Data Gurus Podcast | Insights on Business Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, Market Research & Data Collection

The world’s insight exchange and management platform is evolving with the market research industry. On this first episode of our second season, Richard Thornton and Greg Dunbar join Sima Vasa in a conversation about the changes astride at Cint.

A 20-Year-Old Vision

Cint is a technology company headquartered in Stockholm. Built 20 years ago to fit into the European market research industry, it has since achieved a global presence. Their platform helps deliver solutions to clients and partners in order to transform how they gather online survey data through insights.

Richard, COO and Deputy CEO at Cint, says that their founder built the company with a mission to simplify the industry’s supply chain. They wanted to make it more readily available to customers and partners. This would allow for smarter, faster and cost-effective access to insights to help drive decisions and outcomes.

Simplifying a Fragmented Platform

It took a while for the market research industry to be ready as it is today for Cint’s disruptive vision back then. The adoption of the type of sampling and platform that they offer has become more acceptable in the last five or six years.

“We are all aware that in market research, the supply chain is fragmented, antiquated and inefficient.” - Richard Thornton

But the language has changed. The conversation has changed. Working in the changing environment has prompted Cint to start reshaping and redefining the business to cater to today’s industry.

Evolving with the Industry

Greg works as the EVP of Enterprise Solutions and recently joined Cint to help in its global acceleration. He admits that he is new to the market research industry. On top of growing the company, Greg wishes to help transform the business into a genuine SaaS platform offering fully-automated end-to-end solutions.

They hope to achieve this not through a big shift in strategy but by using the existing platform and their tools that have evolved through Cint's twenty years in the industry.

“It's evolving the toolset and the roadmap to enable our market research customers to actually manage their entire supply chain in one place.” - Greg Dunbar

Quick links to connect with Richard Thornton and Greg Dunbar:

Richard Thornton - LinkedIn

Greg Dunbar - LinkedIn

Cint - Website

Cint - Twitter

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On this episode, fellow market research industry podcaster Jamin Brazil joins Sima Vasa. He shares the story behind his company, Happy Market Research, and his eponymous podcast.

Jamin Brazil - Birth of a Mantra

Jamin has had the life mantra that sometimes, you just have to laugh. He intentionally injected smiles and laughter into his life during difficult times.

This belief stemmed from a study of clinically-depressed individuals. Half were treated with medication and the other half, with a 30-minute forced smiling exercise. The latter induced an improved mindset in the individuals who went through it, and this inspired Jamin.

“The hallmark for me in starting Happy Market Research was exactly that — to create an emotional connection to the brand.” - Jamin Brazil

Maintaining Relevance in MR

Traditionally, market research has not been a very happy industry, especially in the old days. This is why Jamin feels that there’s power in infusing joy and playfulness into what researchers are doing. With this change, there will hopefully be more positive outcomes in the industry.

He became the CEO of a large technology-based organization in market research without a single clue as to what he was going to do. Jamin started asking himself how he would be able to maintain relevance and connection to the industry that he loves.

A Need for Conversation

He went through a six-month journey of assessing the state of market research through different conversations with agencies and brands. This brought to him a couple of realizations.

“There is this fundamental divide between what market researchers were offering and what the brands really wanted.” - Jamin Brazil

And so he felt the need to find a way to facilitate a conversation between these two divisions. Hence the birth of his podcast, which creates an intimacy with its listeners in a very unique manner. This intimacy comes from the fact that most consumption is happening while listeners are doing something that they don’t necessarily love.

“It's as if you're partnering with that individual psychologically and helping them through that drudgery and then also, of course, adding to them some value.” - Jamin Brazil

Quick links to connect with Jamin Brazil:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Happy Market Research

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On today’s episode, co-founder and CMO of Measure Protocol Paul Neto joins Sima Vasa. Together, they talk about the value blockchain plays in today’s market research landscape, and how Measure is promoting fair compensation and usage of consumer data.

Paul Neto - Measure on Blockchain in MR

There has been a lot of discussions about what blockchain means for the market research industry, and Paul and his team has seen its value. Measure is a blockchain-based protocol or platform that facilitates the marketplace that is full of so-called person-based data. In this marketplace, individuals have full control of their data that they can monetize.

