ResearchTalk

Episode 3: Not even the volcanic ash could delay this episode, a clientside special in which two former senior clientside insights folks dish the dirt on agencies (well, sort of!).

We’re pleased to welcome Lisa Ohlin who recently headed up the global insights function at Cadbury, famous for its Gorilla campaign. A campaign that, interestingly, tested poorly in research but was greenlit nonetheless (something we discuss).

And then there’s Jaroslav Cir, a former key insights player in the Rexona (deodorants) division of Unilever. He became well known for favouring non-traditional methods and approaches, and the agencies that espoused them. Techniques such as semiotics, crowd sourcing and co-creation. He recently left the UK for his native Czech Republic, opening a research agency in a Prague cafe.

We chat about…

• Agency biz dev approaches they liked/didn’t like.
• Why larger agencies are a turn-off.
• Whether their views have changed in the switch to agency-side.
• Allowing new suppliers not already onto the supplier long list.
• Why Cadbury allowed the Gorilla ad. to run against negative research feedback.
• What research needs to be to support both emotional (intuition) and rational (hard data) decision-making.
• Whether FMCG companies are getting more comfortable with social media – the Wispa example.
• Activating research clientside – the Bournvita battle plan.
• Getting clients away from their desks and in front of people (consumers) – focus groups in a cafe.

• Lisa Ohlin, Royal Mail
• Jaroslav Cir, Perfect Crowd
• John Griffiths, Planning Above and Beyond, Cloud of Knowing, @johngriffiths7

Groove on.

Insight Course: On June 8th, John will be running an insight course for agency researchers with Pauline Williams, former head of insights for British Gas, Nationwide and ‘3′. John says that it’s an opportunity “to learn how to work better with client companies to deliver insights. This course is about how clients operationalise insights and how agencies can better support this – this course is a rare opportunity for suppliers to get an insider view.” Tweet John if you’d like to sign-up or know more.

Click here for previous episodes. Remember to tweet us feedback, suggestions and guest ideas (@johngriffiths7 / @surinder).

Music by Kevin Macleod.

References: Greg Rowland, John Kearon, Research International (RI), John Pawle, QiQ International, Conquest Research

Episode 2: In which we delve into the extremities of stakeholder research and discover how it’s being pulled towards a more cohesive, organic, inclusive model.

We chat with Peter Hutton, at one end of the supplier spectrum with a classic research background and who rose to deputy MD of a mid-sized UK agency before deciding to establish BrandEnergy Research which services the stakeholder research needs of large organisations. And, in complete contrast, we also chat with Kate Tribe who set up Sydney-based Tribe Research without any significant research background after university, and who uses a set of web-based tools to steer her small-to-medium sized business clients, traditionally under-served by the research community, towards success.

We chat about…

• Genesis of their respective businesses
• The fuzziness of ‘category’
• The fallacy of only using metrics that change
• The value of simple conversation
• The challenges of researching via social media
• Insider vs. outsider views
• Telling stories (engagement examples)
• Web tools
• Lessons for large corporates (from smaller businesses)
• Whether MR as a whole heading in this direction?
• The tribal movement
• Including suppliers in the audit
• ‘Avatar’ and whether MR needs to be invasive

 STARRING 

• Kate Tribe, Tribe Research / @katetribe
• Peter Hutton, BrandEnergy Research
• John Griffiths, Planning Above and Beyond / @johngriffiths7

Click here for previous episodes. Remember to tweet us feedback, suggestions and guest ideas (@johngriffiths7 / @surinder).

My oh my, it’s been a while since we updated the blog. But we have been busy in the meantime updating the @mrnews feed with news and, more importantly, our brand of inspiration and ideas. Twitter’s become our favourite way of sharing this goodness, and the feed’s also syndicated to our Facebook group.

So, given the short break, we thought it time to re-engage those podcasting muscles. And this time with friend and inspirateur John Griffiths.

We’re calling it The John Griffiths Show because it will focus on issues and people in the brave new world of market research that are of interest to John. To say he has eclectic interests is an understatement – just look at (one of his) websites.

I’d like to think that John and I will chat with what I refer to as ‘builders’, that is those at the thick end of building the new future rather than merely talking about it. We’ll cover their struggles and find out how effective what they’ve built really is.

The last bit is an important shift from the way things were in 2006 when I first started podcasting. That’s when I noticed the swirl of a renaissance of new ideas starting to sweep the sector. But that’s all they were: ideas. Now, in 2010, alot of those ideas have been built out, tested, confirmed or ditched in the fine tradition of the scientific method.

The other aspiration for the show is to focus on things that make research much better than it is now rather than being satisfied with incremental change: e.g. searching for something that replaces questionnaires rather than something that makes them a few minutes shorter.

In this debut episode – and remember this is a work in progress – John and I talk mobile apps with a couple folks who have recently built some of their own. Ethnographer Siamack Salari talks about his iPhone app – the inspiration, development issues and reactions and future deals and developments. And Confirmit’s Pat Molloy talks about giving iPhone users the ability to build speed boats around his supertanker.

