, they are doing things differently based on those conversations and taking marketing in a different direction or creating a new product based on input from fans. So, we are really seeing --- whereas it used to be that it was just about counting likes and getting people connected,marketers are really evolving into having more of that two-way dialogue with their customers.

#TMRTE 2012: Dancing with Ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Kelley Styring) — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:46:00 +0000

connectedthefilm.com

When a friend suggested I create a Twitter account in 2008, I resisted. In fact, I said, “Steve, I like you a lot but I don’t give a flip what you had for breakfast, so nope.” He laughed and patiently said, “Open an account today and I’ll introduce you to 12 incredible people you will never meet.” I did. He did. And he was right. Until I reached 4000 followers.

This morning at The Market Research Technology Event, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain elevated the discussion regarding the digital lifestyle to declare that we’re entering a state of digital connectedness never before seen. Her premise is that this will create a “DaVinci style Brain Synthesis” that raises human existence to higher levels of thoughtfulness, inclusiveness and even quality. Her film Connected: an autoblogography about love, death and technology provoked a question from the audience about how there would ever be another world war in this state of global connectedness. Good question.

This brings me back around to Steve’s breakfast. Shlain has done a masterful job of harnessing the best of the web, bringing together disparate audiences to co-create content and give us an optimistic point of view regarding the state of humanity and what the future promises. The problem is that most of what crosses my radar in social media is Foursquare check-ins, random observations, overt hocking of products by and for brands and yes, what people had for lunch. All of this makes me wonder if the “river of news” when used for market research observations is really just a narcissist’s playground. Maybe it's not so much that we are connecting with each other, as it is each of us simultaneously talking about ourselves to no one. Maybe we are all dancing with ourselves.

Lenny Murphy (Greenbook.com) disagrees with me. He believes the social media market is self monitoring and that those who are narcissistic are “weeded out.” When Lenny speaks, I listen. And I agree with him to a point and this made me think harder. While it’s largely true that a lack of interaction (or being a complete tool) will eject you from a group, that group still does not have the power to shut me up on Twitter or close my account on Facebook. There’s nothing to stop the one sided conversations – think about the guy walking around with the Bluetooth in the airport who looks like he’s talking to himself – that’s my perception of much of the content we’re analyzing.

That said… what’s brilliant about Shlain’s work is that while she crowdsourced the raw input but applied an expert interpretation to the massive amount of input. It’s called film editing. As Market Researchers we are all editors, sifting through imposing amounts of information to find insight and meaning. So, how to find what’s useful from social media? Market Researchers tend to look for the big implication, the most broadly appealing idea, the strongest driver, etc. We think big. Another way to think about editing is to think small. Consider for a moment that 90% of what comes into view via social media is total garbage. How do you find the 10% that inspires, provokes and informs? How do you find the bit that doesn’t fit?

A week after I joined Twitter in 2008 I wanted to use it for research. This was before mobile research tools were well developed and I just wanted to experiment to better experience this new toy for myself. I partnered with C&R Research to develop a tool called Twitter Slicing. We created a Twitter handle for me (which was really an early form of bot – my first virtual me) and recruited 300 people who joined Twitter and agreed only to tweet with me for one week on their mobile device. We sent out the same tweet ten times a day: “Are you chewing gum right now, if not, why not?” (company not named but this experience is shared with client permission). After 5 days we had 15,000 responses to one question. Coding with both traditional methods and text analysis suggested that 90% of the responses were pure crap. “I didn’t feel like it.” “I didn’t have any gum.” “I’m not answering this question again so shut up.” But there were a few responses regarding reluctance to share gum with others, gum stuck to the paper, and noisy wrappers. These were the nuggets we'd typically call insights. But instead of huge findings, they were actually more like grains of sand. It’s the type of stuff that makes you say, “huh?” And that inspires innovation.

As Shlain suggested that editing is interpreting raw material with a point of view. Good editors parse through piles of chaff to find a germ of truth and present it in a compelling, engaging way. This is what truly excellent Market Researchers do. They find the grain of sand and that make business partners say "wow."

-------------------------------------------------
Today's guest post is from Kelley Styring. Styring is principal of InsightFarm Inc. a market research and consumer strategy consulting firm. She has led insights for Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Black & Decker and NASA prior to founding her own firm in 2003. Kelley is a published author and has been featured in USA Today, ABC News, Good Morning America, Brandweek, Fortune, Quirk's Marketing Research and The Market Research Daily Report from RFL Online. She will be live blogging from TMRTE in next week in Las Vegas, April 30-May 2, 2012.

#TMRTE 2012: Game Boy Surgeons

noreply@blogger.com (Kelley Styring) — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:20:00 +0000

You too can be a Game Boy Surgeon at Flashgames247.com

I have a client who manufactures surgical instruments. They’re keeping a keen eye on the next generation of physicians – those who grew up gaming. What they’re finding is that these kids, steeped in the gaming dynamic and skilled in hand-eye coordination required to manipulate small objects on a screen will make excellent surgeons of the future. This will be our first generation of Game Boy Surgeons.

I’m attending The Market Research Technology Event and have to admit that listening to Jane McGonigal from the Institute of the Future talk about gaming was startling. One frightening fact she revealed is that the hours spent on Call of Duty could create 4 Wikipedias (the entire thing) each month. That seems like productivity down the drain. At the same time we’ve heard earlier that response rates to research are declining due to lack of engagement and that mobile research suffers from this to even a greater extent.

So, net, I’m very interested in gaming dynamics and how this can create market research of the future. Game creators thus far have lucked into our field, creating massive amounts of information as an afterthought and then scraping value from it. McGonigal called this “summoning data out of thin air.” She also shared an example of a university project that used gaming to capture photographs that could then be arrayed into a 3D representation of a place. Think Google Earth captured by you, me and the guy next to you and compiled. This intentional game creation unleashed an “army of data collectors” where participation becomes results. This is in line with where I think market research needs to go.

One of the strongest emotions evoked by gaming is a sense of creativity. Participants are absorbed into a vast, imaginary context and asked to make decisions that determine the outcomes. The result is “Eustress” or positive stress when opting into a challenge.

