Is New Market Research going Mainstream?
Last week I attended a WARC Conference in London (www.warc.com) on "Next Generation Research". The focus topics were Social Media Listening, Big Data and Mobile - pretty much the topics of the moments in Market Research from a Client perspective.
It was a great day, well attended - I'd say between 80 and 100 attendees, coming from apparently 16 different countries - and chaired in a lively manner by Mr. John Kearon of Brainjuicer fame.
In total, there were 12 talks from many big name companies - including Mars, Google, TNS, Molson Coors, Bacardi, Starcom MediaVest Group. The pre-lunch panel discussion had representatives from Coca Cola, EMI, The Guardian Newspaper Group and Facebook - beat that.
As with almost any Conference, I left with my head spinning full of information and ideas, all needing time to percolate and settle for a picture to emerge. Now, a few days later, I have had time to reflect more on the Event itself, and what it suggested me about the direction Market Research is taking as an industry, and the speed with which it is moving.
Here's my take:
1. Is New Market Research becoming Mainstream?
It was interesting to listen to the rhetoric of many of the speakers and their tones of voices when extolling the virtues of "new Market Research" - MROCs, netnography, ethnography, social media listening to name a few - in comparison with the world of Surveys. The fiercest language attacking the world of "asking people questions" came from the Clientside - Dr. Dag Piper from Mars in Germany contended that we lie as a matter of normality (!), and that consumers are normally unable to tell us what they want, quoting SMS and the Epresso machines as breakthrough innovations that were difficult to articulate avant la lettre, so to speak.
Others - including Google - struck more a balanced note, stressing the need to build on the decades of learnings and best practice from world of Survey Research, not ditch it. Kate Sirkin of Starcom MediaVest referred to the mode of "and-and" - new MR and traditional MR - rather than the one replacing the other.
Overall it seemed to me that Next Generation Market Research is being swiftly adopted into mainstream MR practice, that the polarities between "new" versus "old" are being replaced by a mixture of both - an interesting scenario, especially for those Agencies positioning themselves as harbingers of the new and radical.
2. Insights no Longer "Belong" to Market Research.
The last talk of the day - arguably the most difficult slot - was invigorating. Under the heading "Actions Speak Louder than Words", Martin Blinder, CEO and Founder of start-up TicTrac, showcased his company's offering - a web-based service allowing people to track and measure their various daily activities on a biometric level, and so better understand their lives, mainly from a health perspective.This could be stress levels, or temperature, blood pressure, tracked against an ability to self-record what one was doing. The website is in beta-mode.
The implications were clear: the insights generated would be real-time, behaviourally based, and accurate in terms of measurement. Imagine the power of an online panel made of various types of these people, and the possible uses for Research, should the participants give us permission to share their data.
3. Google is playing its Cards close to its Chest
It was very difficult to judge from the Google talk what exactly this Search Engine giant's strategic intent was with regards Market Research in Europe. The speaker gave very little away, other than re-iterate the advantages and functionalities of the Google Surveys tool.
This was frustrating, as Google was one of the biggest draws of the Conference. However, it indicated at the very least that google was taking the time to fly in someone from California and take the time to engage with a European audience of Planners, Strategists, Researchers. But whether they intend to work on merging search-based insights with survey work remained a mystery. I will be watching that space closely.
4. Is Media Planning the new "Planning" in Communications Agencies?
Looking at the delegates list, and the balance of speakers, it was interesting that Media Agencies were far better represented than Creative Agencies. MediaCom were there, as were Omnicom Media Group, Starcom MediaVest, OMD from Greece and Zenith Optimedia - whereas of the Creative shops, I only saw BBH as a stand-out name.
Maybe the preponderance of Media Agencies was due to the pull of listening to MediaVest's Ms. Sirkin as one of the luminaries in that area. But maybe Planning is changing - the new breed being numbers-literate, embedded in Media Agencies, comfortable with SPSS and modelling, less focussed on Creative development, more on Brand Strategy. Closer to Research in many ways. Interested to hear others' views.
5. Visualisation of Content has Repercussions.
No doubt, visually strong presentations are easy on the eye. However, unless the hand-outs are radically different, ie full of facts and figures, it means that you have to not just attend conferences, but make copious notes whilst the Speakers are talking, to capture the relevant take-home content.
This is mainly fine - but if you by chance miss a session to take a call, or simply have a lull in attention span late afternoon, you may find your notes a tad thin.
Returning to my original question: does it seem from this Event that new Market Research is going mainstream?
I would say yes, and that adoption is moving on apace. The words "collaboration" and "co-creation" were part of the normal dialogue at the Conference, Agency giants like TNS were actively presenting on new data collection modes (mobile), predictive analytics tools were shared and endorsed (effectively) as viable (and cheaper) alternatives to traditional methods by huge companies such as Samsung.
I sense that the debate is already moving on, with technology pushing us into more and more new spaces, as the example from TicTrack showed. Perhaps we need a new descriptor to capture the excitement around new market research techniques as they evolve?
In summary, it was a great day, full of inspiration and ideas. Congrats and thanks to all the people involved at WARC who organised it - long may these sort of Events flourish.
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.