Announcing The Finalists Of The 4th Wave Of The Insights Innovation Competition!

After several weeks of intense competition with 22 firms competing in the 4th wave of the Insights Innovation Competition, 19891 views and 2692 votes the results are in and 6 finalists have decisively risen to the top of the list based on votes by you, the global market research community.

Please join me in congratulating all of the competitors and the finalists. Here they are:

 

 

	IDEA NAME	AUTHOR	VIEWS	VOTES
FINALISTS
1º	NarrativeLogic™	Zachary Lamm	1813	368
2º	Market Research as a Service in the Cloud	InquiStat Inc.	2155	314
3º	MindSight® Express	David Forbes	1286	313
4º	OfficeReports® – Survey Analytics within PowerPoint	Torben Laustsen	1910	293
5º	Insights MetaGame Collection	Jason Anderson	2257	286
6º	SocialGlimpz	Parry Bedi	1140	279
RUNNER UPS
7º	Big Sofa	Dr. Simon Lidington	2122	250
8º	OnCue®	Russell Cowdrey	1200	216
9º	Research Intelligence	John Williamson	1206	191
10º	Doing Good Research	Allison Rak	1250	166
11º	FoundIt!	David Howlett	1303	148
12º	PocketPanda Mobile Market Research	Aaron Platshon	623	86
13º	Funquete®	Gage Tanabe	699	47
14º	Single-source, large-scale, cross-platform media behavioral…	Rolfe Swinton	730	40
15º	Market Research Group-Buying Platform	Gianluigi Cuccureddu	512	12
16º	Zampple	Stamatis Kantzas	214	10
17º	Roamler – Mobile Workforce	Wiggert de Haan	228	8
18º	Concentric: Strategic Market Simulation	Greg Silverman	180	4
19º	Bracketdocious	Mike Rosenberg	220	3
20º	Hypnosis Focus Groups	hal goldberg	253	2
21º	User-defined Meaning in Social Media Research	John McGarr	285	2
22º	Building the Right Teams for Concept Development	Kip Creel	34	1

 

The submissions broke down into a few key categories:

Social, Local & Mobile: 5 submissions (Doing Good Research, FoundIt!, PocketPanda Mobile Market Research, Single-source & cross-platform media behavioral analytics, Roamler – Mobile Workforce & User-defined Meaning in Social Media Research)

Big Data Analytics & Visualization Tools: 3 submissions (OfficeReports, SocialGlimpz & Concentric Strategic Market Simulation)

Cognitive Neuroscience & Behavioral Science: 3 submissions (Narrative Science, MindSight Express & Hypnosis Focus Groups)

Gamification: 3 submissions (Insights MetaGame Collection, Funquete & Bracketdocious)

Co-creation & Innovation Enablers: 3 submissions (Research Intelligence, Zampple &  Building the Right Teams for Concept Development)

Adaptive Surveys & Agile Data Collection: 2 submissions (Market Research as a Service in the Cloud & OnCue)

Other: 2 submissions (Big Sofa and Market Research Group Buying Platform)

So a pretty wide swath of  “buzz terms” were covered with a startling variety of approaches and technologies represented. What is most interesting (to me at least) is how this mirrors broader trends both within and outside of the insights sector: these folks are obviously paying attention to what’s happening and are building businesses that are positioned to tap into those trends.

What happens next:

For the finalists, they are going to present on stage in front of our panel of judges and the audience at IIeX in Amsterdam in February.   This is a no-lose proposition for them: past participating companies have seen their businesses accelerate due to their involvements in the Insight Innovation Competition, resulting in funding, partnerships, new clients, and global brand exposure. For the single winner they will get:

 

• Exposure to a large international audience of potential prospects, funding partners and investors, including the European Commission CORDIS (available fund of $75B), Lowe’s Innovation Lab, and independent venture capitalists and angel investors
• A free consultation provided by GV Ventures Consulting to help the winner develop a growth and expansion strategy, as well as take the first steps toward seeking EC Horizon 2020 funding
• A “Hot Desk 60”membership for one year at the Center for Social Innovation’s newest facility in the iconic Starrett-Lehigh building in Manhattan, which includes 60 hours of coworking space and 3 hours of meeting room access per month
• An invitation to present at the next Insight Innovation eXchange
• An interview to be posted on the GreenBook Blog, viewed by 36,000+ industry professionals per month
• An opportunity to work with successful senior leaders within the market research space

On February 20th one of the above companies will join Decooda, Zappistore, Raw Data and RIWI as winners and can look forward to rapid acceleration of their business.

For the runner-ups (and the finalists who don’t win the next round too), the news is still good. The Insight Innovation Competition is collaborating with the Lowe’s Innovation Lab to help competition entrants gain awareness within a broad consortium of global brands.

All participating companies will be vetted for inclusion in the Lowe’s Innovation Lab program. Selected participants will gain guaranteed organic funding through pilot programs with program partner companies, as well as access to acceleration resources for marketing, strategy, finance, and business development.

This was perhaps the strongest edition of the competition yet ; the quality of the thinking and innovation on display by all of the entrants was simply astounding and although they may not have marshaled the votes to get their shot this time in the next round of the Competition on stage in Amsterdam, we’re going to do all that we can to help them as well. Based on submissions so far, some may qualify to present in response to the Client-centric Insight Innovation Challenge and all will be welcome to try again on the next round of the Competition or to submit a paper for consideration for a presentation at a future IIeX conference.

The next round of the Competition will launch in February aligned with IIeX Lat Am in Santiago, Chile. Stay tuned for more details on that early next year.

Congratulations to everyone who competed and good luck on the next steps for each of you!