What if instead of asking consumers if they would buy a product, we asked them to create the next generation product? This is actual co-creation, something we’ve kicked around for years without much success outside applications in qualitative or MROCs. What if creativity were rewarded much like Prediction Markets? That way instead of betting on given ideas, new items were created by the respondents. Maybe this is a melding of prediction markets, evolutionary algorithms and gaming in a way that energizes participants. If we achieve this maybe we won’t be talking about lack of respondent cooperation and poor engagement but how crazy it is that consumers are paying us to play our game. In gaming, they would call this an “epic win.”

-------------------------------------------------
Today's guest post is from Kelley Styring. Styring is principal of InsightFarm Inc. a market research and consumer strategy consulting firm. She has led insights for Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Black & Decker and NASA prior to founding her own firm in 2003. Kelley is a published author and has been featured in USA Today, ABC News, Good Morning America, Brandweek, Fortune, Quirk's Marketing Research and The Market Research Daily Report from RFL Online. She will be live blogging from TMRTE in next week in Las Vegas, April 30-May 2, 2012.

#TMRTE 2012: Humans 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Kelley Styring) — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:18:00 +0000

On Twitter, I am a dog. I bark, run, chase my tail, whatever it takes to act out the persona of @Mollythewinedog, spokedog for Styring Vineyards, my husband’s winery.

As a human and market researcher, I’m attending The Market Research Technology Event and spent today thinking deeply about virtuality and personas. BrainJuicer demonstrated an entity (for lack of a better term) that takes the idea of personas to an entirely different level, creating human entities compiled from real world data associations. Called Digividuals, these are more than avatars with people behind them, like my dog. Digividuals are composites of data, scraped from the web and triggered by a minimal amount of seed information. This is fascinating to me because it’s more credible as a life form than most personas on Twitter run by actual humans. And, because it’s based in reality, it is more “grounded to the earth,” says John Kearnon, Founder of BrainJuicer.

I like this because each Digividual represents thousands or millions of people just like them and continues to grow and evolve via associations that are dynamic. People are constantly changing – so are Digividuals. Ultimately, if these entities are compiled from their environment, I should be able to introduce something new – a new product, a new advertisement, a new retail concept to this environment, and see if this component associates with the Digividual. How many Digividuals in the cyber space in which they live “adopt” the new product? Virtual Living potentially provides us with a new way to assess product concepts that is more behaviorally based but simulated so faster and less expensive than testing in RL (Real Life). In fact, I’d like to unleash some Digividuals in a Virtual Store and see what happens!

Speaking of RL, there was a fascinating panel discussion on Non Traditional Market Research which quickly congealed around the notion of real time data collection and targeting real time messages in the moment. Allusions to Minority Report were made, as this is the easiest frame of reference for the concept. And there was a call for companies to mirror Pepsico in appointing a Technology Marketing Officer to truly exploit this idea of messages in the moment. On the one hand, this is a great idea. We can deploy timely information when it is actually relevant, like where the nearest Pepsi machine is when the temperature reaches 94 degrees as it is right now in Vegas. But how do brands create resonance?

This is the difference between Technology Marketing Officer and a Brand Champion or CMO. Products are becoming less differentiated in many categories and rely on Brand resonance to urge consumers choose their product over others. If messages are reduced to timely information, creating resonance will be a challenge. So, for now, this is a great way to exploit the equity of a strong brand but it probably isn’t yet fertile ground for building resonance or marketing new ideas that require more than the attention span of a dog to form an enduring connection.
-------------------------------------------------

Today's guest post is from Kelley Styring. Styring is principal of InsightFarm Inc. a market research and consumer strategy consulting firm. She has led insights for Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Black & Decker and NASA prior to founding her own firm in 2003. Kelley is a published author and has been featured in USA Today, ABC News, Good Morning America, Brandweek, Fortune, Quirk's Marketing Research and The Market Research Daily Report from RFL Online. She will be live blogging from TMRTE in next week in Las Vegas, April 30-May 2, 2012.

#TMRTE Live: Top Tweets from Day 1!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Today was the first main day of The Market Research Technology Event 2012 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas! Here are a few of the top tweets and insights from the day:

Jeff McKenna gearing up to discuss using technology to focus your entire company on the customer experience #TMRTE lockerz.com/s/205700631
— ChadwickMartinBailey (@CMBInfo) May 1, 2012

RT @mike_rodenburgh: 50% of gamers who play 10+ hours per week seek out their game ideas in real life - game transfer phenomena #tmrte #mrx
— The Researchist (@The_Researchist) May 2, 2012

The notion of privacy is lost on today's young people, but the notion of respect of their privacy remains strong #tmrte #mrx
— Mike Rodenburgh (@Mike_Rodenburgh) May 1, 2012

"While social data is important surveys, will always be important. We have to ask questions to get specific data." - @tomhcanderson #TMRTE
— Jeffrey Henning (@JHenning) May 1, 2012

Thanks for following us today on The Market Research Event Blog! We encourage you to join in on the conversation on the last day of The Market Research Technology Event at #TMRTE!

#TMRTE 2012: Who’s Your Superman?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelley Styring) — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:40:00 +0000

Not the shirt worn by Dr. Pradeep

Today, The Market Research Technology Event kicked off with a keynote from Dr. A.K. Pradeep from Neurofocus Inc.. First, let me say that he caught my eye at the coffee station before the presentation not because of his super intelligence but because of his rock ‘n roll shirt. Seriously, this shirt could be worn by John Taylor from Duran Duran and I mean that in a good way. It was a righteous shirt.

You take a risk when you wear a shirt like that. You better pay it off – and he did. He engaged the audience on the topic of engagement – clever man. He shared many useful observations about engagement, social media and retail. He also mentioned Apple and Steve Jobs at least four times. This was interesting to me because one of his tips included associating yourself and your brand with Apple, which I would say he did very, very well.

