A Brief Retrospective: IIEX LATAM 2024

Last week, Greenbook hosted IIEX Latin America 2024 in Miami. This lively event brought together researchers from all over the world to connect and exchange knowledge. In this piece, we’ll be taking a look at some of the key learnings from IIEX LATAM 2024.

What Made IIEX LATAM 2024 Incredible

IIEX LATAM provided immense value to our team. It helped showcase the importance of the Latin American market on the global stage, highlighting its uniqueness and the vast number of opportunities it offers to professionals. As conference-goers, we left with several key takeaways that underlined why this kind of event is crucial, not only for researchers focused on Latin America but for anyone involved in global market research.

While there were innumerable valuable insights uncovered during the summit, we felt that one of the most salient was the following: Latin America is not a monolith. This message rang out across presentations, across topics, from company to company. This was a message that consumers want to communicate to brands, that data backs up, and that researchers themselves put forth from lived experience.

From early on in the first day, Judith Kuj and Ana Vanegas of Wise Market Insights presented a data-packed, powerful report on the need to recognize the singularities of different Latin American backgrounds across the region rather than lumping all identities into a single entity. 

On day two, Fred Gallo of On The Go Consumer Insights took us through an inspired presentation on the importance of adapting survey language to different countries, even if the same language is spoken in those various nations. Gallo even demonstrated the utility and cultural competency of adapting survey language to different regions within the same country (especially in countries with large amounts of land mass or cultural variation, e.g., Brazil).

While most can agree that there are commonalities across countries, each nation has its own distinct cultural background, geopolitical landscape, and economic and social factors that influence residents’ behavior and determine how researchers should approach it. A one-size-fits-all solution won’t work for the entirety of Latam - which is why attending this conference and hearing these perspectives directly from the experts is so essential for any professional working on a global scale or with audiences from varied cultural backgrounds.

IIEX LATAM gave us a unique opportunity to gain a richer, more accurate perspective on how research works - or should work - for Latin America. For brands looking to expand into the region or a researcher aiming to gain deeper insights into different populations, this conference highlighted the critical importance of understanding the region’s consumers, empowering local researchers, and recognizing the global influence of Latin American perspectives.

A Quick Run Down: Some of Our Favorites!

For those who want some extra conference vibes, here is a quick peek into some of our favorite moments:

• Latino Influence on US Market Research: The growing influence of Latinos globally was a focal point throughout the conference, bringing an interesting perspective to what’s currently shaping the global market. Marta Villanueva, Chief Insights Officer at NuThinking, conducted a session highlighting demographic shifts in the United States, where the Hispanic population is steadily growing, thus becoming a major economic force and one of the fastest-growing segments. Understanding these rapidly shifting dynamics within the U.S. is critical for any company to appropriately cater and target to consumers within the whole of the Americas.
• To Latinx or Not to Latinx: Tal Oren, Head of Growth & Learning at Talk Shoppe, offered a thought-provoking talk addressing the complexities surrounding terms such as “Latinx,” “Latine,” “Latino/a,” and “Hispanic.” His work explored the different feelings people have about these terms, taking special care to examine how those feelings differ by age group, cultural background, primary language spoken, and other key demographic variables. His data indicate that preferences around these various identity labels vary greatly, with age and primary language spoken playing a large role in attitudes towards labels. Overall, however, “Hispanic” seems to be the winning label across all groups.
• The Experience of Latin American Researchers: Reyna J. Peña and Ellie Hecht of 10k Humans wanted to explore the life of the Latin American Market Researcher. Often, researchers don’t get their time to shine as subjects as they work tirelessly to collect insights. They sampled Latino MR professionals who were under 30 and examined their perceptions of work, technology, Latin America, and the MR industry. One of the more discussed insights from the session is the finding that Gen-Z views market researchers as the human bridge between the pre- and post-AI world. Researchers can act as a litmus test of truth and falsity, helping carve a path toward the future.
• Gender, Women, and Masculinity in Latin America: A few sessions covered social, cultural, and economic issues through the lens of gender. Constanza Cilley, Executive Director of Voices, talked about the economic disparities experienced by women in Latin America and how inequity plays a role in limiting access to opportunities for many women in the region. Paula Duque, Strategic Planning Manager at Provokers, explored the challenges of modern masculinity, helping brands and professionals better understand the unique tensions, pressures, and shifts that men are facing today.
• Innovation in Music and Sports: As always, innovation was an exciting hot topic! Sergio Rodea, CEO of LAMARCALAB, spoke on the future of Latin American music. Rodea analyzed data from up-and-coming artists to build an enlightened framework around Latin American musical innovation. These insights were particularly relevant for big players in the Latam music space, such as Spotify. The Synapbox team dove into how AI can be used to design impactful advertising campaigns and effectively engage with Latino audiences during major sporting events.

These are just a small sampling (ha) of the varied insights that IIEX LATAM brought to the fore this year. We had a blast, and we hope you did, too. Hopefully, we’ll see you next time!