[In the Insites study] bloggers were asked to provide images of what they perceived to be cool at a music festival they were attending. Researchers, marketing experts and 4 different types of crowds were then given the task of evaluating these and providing perceptions of their own. The bloggers then graded these in terms of the insights they generated. The 4 different types of crowd included those who were at the festival and also those who were not. And those who knew the bloggers and those who did not. The result showed that crowds appeared to be a better source of insight. And that the most fruitful crowd was one familiar with the context (ie present at the festival) and unfamiliar with the blogger (at several degrees of separation). A fascinating paper which has given Insites a way to use crowds to increase insight generation (they claim) by 200%!
On the eve of the release of Wall Street 2, the message above is somewhat befitting. It comes from the British Library’s Inventing the 21st Century exhibit which promises to “explore the journey behind 15 of the most ingenious inventions to come out of Britain in the past ten years.” Even though you’ll probably be familiar with many of the inventions it’s still worth a visit if you’re nearby.
Anyway, the above post-it was one of many left by visitors encouraged to share their own ideas, completely in the spirit of our collaborative times. We found it amusing, as we did the following, and there’s also a couple of good ideas in there…
A pill you take so you never have explosive diarrhea
A happy pill without adverse effect!
A device to assist in understanding women!
A device to clip walking sticks to a table or chair in cafes
A powder/sachet of sunscreen that you could add to your shower head, to be fully protected at the start of every day
This podcast accompanies our article in the Oct ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
I had the privilege of chatting with inventor, entrepreneur and futurologist Ray Kurzweil recently. Here’s the full conversation in podcast form. (The full writeup will appear in October’s issue of Research World.)
TechCrunch50 in San Francisco is fast becoming one of the premier places to launch a technology startup if you’re looking for exposure, customers or funding.
In fact, one of the companies that presented at the inaugural event a couple years ago just announced that they had been bought for a considerable sum.
So we were watching the live stream of this year’s event when the startup Affective Interfaces started to pique our interest.
Based on the work of facial coding expert Paul Ekman (recently popularised in the hit TV series Lie to Me), AI has built a system that monitors facial expressions in real time and on a mass scale (via webcams). They claim the system provides a much more accurate and sensitive indication of, among other things, an ads. likelihood of success.
The presentation didn’t go as well as it could have done – the presenter spent too much time talking and not enough time showing ‘compelling’ videos. But then, in a scene reminiscent of Dragon’s Den, a couple of judges on the expert panel started to recognise the potential. Those enlightened judges were publishing entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly and senior Google exec Bradley Horowitz.
But while these judges know tech, they’re not experts in human behaviour. So we decided to get Jai Haissman, AI’s founder and CEO, to chat with Conquest Research’s David Penn, someone who knows a thing or two about the reliability of interpreting emotions and non-verbal cues. This is a pretty geeky podcast, but we hope you find it stimulating nonetheless.
Affective Interfaces is keen to reach out to potential partners, customers and funders (they’re self-funded). We regard them as an exciting addition to the world of new research and so encourage you to engage with them (as you’ll hear in the podcast they’ve already had a good amount of interest from the event).
VCs and corporate M&A folk: this could become a very special company.
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).
This week, Danny Wain looks at how to draw inspiration from Google to innovate in HR and talent management.
Remember, each episode is a mere 2-3 mins long, short enough for the busiest managers or talent folks. And do drop us a line if you’re interested in sponsoring this series.
You can find out more about what Danny does here. Next episode goes up next week.
Faris Yakob, EVP and chief technology strategist at ad. agency McCann Erickson, takes us through his six rules of social media engagement which he believes brands should follow to offer something more meaningful and powerful to people.
Filmed at the BrainJuicer/HSBC London Summerfest in June 2009 (disclosure: we produced the vid).
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)...
This podcast accompanies our article in the Oct ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy 
Podcasts