This made me think a little harder about Apple and its impact on digital design and product design overall. Certainly the strides Apple has made in visual intuitiveness are undeniable. And, the contributions made to the elegance of functional products are well appreciated, even by me. But do we all want to look like Apple? Dr. Pradeep essentially said if you don’t have “candy colored buttons” and swipe finger activation you’re out of the game. I take issue with that. In fact I like to call it the Tyranny of Apple and it’s the death of creativity.

I think the useful role for Apple (if you are not Apple) is as a nemesis. A nemesis is not an enemy but a worthy opponent who makes us all strive harder. Think about Batman. His nemesis is not the Joker. It’s Superman. Superman can fly, leap tall, run fast. Batman must apply innovation to develop tools to keep up with Superman and often fights evil in his own way. He doesn’t say, “I need to be like Superman.” It’s not possible, really, so he creates his own path.

Dr. Pradeep also said that “what they (Apple) do seeps into everything.” That’s right and that’s a good thing. We should be inspired by Apple and use it to set new standards for achieving intuitive survey designs. We should not be limited by Apple and assume that there is only one way to achieve intuitiveness. This point is not to be like Apple but to be visually intuitive in user interfaces and elegant in our product design solutions -- to succeed in our own way. Like Batman striving to surpass Superman, the more we think of Apple as a bar set high, the more our creative solutions will help our businesses thrive.

#TMRTE 2012: The Parasite Paradigm

noreply@blogger.com (Kelley Styring) — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:36:00 +0000

Colony of Digital Organisms
from Michigan State University

Years ago I saw a demonstration by a professor who had developed a digital organism. I’m not talking about those little robots you carry in your pocket and feed when they whine, but a totally digital life form. He created a visualization of it for us but the digital life form was embedded in a hard drive so it didn’t really have a visual essence of its own. To be “alive” it conformed to the rules defining life – it ate, slept, reproduced and ultimately died leaving offspring to carry on. In fact, as the demonstration was “live” we were able to see population growth in real time.

This came to mind as I watched today’s Mobile Research presentations at The Market Research Technology Event in Las Vegas. Several presenters highlighted the fragmented nature of the mobile platform, the distracted nature of the mobile survey taker, and the general lack of engagement of people taking a survey while mobile. I imagine myself trying to answer survey questions while walking in a crowded airport. There is no way this would go well for me.

One speaker mentioned that a key challenge of mobile research is the number of mobile platforms and the challenge to the developers of survey tools and apps. And he said we were waiting for it to “settle down.” This was preceded by a presentation on engagement – how consumers are not engaged in survey taking or most of what brands publish in social media. In fact, it was noted that engagement levels erode over time. For example, consumers were originally much more engaged in online surveys than they are now. Attention spans tend to wane as familiarity with an experience wears on.

At this point my own attention span waned and I began to think about films. It seems that we have a popular group of male actors, Ben Stiller for example, who appear in film after film. But in each film they have a different girlfriend, a female actor we’ve never seen before. And we never see her again in any other film. Why is that? Well, I’d suggest that the attention span for the female characters is short and as a film going public, we’re on to the next fresh face.

It’s the same with digital devices. We replace them well before they wear out. We upgrade for the next performance enhancement, screen size or cool interface. It’s the next fresh face. This probably explains the lack of enduring engagement in technology based research tools. It’s cool and engaging for a while but then our interest wanes and engagement declines. This pattern is predictable, so waiting for mobile platforms to “settle down” so we can design widgets, programs or apps that will work on a finite set of devices seems unlikely to be effective. And we must continuously raise the bar on engaging survey content as this is a moving target too.

What if we created research tools that acted more like organisms – more specifically a parasites? It would detect the type of host (digital device and consumer preferences) and adapt to attach accordingly. It would read the individual and adapt to be the perfect interface for that person, altering visual dynamics, language, time of day approached, length of the survey, etc. It could know how many surveys you’ve taken and what type so that it varies your content to engage. I truly believe that adaptive design is the only way to keep up with unpredictable change. That’s because things will never settle down, so riding with the waves of change is the only way to go.

#TMRTE Live: Top Tweets from Intensive Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

We kicked of The Market Research Technology Event 2012 today in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada at The Cosmopolitan! Here are a few of the top tweets of the day!

HP and Qualvu at #tmrte note the product is raw. For mgmt, authentic youtube style "report candy" #MRX
— Marc Dresner (@mdrezz) April 30, 2012

The real promise of #mobile is that it's completely candid - John Williamson from Qualvu presenting at #TMRTE 2012
— Kathleen Poulos (@katseyemedia) April 30, 2012

#tmrte how much is too much when It comes to choice?
— Ali Saland (@Ali_Saland) April 30, 2012

The @ramiuscorp exhibit at #TMRTE w. our new #iheartqual sign by @canvaspop twitter.com/sylc/status/19…
— Simon Chen (@sylc) April 30, 2012

Thanks for following us today on The Market Research Event Blog! We encourage you to join in on the conversation tomorrow at #TMRTE!

Sweaters for Chameleons: How I'll get the most from The Market Research Technology Event.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Today's guest post is from Kelley Styring. Styring is principal of InsightFarm Inc. a market research and consumer strategy consulting firm. She has led insights for Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Black & Decker and NASA prior to founding her own firm in 2003. Kelley is a published author and has been featured in USA Today, ABC News, Good Morning America, Brandweek, Fortune, Quirk's Marketing Research and The Market Research Daily Report from RFL Online. She will be live blogging from TMRTE in next week in Las Vegas, April 30-May 2, 2012.

For more information on TMRTE, visit the webpage. If you'd like to join us, as a reader of this blog when you register and mention code MRTECH12BLOG, you'll save 15% off the standard rate!

Sweaters for Chameleons: How I'll get the most from The Market Research Technology Event.

That ancient art of weaving is based on a simple principle of physics. The warp and weft of the weave create a tensile strength in whole cloth that exceeds that of fragile threads. I've been thinking about this as I ponder how to better integrate innovative technologies into my market research consulting practice.

