Our article in the Sep ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
Sony founder, Akio Morita, once said: “Curiosity is the key to creativity.” So, given how curious researchers are, we decided to speak to some client-side researchers to discover ways in which they have used creativity to amplify the value of research.
The Listener
Dr. Simon Roberts, Lead, Design/Social Science, Digital Health Europe, Intel
CONTEXT
Roberts is a well known anthropologist and works at chipmaker Intel. His position probably triggers a few questions. Is he a researcher? Well, yes. And a designer? Well, sort of. Because he sits in an R&D role where as well as carrying out the research bit, he’s also responsible for acting upon the research, making sure key insights find their way into products. He refers to this dual role as a mix of hard impact (creating new products) and softer influence (evangelising insights and ideas within Intel). A combination of military man and diplomat.
CREATIVITY
An issue every researcher regularly faces is how to draw out juicy insights from raw data. In ethnographic circles, Roberts refers to this as ‘ethnographic liquidity’ and he’s keen to understand “how ethnographers can create traction for their work in organisations” in an age where audiences are overloaded with information and communication. It’s important, he says, for researchers to feel they are listened to.
Roberts’ solution has been to turn some of his findings and insights into well-produced booklets and brochures, something he did for a recent global ageing study with hundreds of in-depth interviews: “Let’s put it all in a booklet and make sure that every person in the organisation for whom this is relevant gets a copy on their desk. We can also use it externally to tell a story about our work.”
Pop here for the rest of the article – available only for a limited time – and do subscribe to Research World magazine.
John Kearon, Chief Juicer at BrainJuicer, explains how he is turning research on its head by shifting the focus from asking people to explain their own behaviour, to using peoples’ innate social abilities to comment on the behaviour of others.
A pioneer in the use of wisdom of crowds in research (since 2004), he also reveals the results of experiments in mass ethnography, mass anthropology and co-creation.
Filmed at the BrainJuicer/HSBC London Summerfest in June 2009 (disclosure: we produced the vid).
I think all the research industry should adopt a CFO, because what the CFO wants to know is not whether that ad. tested better than that ad., but does the whole program move us ahead in making brands more valuable in peoples’ lives and therefore dropping to the bottom line. (Alan C. Middleton)
ESOMAR’s 2008 Congress is nearly upon us and in this exclusive preCast, BrainJuicer Chief Juicer John Kearon chats with three of the keynotes about how cultural and technological changes are impacting peoples’ lives, and how the disciplines of marketing, branding and research need to adapt to keep pace with such change.
John is joined by former senior JWT executive Alan C. Middleton, popular anthropologist Grant McCracken, and design entrepreneur Richard Eisermann.
Common sense would probably tell you that stealing a bicycle using brute force in a high traffic area was nigh on impossible without being stopped or challenged. Well, think again. This video shows how easy it was for a guy to steal his own bike in busy NY using a bolt cutter, hacksaw and electric saw. And not just once but several times. He did this to try and understand how his bike kept getting stolen despite the fact that he secured it well. There’s a couple of funny bits towards the end: a police van drives right past him attempting the theft in plain sight, but intercepts the camera guy and cautions him not to stand in the car lane. Also, one person does eventually bother to intervene but there’s a twist that you really have to watch to believe. The result is a revelation not just for the guy himself but also for those manufacturing security chains and locks as it changes the assumptions they often work to.
The beauty of the internet for those keen to understand consumer needs and desires is that people naturally express these in social networks and other social media.
iWant is a simple, experimental tool we’ve built to mine this info from the twitter stream. Give it a spin if you dare
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
“If you want to know how a lion hunts, don’t go to the zoo, go to the jungle.”(LEGO)
EXCLUSIVE Mark Jones of Lastminute.com talks about evolving their B2B offering to allow partner brands to take advantage of their infrastructure and content relationships. Flemming Ostergaard talks about how it took LEGO’s worsening financial performance to wake them up to the importance of directly connecting with kids through ethnography. And Michael Spang talks about the challenges involved in regionalising the Kodak global corporate website to make it more relevant and useful
…being able to touch wealthy companies and having them make changes …to think much more holistically, will have an impact on people all around the world
EXCLUSIVE We like showcasing excellence. So why, you ask, does Anne Kirah deserve this accolade? Because she keeps things simple, she keeps it real. And while that may sound like a cliche, it’s what few clientside researchers do. Yet Anne has managed it at Microsoft. She and her team have got engineers thinking about the people who use their products. One team has even named part of their office Howard’s Corner as a legacy to an octogenarian man who forced them to design products and services for everyday folks and not just the tech savvy. Listen on, it’s inspirational and, as Vinny Jones would say, it’s emotional
STARRING
Anne Kirah, Acting Dean, 180 Academy, formerly Lead Design Anthropologist, Microsoft
GUEST Online research pioneer Pete Comley, Chairman of Virtual Surveys
TOPICS YouGov quadruples profits; BrandIndex tracker & word of mouth; Web 2.0. VS: Staying independent; Accidental genesis of VS and early challenges; Research 2.0; Blogging; Future challenges
NOTABLE MENTIONS Al Gore, BSkyB, Current TV, Ed Keller, Eric Berne, ESOMAR, The Future Place, Google, Greenfield Online, Harris Interactive, Henley Centre, Keller Fay, MySpace, Quentin Ashby, Ray Poynter, RI, Stephen Phillips, Trish Comley, YouGov, YouTube
Welcome to ResearchTalk where we share some of the most innovative ideas and thinking in marketing, research, psychology and management. We hope you find it useful, inspiring, or merely entertaining.
ResearchTalk helps companies of all types produce engaging content for marketing, pitches, debriefs, research activation, events, etc.
Our tools of choice include podcasts, documentaries, animations, webinars, workshops and feature articles.
We've worked with some of the most innovative names to add a bit more pizazz and potency to their communication and engagement efforts. More than likely we can help you too. So do please get in touch.
Some examples of our work (we can't show the complete spectrum of our work due to confidentiality)...
Our article in the Sep ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
I think all the research industry should adopt a CFO, because what the CFO wants to know is not whether that ad. tested better than that ad., but does the whole program move us ahead in making brands more valuable in peoples’ lives and therefore dropping to the bottom line.
(Alan C. Middleton)
ESOMAR’s 2008 Congress is nearly upon us and in this exclusive preCast, BrainJuicer Chief Juicer John Kearon chats with three of the keynotes about how cultural and technological changes are impacting peoples’ lives, and how the disciplines of marketing, branding and research need to adapt to keep pace with such change.
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 
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