Evidence Talks

Nicole Smyth from Holland & Barrett and Clare Woodward from BT talk to Mark Thorpe about the MRS Senior Client Council diversity & inclusion best practice guidelines. 

The guidance under discussion is available here.

Nicole Smyth, Customer Insight, Holland & Barrett
Nicole Smyth is an experienced Insight leader, having worked client-side within a number of UK and Global retailers, including ASDA, George Clothing and Debenhams, and most recently leading Strategic Insights at Holland & Barrett. With a passion for ensuring research is inclusive and representative, Nicole is involved with a number of EDI initiatives, including recently working alongside Clare Woodward (BT) to update the MRS client-side EDI Best Practice guides. Alongside this, Nicole is also leading EDI initiatives within Holland & Barrett to create insight team and agency guidelines focussed on improving representation in all areas of research and analysis.

Clare Woodward, Enterprise Insight Manager, BT
Clare Woodward is an experienced clientside research currently working for BT across B2B and B2C research projects. With a focus on ensuring research and the research industry are inclusive across both practices and culture, Clare is the original author of the MRS Clientside EDI Best Practice guides first published in May 2022 (and believed to the first of their kind!). Working alongside Nicole Smyth (Holland and Barrett) the guides have recently be reviewed and updated and will be relaunched following the MRS Clientside Conference. Clare is also a part of the MRS People and Talent workgroup and chairs the New and Returning Talent subgroup.

Georgie White, Chief Customer Officer at Holland & Barrett talks to Mark Thorpe, Truth Consulting, about what the MRS Inclusion Pledge means to her organisation.

In the fourth episode of the Open Windows podcast, Megan Cross, People Director for Finance & Legal and Head of Inclusion & Diversity and at Kantar talks to Mark Thorpe about how the MRS Inclusion Pledge signals a commitment to progress over perfection, provides access to community and offers guidance for organisations at any stage in their EDI journey.

Megan Cross, is People Director for Finance & Legal and Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Kantar. Megan is passionate about building inclusive, engaging and high-performing cultures.

Two years on from the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, this episode asks 'where are we now?' in the journey to embed generative AI into market research practice.

• Why are clients approaching generative AI with caution?
• How can small agencies use AI to punch above their weight and win new clients?
• Are fully autonomous research agents the future of market research? 

The group discusses the findings from an MRS Delphi Group report AI: Adoption & Integration - where are we now?

Download the report for free here mrs.org.uk/adoption

Host: Christian Walsh, Content & Digital Director, MRS

Panel:
Adelynne Chao, Founder, Untold Insights
Gemma Proctor, Associate Partner, PA Consulting
Patrick Alacantara, Strategic Customer Insight Lead, AXA

Conversation with Josephine Hansom, Youth Practice lead at Savanta, Fellow of MRS and Chair of the MRS' ED&I Council. 

Talking to Dr Mark Thorpe, Board Director, Truth

Podcast two in the series looking at EDI in the research and insight sector.

With James Endersby, CEO & Partner, Opinium and Priya Minas, Associate Director, Opinium

Talking to Dr Mark Thorpe, Board Director, Truth.

In this edition of Evidence Talks, we’re discussing a topic that has taken the research sector by storm - synthetic data.

But what do we mean by synthetic data? Are we just talking about filling gaps and augmenting real data based on primary research, or are we proposing to take the human out of the picture altogether, and just ask questions of ChatGPT or another similar large language model? 

What are the opportunities for the industry, and what are the risks for clients? Can AI convincingly simulate a customer? What are the ethical and legal implications of doing this?

The MRS Delphi Group has published a report ‘Using synthetic participants for market research' which is referenced during this podcast.

Host:
Christian Walsh, Content & Digital Director, MRS

Guests:
Reena Sooch, Partner, Day One Strategy

Ray Poynter, Founder of The Future Place, President of ESOMAR and Fellow of MRS 

Colin Strong, Head of Behavioural Science at Ipsos, Honorary professor at Nottingham University, Fellow of MRS and Chair of the MRS Delphi Group.

‘To be a window on the world we must reflect the world.’ Jane Frost CBE, CEO of MRS

What does being an MRS Inclusion Pledge signatory mean? 

Hear from Jane Frost, CEO of MRS and Mark Thorpe, Board Director at Truth on how MRS is supporting signatories to action their commitment to EDI in everyday work practices. 

Welcome to Evidence Talks, the podcast that explores the latest trends in how we understand customer behaviour. In this episode we turn our attention to the UK market research industry itself which has undergone quite a shakeup in the last few years. 

Barely a week passes on research-live.com without a new deal being announced. Just look at the dozens of notable sales in 2019: including Kantar to Bain Capital; Join the Dots to InSites; and Com Res to Savanta. The list goes on... 

The market research industry is consolidating more rapidly than ever before. According to the Research Live Industry Report 2020, research agencies in the UK generate more than £5bn turnover every year. And over half of that comes from the top 10 agencies. 

In this podcast we want to find out what the impact of this consolidation is on the people in the companies that are being bought and merged. 

We’ll also hear what it’s like for buyers of research - are clients getting what they want from fewer, larger suppliers? 

Ultimately, who are the winners and who are the losers in this new climate of deal making?

Host: Christian Walsh, Digital Director, Market Research Society (MRS)

Guests:

Rhea Fox – Head of Insight and Strategy at Aviva and member of MRS Delphi Group
Angela Morgans, Regional MD for Europe at Metrixlab
Jon Priest, former-ceo of Future Thinking and now Director of Capel Partners