John and I have lots of ideas for some of fine folks we’d like to invite on the show over the coming months. But we’d also welcome your suggestions. Probably best to send us a tweet (@johngriffiths7 and/or @surinder).

 STARRING 

• John Griffiths, Planning Above and Beyond
• Siamack Salari, Everyday Lives / blog
• Pat Molloy, CSO, Confirmit

BrainJuicer’s Chief Juicer John Kearon is a regular on the conference circuit.

After noticing that many events tend to mainly attract agencies, he began to wonder whether there was a way to significantly increase the client quotient.

Well, a few weeks ago he ran his inaugural Oktoberfest, a one-day event in London and Amsterdam with a hand-picked line up of ‘innovators’ as speakers. Each intimate gathering attracted over 100 clients.

The events were free and in true bootstrap fashion John partnered with Unilever and Philips to host the events and provide refreshments.

John Griffiths blogged about the London event. And we were asked to film, the result being the 17m highlight clip below (from 6hrs worth of material) which we hope you enjoy.

 STARRING 

• Andrew Gaule, Founder, The H-I Network
• BV Pradeep, Dove team, Unilever
• Jaroslav Cir, CMI director, Rexona (Unilever)
• John Kearon, Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer
• Mark Earls, Herdmeister, Herd Consulting
• Michael Spencer, MD, Sound Strategies

London:

Amsterdam Conference

 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)

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

 Sponsored by 
Want to know what Ethnography is, when best to use it, how much projects typically cost and how long they take, and how to overcome some of the inherent challenges?

Guest  Siamack Salari, CEO and Founder, EverydayLives
Guest host  John Griffiths, Planning Above and Beyond

Read the rest of this entry »

• About ResearchTalk
• About podcasts
• Adding to iTunes
• Listening via the website player
• Enquiries/sponsorship opportunities
• Contact us/feedback/suggestions
• Transparency policy
• Blogs we read
• Podcasts we listen to

About ResearchTalk
Our formula is refreshingly simple.

We bring together thought-leaders to discuss an area in which they have passion and authority.

We then release this as a free podcast after ensuring that the content is relevant, engaging and within our target of 20-30mins.

ResearchTalk is designed to be as inclusive and diverse as possible. We do this by removing barriers…

• …to consumption – podcasts are free
• …to participation – anyone with an interesting take can participate, see below
• …to content – any topic that impinges on the work or lives of research and marketing professionals is fine

(back to top)

About Podcasts
Podcasts are audio or video files that can be easily played on computers or mp3 players such as Apple’s iPod (the most popular portable player in the world and widely used by commuters and travellers to listen to podcasts). Refer to Wikipedia for more about podcasts and podcasting.
(back to top)

Adding to iTunes
The term ‘podcast’ refers to the useful ability of software such as Apple’s free iTunes software to automatically download and play podcasts, thereby removing the hassle of you continually visiting websites to get new content: once subscribed, new shows download automatically.

So if you don’t use iTunes or other software to listen to podcasts then you’re missing a trick. It’s easy, here’s how to get started:

1. Get iTunes here and install it
2. Add our podcast to iTunes or other podcast software with the help of this tutorial, courtesy of the excellent SmallBizPod

(back to top)

Listening via the Website Player
The player on this website uses Flash and so will not function at all/correctly if you don’t have that software on your PC or if your (corporate) firewall prohibits access to it. If you cannot install or adequately negotiate the firewall, then use the download link provided to download and listen via your PC’s own player.
(back to top)

Enquiries/Sponsorship Opportunities
ResearchTalk provides an ideal platform to get your targeted messages across to an engaged audience at very reasonable cost.

Email/call us (see below) with full details of your requirements and ballpark budget and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible for a chat.

Please note that we don’t work with or through PR agencies. Any enquiries from PR agencies will thus be ignored.
(back to top)

Contact us/Feedback/Suggestions
We love feedback and you can contact us in one of two ways:

• Email us
• Leave an audio comment: +44 (0)7092 074262

(back to top)

Transparency & Posting Policy
We will always be completely transparent about sponsorship or commissioned work. So if anyone pays us, you’ll see the podcast clearly labeled as such (e.g. ‘brought to you by’, ’sponsored by’, ‘commissioned by’ etc.).

Moreover, you can be completely confident that nothing on this network will ever been put there for reasons other than merit. In fact we make clear to those who commission/sponsor us that there’s never any guarantee that produced work will feature on the network. That’s always been our policy and it does from time-to-time lose us work.

So, why the strict policy? Because we value integrity and reputation, and pay-for-placement is the surest way to destroy this. And on a practical level the audience soon sees through self-serving stuff and justifiably loses interest. This may seem an obvious position to hold but you’d be very surprised at the calibre of organisations that have approached us for paid placement without even a hint of embarrassment or irony, very worrying!
(back to top)

(back to top)