I'm as intrigued as anyone else about new things - exciting shiny widgets offered by technology to build deeper, broader understanding. Scraping, Mobile, Cloud, Big Data, etc. In fact technology is moving so fast and impacting our industry so much that I often feel I'm knitting a sweater from floating bits of dryer lint and not thoughtful threads, snatching one then another out of the air and pushing them into the system. While it may be an interesting looking sweater it's certainly not strong enough to be useful. And that's the problem.

There's a real temptation to attend an exciting conference like The Market Research Technology Event and collect a satchel full of shiny new widgets - single function solutions that are cool and eye-catching but stand alone without integration to existing ways of doing business. I find this to be the key barrier to bringing innovation solutions to my clients - that adoption often means a step change rather than a slide into solutions that expand existing capabilities.

So I've decided to attend this conference as a chameleon. No - not blending into the background. I can do that my wearing black to an agency meeting in New York. I'm thinking more about how a chameleon sees. Its two eyes operate independently, each looking a different direction. So, while I know my eye will be drawn to clever, new, standalone technology solutions that will also pique my client interest - I will be consciously looking for ways to augment or enhance the existing approaches that my clients are comfortable with - so that I have a better chance of near-term client acceptance and increase my engagement rates. I've built a worksheet to help me with this. It's a simple grid with space for new technologies I'll see at the conference along one axis and existing market research applications along the other. For every new technology I add, I will then force myself to think of ways to also integrate it into existing techniques or approaches to market research. That way, I can see beyond the shiny new technique and have a better shot with my clients.

SEE LIKE A CHAMELEON YOURSELF: I'll be blogging "live" from the event, so look for me in the back of the room. Come by, say hello, and I'll give you a copy (Or you can download it here) of the worksheet so you can try it yourself. Looking forward to the conference!

The Market Research Technology Event Presents: Entrepreneur Tech-Off

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:39:00 +0000

The Market Research Technology Event is bringing you the brightest and most innovative minds in market research for a head-to-head competition. Join us as we moderate a Tech-Off of the bleeding edge entrepreneurs and find out what technologies and tools are being created to better understand consumer behavior. The competition will take place next Wednesday, May 2, in Las Vegas. For more information on The Market Research Technology Event, visit the webpage to download the brochure. If you'd like to join us at TMRTE, register today and mention code MRTECH12BLOG and save 15% off the standard rate!

Announcing the Competition:

Pinerly
When a group of passionate, hard-working, and ambitious people come together, beautiful things happen. We founded Pinerly because using Pinterest gave us a huge boost in traffic (at some point over 30%) and we wanted to empower brands and users by helping them do the same. The team takes criticism positively (so reach out), loves to learn (so challenge us!), and acknowledges that our goal is to create products that we are proud of and love. We are always within reach and available to help.

Roozt

Roozt let's you discover the dopest, trendsetting, cause-oriented brands all under one roof. That means no more scouring blogs, facebook walls, or google searches to find that fav new brand that's helping save the world with their business. Our experienced team of caffeinated, motivated, and inspirated curators (ok, so maybe inspirated isn't a real word but it rhymed so just go with it) do the hard work for you! We've found the coolest companies that you need to know about and put them all into one simple, fun, and rewarding (literally and figuratively) shopping experience. Just by the click of a button you can discover a new favorite brand, learn about their impact, shop from their products, and earn rewards by sharing with your friends.

InsightPool
Consumers are constantly inundated by different brands trying to claim their attention. In the digital world, you can't wait for customers to find you - you have to find them. Insightpool allows you to initiate your customer acquisition lifecycle by pinpointing those that could be most receptive and engaging with them in the most personalized manner. Let us help you raise awareness and build your customer base by converting your competitor's customers.

Who will win the great tech war of 2012 and become the next Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare? Join this panel to weigh in your vote!

Inside Facebook’s Research Playbook

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Dresner) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Social Media Juggernaut’s Research Function Is Fresh and Fluid
By Marc Dresner, IIR

It’s the definitive social medium. With approx. 850 million total users (about 480 million daily), for many of us Facebook is a fundamental part of everyday life. And it’s up to Sheila Normile, a research and insights principal, to understand how and why we use it, and how to improve that experience. As you might expect from a company like Facebook, Normile’s research organization is a bit less conventional than what you’ll typical find at a large corporation. “Facebook is a really entrepreneurial and risk tolerant sort of place and it certainly extends to the research organization,” Normile told The Research Insighter. “It’s funny because you often don’t think of research and risk in the same mindset or in the same breath, but we really embrace that idea of taking risks on our team.” In fact, not only isn’t there a research playbook at Facebook, but the organization is so fluid that projects can happen on the fly, based on a conversation in a hallway or an issue Normile or one of her colleagues just stumbles upon. In this interview with The Research Insighter™, we’ll go inside Facebook’s research organization and have a look at what makes it tick.

Listen to the interview!

Download a transcript!

Editor’s note: If you would like to hear more about consumer insights at Facebook, Sheila Normile will be speaking at The Market Research Technology Event April 30-May 2 in Las Vegas. For information or to register, the webpage.

As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us, mention code MRTECH12BLOG and save 10% off the standard rate! ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER Marc Dresner is an IIR USA communication lead specializing in audience engagement. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the market research industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.

20|20 Research President Steps Down to Launch Marketing Consulting Firm

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:30:00 +0000

FRANKLIN, TN, April 23, 2012 – Steve Henke, President of Nashville-based 20|20 Research, and long time attendee of The Market Research Event, announced today that he has resigned from the firm to launch Harpeth Marketing, a consulting firm serving exclusively the market research industry. Harpeth Marketing will work with its clients to create and then execute marketing & sales plans that help grow revenue.

According to Henke, “We had great success at 20|20, tripling the revenues of the firm during my six years there. Harpeth Marketing gives me the opportunity to combine my industry experiences from 20|20 with a 25-year marketing and sales career. The target market for our services is firms with at least one marketing or business development person on board… someone we can work with during the execution phase of the plan.”

“In addition, we wanted to create a different kind of consulting firm… and we did. For one, we focus on the ‘process’ of marketing and sales. Twenty years ago, marketing was all about mass media advertising and direct mail… then along with the internet came banner ads and email marketing… and now it’s social media and mobile marketing. Who knows what’s next? But with a thorough understanding of how the marketing process works, you can be successful no matter what comes along.”

