Our Spotlight column in the Mar ‘07 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
Being prepared and empowered to take risks is fundamental to true innovation and progress.
A few months ago, during a podcast recording, Jem Fawcus of the innovative Firefish was asked about his attitude to risk. I naturally assumed that as an entrepreneur he would be pro risk-taking. After all, he and business partner Allison had taken big personal risks to establish their agency. But Jem surprised me with his anti-risk stance: “agencies are there to minimise client risk”.
It took me a few moments to realise he was right. But, as someone who’s an advocate of experimenting to drive innovation, which invariably involves risk, I believe that I was also right, and that risk-taking and the tolerance of mistakes should be an essential characteristic of the industry.
In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, the inspirational Educator and Innovator, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”
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Our Spotlight column in the Jun ‘08 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are privileged to witness the start of a new movement. A movement that is revving up to do what The Cluetrain Manifesto did for marketing communications. Welcome to VRM.
Remember ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’? It’s the book co-authored by pre-eminent marketing practitioners including Harvard University’s Doc Searls. It coined the phrase “markets are conversations”.
Well, Mr. Searls is at it again. Not satisfied with inspiring consumers to use the web to redress the balance between marketers and consumers (e.g. via blogs), he wants to move things up a gear. And blogging strategist Adriana Lukas is along for the ride.
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In this edition of The Leadership Show, Simon Chadwick chats with four leaders who have spent the past five decades successfully building substantial entities. Folks such as Jay Wilson who built Roper Starch (sold to NOP World), Bill Pegram who co-founded and built Pegram Walters (sold to Synovate), Philip Barnard who built Research International from its founding days as a division of Unilever (sold to WPP), and Tim Bowles who built IRI Europe. This is one of the most fun podcasts to listen to thanks to Simon and his guests.
BTW, Simon wrote and presented an excellent paper at ESOMAR ‘07 for free download entitled “Leadership – The Men and Women Who Shape Our Industry”.
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- Bill Pegram, Bill Pegram & Co, and gravitas
- Jay Wilson, Wilson Connexions and partner, Cambiar
- Philip Barnard, former chairman and CEO, Kantar Group
- Tim Bowles, former head, IRI Europe and former CEO, West Europe, Synovate
- Simon Chadwick, partner, Cambiar and gravitas (Host)
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Our Spotlight column in the Oct ‘07 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
Now that new media accounts for a significant portion of advertising revenues, advertising bodies are investigating how to future-proof its self-regulatory framework.
Breaking news: as far as advertising goes, the internet’s not quite the bad boy it may appear to be.
As Richard Knubben, policy & compliance manager at EASA, the European Advertising Standards Alliance, puts it: “On the whole, internet and new media-related complaints have made up a relatively small percentage of total advertising complaints over the last couple of years, but are slowly rising.”
And according to Christopher Graham, director general of UK advertising regulator the ASA, that’s because people see traditional media including TV as ‘push’ and so uncontrollable by the recipient, whereas new media is more ‘pull’. He adds: “…people have an expectation about the internet. If they encounter some nastiness they just go away… in context, they would probably expect some advertising to be, frankly, raunchier or sexier than on TV.” A conclusion supported by a 2005 research study commissioned by the ASA.
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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?
Mainak Mazumdar, VP of Measurement Services at Nielsen//NetRatings, probably sums it up best: every time, he notes, someone steps on a Google property, Google gets a bit more insight into their behaviour and, as a result, a bit smarter.
And as attention continues to shift online, and Google solidifies its position as a dominant destination, it is clearly becoming more adept at understanding not only consumer behaviour but also intention – i.e., when you enter a search query, you’re telling Google what you want to see, read, buy, do etc. And Google takes advantage of that to give you ever more relevant results.
So could this understanding one day trounce what MR has to offer?
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Sponsored by 
Meet Kimberly Till, head honcho at TNS North America. And by “meet” we mean this is the first chance to really get to know her and her passion.
Anyway, back in May 2006, Kimberly accepted the challenge of turning around the troubled North American operations of TNS, the world’s #2 MR firm. She took on this challenge despite lucrative offers from internet startups after a career at Microsoft and in media and entertainment. Listen on to find out how the turnaround is going, how she approaches leadership, and how she intends to inject a much-needed spirit of entrepreneurism into TNS NA
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THE LEADERSHIP SHOW In the previous edition of The Leadership Show, host Simon Chadwick chatted with some of industry’s foremost entrepreneurs. Now it’s the turn of three corporate leaders in mega agencies to define their leadership style and imperatives. And while you’d expect a contrast, it’s not always where you’d expect
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Sir James Dyson is one of John Kearon’s heroes. Both are entrepreneurs. And both believe passionately in the power of supreme engineering innovation to deliver progress. So when the opportunity came up to have a chat with Iain Carruthers, brand consultant and now second time author, this time of an authorised biography of Sir James, we jumped at the chance to get the two Dyson aficionados in conversation. Iain’s managed to pull together a fascinating series of insights that should appeal to entrepreneurs and brand marketers alike. Once you’ve heard this, dive into the book: Great Brand Stories: Dyson
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Dave Cobban, Planning Director at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, on the shift from traditional one-way advertising that speaks to consumers, to ongoing conversations and true engagement. Recorded @ ESOMAR Consumer Insights ‘07
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Series:Events Series:ESOMAR Series:CI07
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The fact that companies like Toyota and Tesco and Proctor & Gamble in many of its categories have shown that you can in fact keep improving delivery on the basics, shows that it’s not just a commodity…
(Patrick Barwise)
The renowned marketing Professor Patrick Barwise is a relatively rare animal, an academic with commercial instinct and pragmatism. Here he talks to Michael Warren about the ramifications of his two most recent books, ‘Simply Better’ (which won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 prize for the best recent book in marketing), and one that he is currently writing with the working title: ‘Customer Insights – Beyond Market Research’. His ability to cut through marketing myths, hype and meaningless jargon using solid reasoning reinforces his position as one of the industry’s most valued thought-leaders
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