Contributions to this pool of data are made through various types of tasks such as participating in surveys and sharing of behavioral data. All these are done to benefit two core stakeholders. These are the correspondent or contributor, and the researcher and data buyer.

“We specifically utilize blockchain and cryptography to build what we’d call protocols, and it’s really just defining a set of rules of engagement.” - Paul Neto

Consumer Trust and Data Quality

Measure aims for building consumer and buyer trust and driving data quality. Their founding principles include data sovereignty, privacy, transparency, and compensation. Their scheme allows consumers to engage with various data offers and tasks, from which an exhaustive data contribution profile can be drawn.

And to complete the process, they employ a series of mechanisms that allow them to request access to the data. Contributors are then compensated fairly.

“The idea is to have utilization of the protocol whether you are a brand, whether you are a panel or an existing research house.” - Paul Neto

Symptoms of a Broken Industry

A lot of people have yet to understand the magnitude of what might be broken in the industry in terms of respondent experience or respondent rates. When asked what the problems are, they would often talk about long surveys, declining participation, and fraud. But Paul thinks these are simply symptoms of the actual problem.

Quick links to connect with Paul Neto:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Measure Protocol

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Newly appointed President of EMI Research Solutions Adam Jolley joins Sima Vasa in this episode. He shares his future plans for the company, how the sample industry has changed, and how EMI is going to adapt to these key changes.

Adam Jolley - Future of EMI

Adam has been with EMI for more than a decade. His take over has been a long time coming, an itch of what’s next. He’s all in, and he wants more not only for his career but for the entire EMI.

With this new chapter of his life comes a lot of planning. They are trying to diversify to be in line with the changes in the industry, like the new ways to go about finding samples, different types of plans and different applications. Research buyers have also changed, a general observation by people within the sample industry.

“Maybe it's just the reallocation of the same money, but the buyers have changed so we need to adapt to that also.” - Adam Jolley

Changing with the Industry

The changing of traditional research buyers prompts a need to reinvent EMI’s messaging, products, and direction. They have been a consultative aggregator for the longest time. But now, they aim to focus on working with different types of clients, as well as incorporate more APIs.

Becoming a Disruptor

The recent shifts within the industry make market research beyond the typical. These also offer a lot more opportunities that are broader and bigger than the industry itself.

Changes in market research are constant, like how qualitative data gained as much importance as quantitative data over time. It takes disruptors to break down walls and make these changes to help the industry evolve and keep it alive. And to be a disruptor is also Adam’s dream for EMI.

“Can we get to the point where we’re the ones telling people that our way is the disruptive type of way?” - Adam Jolley

Quick links to connect with Adam Jolley:

LinkedIn

Twitter

EMI Profile

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On this episode, CEO and Founder of Kork Robert Wensley joins Sima Vasa. They talk about the company’s conception, its mission, and how Robert is changing the data brokerage landscape with his dedicated team.

Robert Wensley - Kork’s Mission

Kork is one of the world’s first consumer sourced data brokerage companies. Presently, data brokers are making about 200B in a year off of data. But here’s the catch: They do it without our consent.

A lot of data brokers know more about us than our best friend or families. We also don’t have any control over the types of data that get shared. Kork has decided to sink their teeth into this challenge.

“We’re trying to disrupt the traditional data brokers by creating a next-generation data brokerage platform where consumers themselves are in control over their data.” - Robert Wensley

A Little History

Robert studied in computer science, economics, and finance at Harvard. While he got lots of job offers for finance, he didn’t like it and went for real estate. After all, it seemed like an industry where he could make a decent amount of money without having to work many hours.

He worked with a house flipping company, which was doing very large-scale business with hundreds of properties. But the problem was that they weren’t making a lot of money. When he came in, he suggested that they pivoted the business model to focus on making deals since this step in the process brought in all the revenue.

On Data and Ethics

They completely redirected the company’s focus on marketing and technology. Then they started buying data for every household in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. Their machines looked into 1,500 to 2,000 data points to figure out which had the highest statistical probability of getting sold at 70% market price or lower.

Over the next three years, the company skyrocketed and hit record profit-level every month. But then an ethical problem arose—the algorithms were picking up all the bad things that would happen to a person. They had to protect consumers from unselective brokers.