Henke continued, “We’re also ‘educators.’ We work side-by-side with our clients to show them how we do what we do, so that they can learn to do it all themselves. There are no secrets. We help them to create a sustainable marketing & sales program so that they can continue to be successful long after our engagement with them is over.”

ABOUT HARPERH MARKETING – Harpeth Marketing works with firms in the market research industry and their marketing personnel to help them create and utilize clear, functional marketing & sales plans for improved outcomes and increased revenues. They do this though a process-based program of consulting, coaching and accountability. For more information about Harpeth Marketing, visit www.HarpethMarketing.com or contact Steve Henke, President at (615) 415-3980 or Steve@HarpethMarketing.com.

Who can you meet at The Market Research Technology Event in two weeks?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:52:00 +0000

In just two weeks, future-focused market researchers will unite to take part in the industry's event on technology and innovation in research - The Market Research Technology Event. TMRTE will take place April 30-May 2, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV.

Why do you need to be there?

The Market Research Technology Event...

• Covers what matters most to market researchers - where the industry is headed in the future. Stan Sthanunathan, VP, Marketing Strategy & Insights at Coca-Cola (and keynote at TMRTE) was quoted, "the market research industry will not exist in its current form by 2020. Even by 2013 significant, clear signs of evolution will appear... Don't get left behind - stay on the cutting edge at TMRTE. (Read the exclusive TMRTE Podcast with Sthanunathan!)

• Focuses all the hottest topics that market researchers like yourself are facing - from marketplace intelligence to social media, mobile, CRM, research innovation, text analytics, data mining and more. View the agenda for full details.

• Has gone digital! From online documentation and mobile evaluations, to our brand new Skype Entrepreneur Panel and our TMRTE Connect networking community, we're doing everything we can to embrace technology.

• Is bringing the industry change makers to the stage. From Stan Sthanunathan to Dr. A.K. Pradeep (last year's highest rated speaker!), Dan Ariely, Christopher Frank, Paul Navratil, Michael Tchong, Jane McGonigal and more. Click here for the full speaker list.

For more on TMRTE 2012, download the complete agenda. Also, as a reader of this blog, don't foget you will receive a discount of 15% off the standard rate when you register to join us today and mention code MRTECH12BLOG.

Plus, don't miss your chance to network and learn from the following companies already signed on to attend:

3M * Abbott Laboratories * Accenture Management Consulting * ACS, a Xerox Company * Active Network * Affinova * Airline Reporting Corporation * American Cancer Society * American Express * Anderson Analytics * Animation Dynamics Inc. * Automobile Club of Southern California * Bain & Company * Bath & Body Works * Bayer Healthcare * Bellomy Research * BP America Inc. * Brainjuicer * Brand360 * Brown Brothers Harriman & Co * Burke * C+R Research * Caesars Entertainment * Campbell Soup Company * Canon USA * Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland * Chrysler Group LLC * CMI * Coca Cola Company * Colgate Palmolive * Confirmit * Connected * Consumer Truth Ltd * Convergys Corporation * CreaMetrix * Decision Analyst Inc. * Del Monte * Doyle Research * Dub * Duke University * dunnhumbyUSA* eRewards Market Research * EEDAR * Eki Communications * Facebook * Foiled Inc. * Forrester Research * Foundational Insights LLC * Gadd Research Inc. * General Mills Inc. * Georillas Location Based Marketing * GfK * GlaxoSmithKline * Gongos Research * Google * Greenbook * Hewlett Packard * Highmark BCBS * Hilton Hotels Corporation * Honda R&D Americas * IBM * iModerate * InCrowd LLC * Information Tools Ltd * Inforsurv * InfoTools * Insight Marketing Systems * Insights in Marketing * Institute for the Future * Intel Corporation * Intendis Inc. * Intuit * Itracks International Inc. * Johnson & Johnson * Kimberly Clark Corporation * KL Communications Inc. * Klout * KS&R * Lieberman Research Worldwide * Maritz Inc. * Market Strategies International * Marketing Analysts * Marriott International Inc. * QuestBack * Radius Global Market Research * Ramius Corporation * RapLeaf * Research Now * Resource Systems Group * Retargeter * Mattell Inc. * MeadWestVaco * MERCASID * MetLife * MichaelTchong.com * Microsoft * Monster * Morpace Inc. * Motista * MSW Research Inc. * National Fire Protection Association * National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn * NBC Universal * Neurofocus Inc. * Nokia * Norstat * NTS Ellit * Openet * Paradigm Sample * Perception Research Services * Planet S.A. * Principal Financial Group * Procter & Gamble * Productive Access * Prophet Brand Strategy * Qualvu * San Diego Gas & Electric * Simstore International * Socratic Technologies * Spych Market Analytics * SSI * Strategence * Strottman International * SurveyWriter Inc. * Texas Advanced Computing Center * The Nielsen Company * Tobii Technology Inc. * Toluna * Toyota Financial Services * Travelers Insurance * Triniti Marketing Ltd * Unicharm * Universal Music Group * uSamp * Vision Critical * Wizards of the Coast * Ypulse * ZS Associates * Zynga

Audience Measurement Guest Post: Improve digital marketing with new ROI metrics, Google tells CPG marketers

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This blog is co-posted with the Joel Rubenson on Market Research Blog. Rubenson is a partner for The Audience Measurement Event taking place this May 21-23, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on the business value and actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption, the event features a robust agenda filled with real world-case studies and new, never before seen content by visionary thinkers and industry pioneers. When you register to join Joel for this program and mention AM12BLOG, you'll receive 15% off the standard rate! Visit the webpage to download the brochure and find out more about this year's event.

