Our Spotlight column in the Dec ‘07 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

Barely nine years old, few would deny that Google has had a significant impact on the world. But does Google bode well for the MR sector?

So could this understanding one day trounce what MR has to offer?
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Forrester Research recently published an 18-page report/detailed thought-piece provocatively titled ‘The Connected Agency’, discussing the model they foresee successful advertising agencies migrating towards to overcome many of the disruptive influences and changes in consumer behaviour we’re seeing.

Needless to say we were interested in exploring these issues and challenges with one of the authors of the report. And we roped in Tony Effik, planning head at a digital agency, to better understand the ramifications not just for the advertising world but also for brand marketers, and for media, marketing and research agencies.

It’s not a pretty picture…

UPDATE: In the podcast we mention that the report’s free. Actually, it was free for a while but now they’ve started charging!

 STARRING 

• Mary Beth Kemp, report co-author and Principal analyst, Forrester Research
• Tony Effik, Head of planning, Publicis Modem. Tony also blogs about the social graph here

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14mins

 STARRING 

• Gian Fulgoni, Chairman and co-founder, comScore

As well as popping into see Max during our recent US trip, we also caught up with Gian Fulgoni of comScore in the Chicago office (their HQ is in Virginia where CEO Magid Abraham and much of the engineering team is based).

comScore is one of the main providers of internet measurement and competes with Nielsen Online (formerly Nielsen NetRatings), Compete.com, Hitwise, and Quantcast as well as others. That said, comScore and Nielsen are generally considered the bigger boys of the bunch given how often their share data is cited in the media (e.g. monthly shares in the lucrative online search market).

The internet measurement sector is very technology-hungry. In the early years, comScore literally ate up millions of dollars to get its IT infrastructure established and working right. It has one of world’s largest databases as a result of the oceans of data being sent back daily from panelist PCs (a widget records their internet activity, with their permission, and siphons it, along with detailed transaction data, over to HQ). These efforts were rewarded when, in 2007, comScore was annointed one of 47 technology pioneers at the WEF in Davos.

2007 was arguably a good year for comScore’s initial investors. 2007’s IPO provided for a much-needed liquidation for this band of investors who backed the firm since 2000, including after the dotcom bust when venture financing virtually dried up.

At one point comScore’s market cap hit $1bn; it’s still pretty amazing to think that a company that has only been trading for around seven years is already worth over half as much as TNS, a widely admired and solid growth firm, but one still largely based around traditional research techniques.

In this short chat with Gian, we discuss an area that he’s passionate about: why ad. dollars are only slowly moving online. It’s that old chestnut: online finally commands a significant amount of consumer attention (compared with other media such as tv), and yet still only commands a fraction of the advertising dollars spent on tv and other mass-market media. We also ask him about whether Facebook is worth the reported $15bn, the conversation having taken place shortly after Microsoft made its investment.

comScore is Gian’s second business success. Prior to this, both him and Magid led IRI through a period of rapid growth. And in-between, he found time to invest in Gibsons, a successful steak restaurant in Chicago (which we, of course, had to sample – very yummy!).

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 ESOMAR CONGRESS ‘07  In the final of three preCasts ahead of this year’s Berlin-based Congress, conference chair John Kearon creates a stirring debate with three of the keynotes (an Oscar-winning film director with two best-selling authors and philosopher) on creating and delivering excellence.

If you haven’t already, do listen to the earlier podcast with Florian, James and Lou in which they briefly introduce themselves

Listen to other podcasts in this series

 STARRING 

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Film Director, The Lives of Others
• James Surowiecki, Author, The Wisdom of Crowds
• Professor Lou Marinoff, Author, The Middle Way: Finding Happiness in a World of Extremes, Philosopher
• John Kearon, Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer (Host)

This is an ESOMAR sponsored podcast and is published according to our yumminess policy

Listen to the podcast here

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We’ve had great success working with conference organisers like ESOMAR and IIR to evangelise flagship events, success being measured by the resultant buzz/ word-of-mouth and download stats.