“We decided to build this simple product that will just automate that entire process, that will opt out of all the largest data brokers in the United States.” - Robert Wensley

Quick links to connect with Robert Wensley:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Kork

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

For 2019’s first episode, Toni Clayton Hine, B2B marketer and former CMO of Xerox Corporation joins Sima Vasa. They discuss what it was like to market one of the most iconic brands in the world at a time when digital technologies were emerging and how data played a big role in defining their marketing agenda.

Toni Clayton Hine - Xerox's Marketing Agenda

Toni worked at Xerox for five years during a time when a lot of transformation was going on. The company was the prominent brand associated with print and copy, and Toni came into a division tasked to build out a new market. She became the CMO shortly after the company split in 2017.

Toni says that even after the split, the agenda was the same for both sides, how do you take the best of the Xerox brand in the print element and show people how that is still relevant?

“That means showcasing how we lived at the intersection of both physical and digital”. - Toni Clayton Hine

Understanding Customer Perception

In order to be relevant in a modern, digital way, Toni needed to change people’s perception of Xerox as a mere print and copy brand through advertising and other vehicles. To create the perfect story, she had to research the perception of the end customer.

She approached the research by making sure her team gathered current customer perception and requirements. Additionally, they had to know how these differ by country, offering or market segment.

Challenges in Research

Like any other endeavor, they faced a couple of challenges. These included the fact that they had the opportunity to ask people questions.

“It was more making sure we were looking at the insights with an open mind.” - Toni Clayton Hine

Toni wanted to make sure that they weren’t skewing the way they asked their questions to get the answers they wanted. They also had to be really open to how they were perceived in a competitive landscape. On top of this, they had to make sure they had enough data points to slice and dice.

Quick links to connect with Toni Clayton Hine:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On the sixth episode of this Attribution Acceleration round-up series, Lawrence Chan joins Sima Vasa. He talks about location intelligence and how persistent and accurate location data play important roles in market research and attribution.

“When you have those types of signals basically dictating whether or not somebody went somewhere, without that persistent context of where someone came from or where they spent time, it becomes really, really good for folks to do meaningful attribution.” - Lawrence Chan

Lawrence Chan - Cuebiq and Location Intelligence

Lawrence Chan is the SVP of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Cuebiq. They are a location intelligence company focused on data quality and persistent location data.

He has been part of the team since its inception. He now identifies innovative opportunities and strategic partnerships to drive the company’s expansion. They have found a way to scale the usage of persistent and accurate location data in a way that could be meaningful for many marketers as well as retailers to use for decision making.

Persistent Location Data

The importance of looking at persistent location data when assessing marketing strategies and consumer behavior can’t be undermined. Using a single location data point to break down and conclude that one’s advertising worked is often erroneous. You can never be 100% accurate when making this attribution.

“When you have sparse amounts of data that's not persistent, you can't really do much with it. It's a guess that's not based on anything.” - Lawrence Chan

The Importance of Context

This is especially obvious when taken in the context of real-life establishments like the movie theater. It may be inconclusive to say that a marketing effort was effective if a consumer spends five minutes in a theater. It’s also important to take note of the pathways that led them to the location to ascertain their interaction.

“That time context really creates a huge difference in terms of understanding what a consumer actually did versus what we saw from the location data.” - Lawrence Chan

Quick links to connect with Lawrence Chan:

LinkedIn

Twitter - Lawrence Chan

Cuebiq

Twitter - Cuebiq

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

For the final episode of this Attribution Accelerator round-up series, Jane Clarke sits with Sima Vasa. They talk about the forum and the deeper focus on the topic of attribution. They also discuss the growth of granular measurement of data across media platforms.

Jane Clarke - On CIMM and the Attribution Accelerator

Jane is the CEO and Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). She is responsible for developing CIMM’s strategy and vision and overseeing operations.

She says that the Attribution Accelerator is one of the only places where people can get a deep-dive focus on the topic of attribution. This has become very important for all marketers and media companies trying to sell their advertising platforms.

Improvements and Challenges

There has been some improvement in the granulation of data in relation to television and other media platforms. While this is considered a way forward, there has also been some challenges especially with the more rigid privacy compliance policies.

Particularly, the linking of all these data sets for full cross-channel attribution has been challenging because of Google, Facebook and GDPR. Consequently, some people use privacy as an excuse not to share their IDs that link all the exposure on their platforms versus the other platforms that an advertiser can then put together.