Improve digital marketing with new ROI metrics, Google tells CPG marketers

This is the third of a three part interview with Catherine Roe, head of CPG for Google, leading up to the IIR Audience Measurement Event in Chicago May 21-23 where Catherine and I will both be speaking. Through special arrangement, I can offer my readers a 20% discount to this event. Just use the code AM12JR

Joel: Catherine, in our last two interviews, you dropped two bombshells saying that searches on Google.com related to recipes are up 38% in 2011 over 2010 to 7.8 billion. Then you gave CPG marketers a failing grade of 3 on a scale of 0-10

Catherine: Yes, a lot of it is cultural. They still fall back on what they know. They don’t want to crash the plane or sink the ship.

Joel: someone in media once said, “If we can’t measure it we can’t sell it”. In the first interview you talked about the importance of digital to the CPG path to purchase. How should this be measured?

Catherine: It’s funny you say that, quite honestly Joel, because that has been the biggest challenge. Marketers for years have been able to associate or correlate the value of traditional media such as their GRP or their TRP or their TV spot and model out the sales lift, even though there’s not a direct linear equation that she saw the Downey TV commercial on TV on Monday night and when she shopped on Wednesday she bought Downey because of the TV commercial. But, the fortunate thing is that marketers have figured out that correlation. Then you start throwing digital and all these additional touch points that I talked about into the mix and it’s not as easy because they don’t necessarily measure and correlate exactly the same as a TV TRP.

Joel: so what do you do about that?

Catherine: The way we like to coach our advertisers through it is to think about what all these moments that matter are on the way to the path to purchase and think about them as KVTs or “key value tasks”. To be able to associate a value to every one of those tasks that hits her in the path to purchase. So, as one example, I work with an advertiser that leverages a lot of online recipes as far as a way to engage consumers because they know that if their ingredients are used in a recipe, then that consumer is much more apt to go to the store and purchase that specific ingredient for their recipe. And through this key value task type of thought process, they’ve equated and they’ve modeled out for their group that one out of every ten recipe views correlates to an actual purchase in the store. So, by doing that they are able to back into the math that says: “Okay, if I get ten visits to my site and they view a recipe, then the value of that is X because the value of a purchase of one of these ingredients in a store is X”.

That’s what advertisers need to do today to say: “What is the value if somebody visits my website?”

“What is the value if somebody downloads a coupon off of my website?” “What is the value if someone downloads a recipe?” “What is the value equation if somebody clicks on a click-to-call type of advertisement on mobile?” So, being able to identify along the path to purchase is not as simple as the TV commercial and the offline media and then jump to the store shelf. There are media points all along the way and it’s translating the value of each one of those points.

Joel: if we can think into the future, let’s say three years, what is the one demonstrable proof point that says: “They were listening. They got it.”

Catherine: I think the biggest challenge to not getting it today is that CPG companies for the most part use some type of media mix modeling and they try to use a square peg/round hole effect of just applying the same media mix modeling that they’ve used on TV, print, radio and their historical, traditional advertising. (In digital) But, what would be different in three years is that the CPG companies, coupled with the measurement companies (whether that’s the Nielsen’s of the world, the comScores) have to figure out which is the right way to measure these media and what is the ROI that I’m getting out of my digital dollar in comparison to my TV. If and when they do figure it out, they will actually put enough media (spend) in there to warrant a test.

Read Part 1 here.

Read Part 2 here.

Text Analytics for (Really Smart) Dummies, Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Dresner) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:28:00 +0000

Kodak Gallery Gets the Big Picture Via Text Analytics

By Marc Dresner, IIR USA

To paraphrase a colleague who monitors our site traffic: “I think text analytics is a hot topic.”

This turned out to be a mild understatement: The chart that accompanied her message showed a shocking spike in traffic on the day we posted Part 1 of our "Text Analytics for (Really Smart) Dummies" series.

As I suspected when I originally started exploring the subject, it appears many market researchers feel like they have just enough information about text analytics to be dangerous, and there’s a clearly a widespread desire to learn more.

To recap our series thus far:

• Part 1) Featured a specialist provider with a new DIY product and who has an unusually savvy take on text analytics in market research;

• Part 2) Interviewed a corporate tech giant’s researcher who’s using the company’s proprietary text analytics product to study its legion of employees.

For Part 3 of our series, we’ve homed in on an internal research dept from a forward thinking vertical of a classic company with an outward, traditional consumer perspective.

This case is particularly special because as director of research at KODAK Gallery, Lori Tarabek is making a big difference under less than ideal circumstances.

It’s no secret that Eastman-Kodak (OTCQB:EKDKQ) has filed for bankruptcy, and it appears they may sell Kodak Gallery—the 131-yr-old film pioneer’s online imaging biz—for roughly $23.8 million to competitor Shutterfly.

To thrive as a researcher in this uncertain environment requires ingenuity and a reasonable tolerance for risk in order to move the business forward.

And Tarabek has leveraged these traits to great advantage, evinced in particular by a smart gamble on text analytics that’s paid off.

So this third installment in our text analytics Q/A series is, in my opinion, not only the most inspiring of the bunch, but also may be of the most practical value to our audience.

Thanks for reading and I encourage you to share your own stories and questions about text analytics with our community! Keep the conversation going!

Yours faithfully,
Marc

Q. What attracted you to text analytics?

I needed to find a way to analyze 1.5-2K weekly open-end responses from two NPS/satisfaction tracking studies, without sufficient time or resources for traditional coding. The goal was to find a way to categorize these verbatim responses into logical topic areas that could serve as a diagnostic indicator for key metric trend changes and guide further investigation.

Q. Have you found that certain types of data better lend themselves to text analytics?

I’ve used Anderson Analytics’ OdinText text analytics software in two ways: for the tracking surveys I mentioned above, which I think it's ideal for; and for an ad-hoc project where I wanted to include all of the responses collected (4K+) and get a sense for the relative frequency of the potential barriers to action.

Currently we're at the criteria development phase and it looks promising, but I’d anticipate making a case by case judgment on the value of text analytics for standalone projects.

The essential question is this: Will the investment in time required to set up the categorization criteria be paid off in terms of better analytical quality and efficencies (from high response volume or when expedited turnaround time is required)?

In the case of tracking satisfaction or recommendation/NPS, I believe all of these criteria are met. The consistency of criteria being applied removes the human interpretation bias, and large data sets can be analyzed very quickly (after the criteria/model is in place).