But wouldn’t it be cool if someone actually decided to go to a conference as a result of listening to one of the podcasts? Well, the kind Ruth McNeil, who handles marketing for the BIG Conference who we recently collaborated with, came back with just that message.

Ruth says:

…One person said that the podcasts had influenced their decision to attend (a first timer who came to the whole conference). I am pleased that so many had listened to the [pre-]conference [podcasts]!

Fantastic news.

Podcasting works because people are drawn to interesting conversations. Not conversations they feel they must listen to. Conversations that they want to listen to. That’s what makes it a perfect medium for sponsors of all kinds who want to get their compelling message across to movers and shakers.

Get in touch in case you fancy a chat (contact details as always in left sidebar).

End of advertisement

Series:Events Series:ESOMAR Series:EMRE Series:BIG Series:Wildfire

Panel discussion:

• Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly NYC
• Tom Savigar, The Future Laboratory
• Reuben Steiger, Millions of Us
• Cameron Saunders, Channel 4
• Miguel Fluxa Orti, Camper
• Jon Kamen, @radical.media
• Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett
• Paul Kemp-Robertson, Contagious magazine (host)

19mins | Recorded @ Wildfire ‘07 | More podcasts in this series

Coverage

• Transparency, authenticity, confidence, trust
• Losing control of the ‘conversation’
• Taking risks, experimentation
• Delivering rewarding stories, ideas, advertising
• Getting teens used to paying for music, new business models
• The age of collaboration
• Old media, new media: it’s just media

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Cameron Saunders, Head of Marketing (digital) at Channel 4 TV, and Mark Tutssel, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, chat about…

• The controversial Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
• Earth Hour
• The John West salmon viral ad.
• How 4oD is performing (4oD is Channel 4’s online on-demand service)
• Whether UK brands are as experimental as US brands

8mins | Recorded @ Wildfire ‘07 | More podcasts in this series

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Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO Denuo and Chief Innovation Officer, Publicis, chats about…

• The business importance of authenticity
• Why PR agency Edelman’s reputation suffered in the Wal Mart undisclosed blogger fiasco
• Three big media trends he’s seeing including the shift to on-demand, the participatory culture, and the shift from segmentation to reaggregation
• Why he’s ’short’ on Google’s ability to monetize YouTube and ‘long’ on Yahoo’s future

8mins | Recorded @ Wildfire ‘07 | More podcasts in this series

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 Sponsored by 

 PLANNER TALK  Four seasoned ‘planners’ discuss major developments in online and consumer generated media as attention shifts from conventional to PC-based viewing and interaction. The panel represents a diverse range of opinion and expertise from host Fiona Blades, a planner by background and now head of her own research firm, to the omnipresent planner John Griffiths, ad. agency research head Lee McEwan, and senior researcher Beverly Clarke who works for one of the UK’s largest and newest media groups, Virgin Media

Listen to other podcasts featuring Fiona and John

 STARRING 

• Beverly Clarke, Associate Director of Insight, IDS (part of Virgin Media)
• Fiona Blades, Managing Partner, MESH Planning (host)
• John Griffiths, Planning Above and Beyond
• Lee McEwan, Director of Research Services, Leo Burnett (blog)

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The assumption is that by-and-large, individuals make decisions on their own. My Herd point-of-view is that people influence each other, often without realising it

Mark Earls’ latest contribution to life, the universe and everything is gaining traction. His new book rethinks how people make decisions and discovers as a result that much of current research practice is fundamentally flawed in its assumptions and interpretation of consumer behaviour. Quite fitting for this self-styled ‘Contrarian’. The book provides psychology underpinning for many recent phenomena such as social networking, engagement, conversations, ethnography, blogging and predictive markets by showing how we act as groups and not individually. Part of our monthly column for ESOMAR’s Research World magazine

 STARRING 

• Mark Earls, author, Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature, Head Honcho, Herd Consulting

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