“I do think there's some hope that the industry can work out a way to do this in a way that works for consumers that is privacy-compliant.” - Jane Clarke

Excitement in Television

The present challenge of having to match data multiple times from different platforms for an advertiser to arrive at conclusions exists. Despite this, there is excitement in the television side.

“There never has been granular TV ad exposure data available before so they can now do some studies done in digital for years.” - Jane Clarke on improvements in TV data measurement

Advertisers can’t necessarily link these data. But they are able to get a deeper dive into television that was previously impossible. This is so important for many advertisers since this gives them more credence to rationalize every dollar spent on TV advertising, which continues to be a huge platform.

Quick links to connect with Jane Clarke:

LinkedIn

CIMM

Twitter - CIMM

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Jeff Greenfield sits with Sima Vasa today for the sixth installment of this Attribution Accelerator round-up series. He shares how marketing mix models differ from multi-touch attribution, as well as how the latter helps marketers play in the modern space.

Jeff Greenfield - C3 Metrics and Attribution

Jeff is the COO and Co-Founder of C3 metrics. He says that attribution in the way C3 plays it is a convergence of all things coming together.

Prior to multi-touch attribution, marketers were stuck with broad, top-down marketing mix models. A progressive company gets a new model done every year and this model will dictate budget allocation. However, there are no clear-cut goals in terms of a feedback loop to direct marketing channels.

Marketing Mix and Multi-touch Attribution

While the next model will help in adjustments, there’s no real feedback to the actual ground people in terms of telling them what they have to do.

“Multi-touch attribution tells you how to allocate it within that specific channel and cross-channel at a very, very granular level.” - Jeff Greenfield

Marketing mix allows marketers to know if they have hit their costs. Meanwhile, the multi-touch attribution tells which media channels are working. This is key to effective marketing, since the media environment is so fragmented.

Marketing Then and Now

Back in the days, buying the services of Carson will ensure that 80% of America will know of your brand and services the next day. But now, with all the distractions and wide array of things consumers are exposed to, it is difficult to pin down the right track.

“All you had to do is have enough money. You don't actually have to measure back then.” - Jeff Greenfield

Without the ability to determine the channel that works, most marketers will have to go with their gut. Most marketers fall in love with tactic and strategy, then all of a sudden it’s three weeks before the end of the quarter. They also often cut everybody by 90%, but having the tool will tell you precisely what to cut so it won’t hurt next quarter.

Quick links to connect with Jeff Greenfield:

LinkedIn

Twitter - Jeff Greenfield

C3 Metrics

Twitter - C3 Metrics

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Christian Bartens of Equifax and Datalicious touches base with Sima Vasa for this fourth episode of the Attribution Accelerator 2018 series. He talks about what Equifax and Datalicious offer to their customers. Together with Sima, he also shares a little more about the topic he tackled for the forum.

Christian Bartens - Data-Driven Marketing (DDM)

Christian’s company, Datalicious, has been acquired by Equifax of which he is now the Marketing Measurement Leader.

“Equifax has a lot of very interesting data assets that have been in the data game for a very long time.” - Christian Bartens

They don’t have many people but they have their own dedicated marketing service that is called data-driven marketing or DDM. The people behind DDM break down into four capabilities, which they called link, reveal, engage and measure.

Four Capabilities of DDM

Link is all about linking data sets, getting rid of data silos and creating the mythical single customer view. The people who do this are an army of data analysts that help customers analyze their data to find juicy segments within the sets, like where their most profitable customers are. This is the reveal part.

Equifax also helps find more of the same, which they call engage. They have integrations where they can create targeted email lists to help in this goal. And then, Datalicious comes in for the final part, measure.

“We're filling that measurement capability to help people actually analyze [whether] what they're doing doesn't work or not and then do more of the same.” - Christian Bartens on Datalicious as part of Equifax

Purchase Path by Datalicious

Christian started Datalicious ten years ago in Australia and Asia. It has grown all over Asia since. Now, they’re trying to build the same capability for Equifax in the US, specializing in attribution.

They build what is called the purchase path.

“We assemble every single touch point people have with the brand before they buy something or do something of value.” - Christian Bartens

Quick links to connect with Christian Bartens:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Datalicious

Equifax

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!