Q. Can the same tools be used for social media data as for, say, survey data?

Social media data may benefit from text analytics tools if there is some consistency in the type of subjects likely to be discussed or the primary goal is to track trends in sentiment. The need for better social media exchange analysis will drive enhancements in the linguistic analysis capabilities and variety of tools available.

Q. What thoughts or advice do you have for other researchers who may be considering text analytics solutions?

Text analytics tools require an investment in upfront time to deliver real value, so advance planning and some runway room to improve the quality of the criteria model need to be factored in. Learning and testing the logic construct is important so that you understand how to set up the criteria to maximize the accuracy of what is returned.

The best test for me is still to compare how a subset of responses is coded, verbatim by verbatim. The ongoing maintenance work required to sustain the value will depend on the pace of change in the key metric or subject matters that influence it, but failure to spend that time will quickly denigrate the quality returned.

Relative assessments represent the strongest use case – levels changing over time, correlated with other metrics, etc. As with any type of large data set analysis, the goal should be to spend the majority of your time thinking about the conclusions and recommendations from the data, and if you are not there, you need to re-evaluate your process, tools or both.

Thanks for the great insight and sound advice Lori!

Editor's note: To learn more about text analytics, don't miss The Market Research Technology Event – a unique forum dedicated to the exploration and promotion of technological innovations in consumer and market research and business intelligence—taking place April 30 thru May 2 in Las Vegas. As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us, mention code MRTECH12BLOG and save 10% off the standard rate!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER
Marc Dresner is an IIR USA communication lead specializing in audience engagement. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the market research industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.

Coca-Cola Research Head Issues Innovation Scorecard and Blueprint

noreply@blogger.com (Marc Dresner) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:32:00 +0000

“We’re Approaching Critical Mass!”
By Marc Dresner, IIR USA

In research circles, Coca-Cola VP of Marketing Strategy and Insights Stan Sthanunathan is a perennial favorite, known for his keen insight and candor (and frankly, for being unafraid to state the controversial truth as he sees it).

For example, in a Research Insighter™ interview last September, Sthanunathan made waves when he predicted that survey research would become increasingly irrelevant, supplanted by a new generation of more passive listening tools capable of delivering deeper, more meaningful insights.

More than six months later, Sthanunathan stands firmly behind his remarks.

“Dependence on survey research is going to come down and it’s going to come down quite significantly,” he told the Research Insighter™ in a new interview.

“[We] need new approaches that will help you observe, listen, synthesize and deduce,” said Sthanunathan, who added he’s encouraged by the “exponentially increasing” progress the industry has made on the innovation front.

But the big surprise is that Sthanunathan no longer expects innovation to be driven primarily by start-ups and entrepreneurs from without the research industry; he believes traditional providers will lead the way in collaboration with clients.

“We are beginning to get critical mass in the area of innovation,” he said.

In this exclusive interview with the Research Insighter™ podcast series, Sthanunathan explains:

- Why the next step in the mainstreaming of research innovation will require shaking up entrenched, risk-averse client mindsets

- How benchmarking is handicapping progress

- Coca-Cola Co’s companywide 70/20/10 approach to investing in innovation

- How he’s counting on research suppliers to bring revolutionary research techniques to the table, and much more!

Download an interview transcript!

Editor’s note: If you would like to hear more from Stan Sthanunathan, he will be delivering a keynote titled “Technology...Embrace It or Get Left Behind!” at The Market Research Technology Event April 30-May 2 in Las Vegas.

For information or to register, visit iirusa.com/technology

As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us, mention code MRTECH12BLOG and save 10% off the standard rate!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER
Marc Dresner is IIR USA's sr. editor and special communication projects lead. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the market research industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.

Exclusive Early Bird Savings for The Market Research Event

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:58:00 +0000

Join the very best in the industry at The Market Research Event in 2012 for an entirely new experience focused on developing the career market researcher - from transactional partner to transformational leader.

The Market Research Event 2012

The New Value Proposition:

Transforming Insight Partners into Strategic Consultative Leaders

November 12-14, 2012 * Boca Raton, FL

The comprehensive program includes more than 140 sessions and 175 speakers, allowing you to customize your entire experience. In addition to groundbreaking case studies demonstrating the strategic influence of insights, sessions will expand your skill-set to include competencies like storytelling, foresight planning and thinking more strategically.

World class keynotes already confirmed include:

• Guy Kawasaki, Technology Evangelist & Best Selling Author of Enchantment
• Daniel Kahneman, the World's Most Influential Living Psychologist & Author or Thinking Fast & Slow
• Bob Johansen, Ten Year Forecaster & Author of Leaders Make the Future
• Jonah Sachs, Author of Winning the Story Wars
• Robert Kozinets, World Renowned Expert on Net-Nography & Professor at York University
• Phillip Chambers, SVP, Global Insights, PepsiCo
• Robert Atencio, Global VP, Consumer Insights, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare

The Market Research Event isn't just a conference - it's a life changing experience that promises results. Stay tuned as we reveal the 2012 full agenda.

Join us as we connect the Best in Insights from Around the World. Register by April 20 to save $600 off the standard rate. Mention code TMRE12BLOG.

Want to receive a complimentary pass to The Audience Measurement Event 2012? Join us as a guest blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Earn a complimentary All-Access pass to The Audience Measurement Event by serving as a guest-blogger. As a guest blogger, you’ll have access to the entire event, including all educational sessions and networking activities. This event is focused on the business value and actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption, the event features a robust agenda filled with real world-case studies and new, never before seen content by visionary thinkers and industry pioneers.

