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.
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.
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).
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 Griffithsblogged 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.
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.
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
This is a video featuring the edited highlights from a roundtable discussion on how well and badly big brands innovate. Convened by BrainJuicer, it features the collective wisdom of both clients and staff. The conversation lasted almost two hours but we were commissioned to record the session and edit it down. Now, much as we tried, we couldn’t get it below c.40mins because of the amount of goodness there.
But the length gave us and Chief Juicer John Kearon pause for thought. How could we make it as accessible and watchable as possible? Well, here are a few tiny innovations that were inspired by that quandary
John invited illustrator Bob Wagner along to capture seminal moments as cartoons. Not only are these embedded in the video, John’s also created a useful eBook teaser complete with enlightening quotes
As usual you can find a list of the talking areas here, enabling you to quickly get to the parts that interest you most. This is one of the reasons we use Google video for streaming, because they allow you to go to any part of the video directly without wasteful buffering time
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
Dave Cobban, Planning Director at Wieden + Kennedy, John Kearon, Chief Juicer at BrainJuicer, and Paul Birkett, Global Director at PepsiCo reflect on advertising, brands, sustainability, innovation, passion, and, well, lunch, during a break at the ESOMAR Consumer Insights conference in Milan
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
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)...
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.
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: 
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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