A Festival of Market Research Innovation – What’s Making a Difference Now and What’s Coming Next

The IIEX Europe 2023 conference in Amsterdam is only two weeks away and it promises to be a feast of cutting-edge market research innovation. The conference sessions will cover everything from the latest new thinking to how methodological advances from the last few years are becoming an integral part of core research methodologies and the impact they are having on clients.

The folks at Greenbook asked me to share what I’m looking forward to most this year and I’ve summarized this into 4 themes.

1. The Latest New Thinking and Innovative Approaches

One of the key themes of this year’s conference is the metaverse and its potential use for market research. There are several sessions on this topic, including presentations from On Device, Savanta, Gorilla in the Room, Vixen Labs and BayesPrice. I’m particularly interested to watch the session with my old colleagues David Wright and Karlien Krieger from Hello Ara as I know they’ve been doing some really interesting work with metaverse environments. “Curiouser and Curiouser! Creating Empathetic Collaboration In The Metaverse” explores the impact of different immersive environments on group conversations, collaboration, and ideas generated.

Sessions about the latest thinking in market research are not only about the metaverse. I’m looking forward to sessions from Alexandra Kuzmina from Nova@MMR and Dr. Jillian Ney from The Social Intelligence Lab, both of whom always have interesting perspectives to share about research innovation. Alexandra will be presenting on the topic of Making Quantitative Research More Human, showcasing experimental studies using AR and real-time AI video synthesis in consumer research to drive engagement and additional insight. Jillian will be helping us re-think social data as a source of cultural insights, and discussing what it means for the future of social listening.

2. Scaling Research Innovation

Another theme that I’m excited to learn about is how methodological advances from the last few years are being scaled and becoming an integral part of core research methodologies. Several sessions will showcase this, including presentations from Black Swan, Stravito, Horizon, Aimpower, and Videometrics on topics including social prediction, neural networks, behavioural data,  knowledge management, and observational research.

On the theme of turning new methods into scale-able methodologies, I’d love to talk with you about how Nexxt Intelligence | inca is using generative AI to deliver deeper insight from research surveys. Come and find us in the exhibition hall, near the coffee and juice stand. 

The transition from emerging methodologies to new approaches that lead to better insights at scale is a fascinating one, and I expect it will be discussed in the sessions by industry heavyweights such as Steve Phillips, Ray Poynter, Nikki Lavoie, and Mike Stevens. I’m intrigued to see whether I’ll agree with what Steve has to say in his provocatively titled session “Why GPT-3 will kill the researcher”. Karen Lynch will lead a discussion with Ray and Nikki about “The Evolution of Insights and What’s Coming Next”. And Mike will present with Debi Hart about the boom in qual research. 

3. Making it Actionable

Of course, market research has little value if it doesn’t have an impact to help clients make better decisions. So, I’m particularly interested in hearing from client-side researchers about how they’ve been using insight to move their organizations forward. Two themes stand out to me from the client sessions this year. 

Firstly, sustainability and purpose will be explored in sessions from Absolut, Colgate-Palmolive, and Mondelez. Secondly, how insight teams are re-purposing with a focus on agility and bringing the benefits to their businesses will be covered in sessions from Nestle, Mars Wrigley, Vodafone, and Suntory Beam.

It will be fascinating to hear how these companies are leveraging market research to drive positive change, and how they are using insights to respond with greater speed to the changing needs of their customers.

4. DEI and Market Research

For market research to be most effective it is crucial that both the people who work in the industry and the participants we speak with are fully reflective of the wider societies in which we live. To help us understand the issues around this, there are a couple of really interesting and important sessions at IIEX this year on the theme of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in market research. 

LaShanda Seaman from Opinium will be presenting how technology can support qualitative research to hear from a diverse set of participants. Sandra Grandsoult from Equitas Insight will be discussing DEI challenges in the Insights Industry and suggesting 3 practical ways to improve DEI in organizations.

As I said at the beginning of this article, these 4 themes are only a personal view and there are lots more sessions for IIEX delegates to look forward to, hear different perspectives, and learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry. But it’s not just about the conference sessions, IIEX provides a great opportunity to meet with old friends and make new contacts. I look forward to seeing you there!