2012 Keynotes

• David Eagleman, Renowned Neuroscientist & International Bestselling Author, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
• Michael Holmes, Director, Insight & Research, BALL STATE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR MEDIA DESIGN
• Deb Roy, Director, Cognitive Machines Group, MIT MEDIA LABS & Co-Founder & CEO, BLUEFIN LABS
• Kit Yarrow, Consumer Psychologist, GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY & Author of GenBuy
• Jack Wakslag, Chief Research Officer, TURNER BROADCASTING
• Catherine Roe, Head of CPG, GOOGLE

Content Focus Areas:

• Consumer Centric Approaches
• Measurement & Advantage Analytics
• Brand Engagement
• Path to Purchase
• Consumption & Multi-Tasking Patterns
• Content vs. Monetization
• Media Integration
• Consumer Trends
• The Future Media Landscape
• Consumer Lifetime Value

Plus new insights and real stories from:
Kraft Foods, A+E Networks, Google, ABC Family, Facebook, BET Network, Starcom Mediavest, Microsoft, ConAgra Foods, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Intuit, Hearst Magazine, Omnicom Media Group, TIVO and plus much more.

The Audience Measurement Event is taking place May 21-23 at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. Responsibilities will include blogging on set industry topics leading up to the event and attending specifically assigned sessions and blogging live or same day. In exchange for guest blogging, you will receive an all-access pass to the event – a $3,000+ value. Guest bloggers are responsible for their travel and lodging.

Apply today by sending your name, company, biography and links to your blog to Jennifer Pereira at jpereira@iirusa.com. Deadline for submissions is April 30, 2012 at 12pm EST. Early submissions encouraged. For more on the event visit www.theaudiencemeasurementevent.com.

Audience Measurement Guest Post: Google flunks CPG marketers…See me after class

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This blog is co-posted with the Joel Rubenson on Market Research Blog. Rubenson is a partner for The Audience Measurement Event taking place this May 21-23, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on the business value and actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption, the event features a robust agenda filled with real world-case studies and new, never before seen content by visionary thinkers and industry pioneers. When you register to join Joel for this program and mention AM12JR, you'll receive 20% off the standard rate! Visit the webpage to download the brochure and find out more about this year's event.

Google flunks CPG marketers…See me after class

This is the second of a three part interview with Catherine Roe, head of CPG for Google, leading up to the IIR Audience Measurement Event in Chicago May 21-23 where Catherine and I will both be speaking. Through special arrangement, I can offer my readers a 20% discount to this event. Just use the code AM12JR

Joel: Catherine, in our last interview, you dropped a bombshell saying that searches on Google.com related to recipes are up 38% in 2011 over 2010 to 7.8 billion.

Catherine: Yes, there are more searches around food and recipes than there is travel, beauty, and luxury.

Joel: How sophisticated are CPG marketers when it comes to digital on a scale of 0-10?
Catherine: I give them a 3.
I would have loved to give them more, but I’m a bit jaded. Look at how much the consumer has shifted their time off of traditional media and on to online. I’m correlating my 3 based on what we see as far as shifted media dollars. I just would have thought that progressive marketers would just say: “We have to follow the consumer.” P&G always talks about the “who” and what the “who” is and what the “who” is doing. I just would have thought that if you start with the “who” and you watched how their habits have changed so dramatically over the past five years that you would naturally lean into this medium and continue to test and shift.

But, if you look at where the dollars are still spent, you’ll see that that isn’t happening. And I’m not just talking Google. I’m talking the whole shift to digital in general. It’s shifting. It’s definitely increasing, but if you asked me three years ago where it would be today, I would have thought it would have been dramatically higher, quite honestly.

A lot of it is cultural. They still fall back on what they know. I don’t want to crash the plane or sink the ship. So, the next plan manager, when I rotate off this team, he can make the decision to jump off the ledge and see if this digital stuff really works. So, right now most of them do enough to say: “Hey, I’m testing in digital”. But, there aren’t too many that have really, in masses, followed that consumer, in my opinion.

Joel: So, if you give manufacturers a 3, what do you give grocery retailers?

Catherine: You know what? I would score them a little bit higher. I would probably put them to a 5, maybe even a 6. Again, it depends on the particular retailer. But at least I do see them doing things such as SMS to the phone from Target for coupon offers. Not fully targeted yet, but at least they’re making an effort there. (Retailers are starting to) understand that even if the vast majority of their sales are still coming at brick and mortar that they are doing more online to stimulate that consumer enthusiasm and do some things in that space. I think the retailers have been pushed harder in a call to action because they are competing with the Amazons and Wal-Mart to a certain extent. If they don’t get into that space then their dollars are going to shift more into an online world. So, I would give the retailers a little bit higher grades and I think a lot of it is just that they have to in order to compete.

Part one of the interview here: For CPG how important is digital in the path to purchase?

Next up, part 3. What marketers can do to improve their digital marketing practices?

Audience Measurement Session Spotlight: Closing the Gap between Social Media & Mass Communication

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

TV has become the new catalyst causing people to engage in social media. As viewers watch their favorite shows, they chat online with friends and family. Which shows are drawing the most commenters and the largest share of conversation? Bluefin Labs has developed a measurement system to measure engagement during shows and the connections between shows – “cross-show engagement.”

In a world of paid, owned and earned media, this information enables networks to collect social media response at the scale that advertisers need.

The Audience Measurement Event is pleased to welcome keynote Deb Roy, Co-Founder & CEO of Bluefin Labs when he presents “Closing the Gap between Social Media & Mass Communication” this May. For more information on his presentation and the rest of the program, download the brochure. If you'd like to join us this May 21-23, 2012 in Chicago, register today and mention code AM12BLOG to save 15% off the standard rate!

Featured Session: Closing the Gap between Social Media & Mass Communication
Presented by: Deb Roy, Director, Cognitive Machines Group, MIT MEDIA LABS & Co-Founder & CEO, BLUEFIN LABS
About the Session: People have always talked about what they watch on television - be it sitcoms, ports or commercials. The emergence of social media platforms now makes it possible for people to voice those opinions publicly, frequently, in real-time and on a scale previously unheard of. Bluefin Labs‘ innovative technology links social media comments directly to their televised source, enabling networks, brands and advertisers to gain deep insight into how audiences are responding.

• The benefits of understanding how audiences react to TV
• Eye-popping visualizations of the social response to mass media
• Actionable insights for optimizing programming, ad planning and creative decisions