Kantar's Profiles Blog

I was lucky enough to attend the recent MRS Impact Conference and sit in on seminars covering the perennial problems that Market Research is said to have, including: What do we call ourselves? How do we add value? What do we do about automation?

Brands have sought to distance themselves from being associated with extreme or offensive content, but pulling advertising wholesale may prove to be an equally extreme measure.

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell acknowledged that brands had valid concerns regarding where their advertisements appear, but cautioned that the full boycott employed by some of the world’s leading brands was not in their best interest.

Note: This post was originally published on greenbookblog.com

From the moment I get up in the morning to the last thing at night I am immersed in information gathering.

News was something I used to read once a day. Ever since having a smart phone, my propensity to consume news has slowly increased month by month, and with the ever increasing proliferation of news aggregation apps, it’s becoming something I dip into almost every spare moment during the day. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning and last thing I do at night before switching off my phone is check the “news.” It has become a total addiction. In addition to news there is social media, which I consume with equal levels of hunger, be it Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. When I run out of new information from these sources to consume, I switch to doing things like looking through pictures on Instagram or virtual shopping on eBay. 

How frequently do you use your smartphone or tablet throughout the day?

Every day, consumers are spending more and more time connected to their devices. This is where they live and this is where they work. As consumers increasingly live digitally with numerous connected devices, marketers have the opportunity to harness behavioral information in real time utilizing passive measurements. With use of mobile continually escalating world-wide, and in some markets surpassing desktop usage, there has never been a better time to program online surveys that are device agnostic, fully responsive and touchscreen optimized. 

On a recent earnings call, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of Lightspeed’s parent company WPP, talked about what keeps him up at night. And no; it’s not (necessarily) his infant daughter – it’s Amazon.

“And I would just mention the rise of Amazon, because in answer to the question, my favorite question is what worries you when you go to bed at night and when you wake up in the morning. It's not a three-month-old child (laughter), it's Amazon, which is a child still, but not three months. And Amazon's penetration of most areas is frightening, if not terrifying to some, and I think there is a battle brewing between Google and Amazon.”

I was fortunate enough to attend the Insights Marketing Day event presented by Greenbook; the full day event included eight guest speakers, two panel discussion groups and networking opportunities covering marketing trends and opportunties including: 

• why we should look to move to in-house marketing and PR
• the most effective ways to improve start and open rates on email campaigns and getting the communication right
• what marketing automation can do for you
• what clients really think of marketing
• the future of social media
• how people can be influenced and persuaded

Chinese New Year (CNY), also known as the Spring Festival in Mainland China, has been celebrated for thousands of years. Traditional Chinese customs are observed with this holiday, such as giving red pockets, family gatherings and reunion parties and gift giving. Many argue that these customs and behaviors cannot be easily influenced or replaced by external factors. However, China is a fast adopting culture increasingly driven by the latest technologies. With this in mind, Lightspeed ran a short survey following the 2017 CNY holiday amongst 1,024 of its panelists in China, to understand how and if new technologies have changed the way people celebrate today.  

According to a report released by the Boston Consulting Group, millennials will outnumber baby boomers 78 million to 56 million by 2030, and they are starting to form brand and shopping preferences that will likely stick with them for a lifetime. Marketers have to evolve and be much more interactive to attract and retain millennial consumers. Gone are the days of commercials and print media ads; millennials drive and demand a two-way, reciprocal marketing approach.  Brands of all sizes try to connect with millennials to understand what drives their attitudes and behaviors, but unfortunately millennial voices are often underrepresented within typical marketing research forums.

It’s that time of year again when we remember how good the game of tennis is and tune in to watch fast, and sometimes, nerve-wracking play at the Australian Open. Being British, my affiliation with Wimbledon and the tradition of the sport is high. When we ran a study (N=403, Nat Rep) around the ways in which Australians are consuming the 2017 Australian Open, I was still surprised at the seemingly traditional approach viewers have for this competition too.

Insurance is applicable across many facets of consumers lives and therefore for many groups. It is an overcrowded space in Australia with multiple providers from banking institutions extending their offer to small online newcomers.