Intellicast

Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, Gabby Blados and Brian Peterson are joined by special guest Brianna Boyer, the Senior Director of Solution Strategy from AYTM, to discuss agile research.

Before jumping into the agile research discussion, Brianna talks about how she got into market research. Like many of us in the market research industry, Brianna talks about how she kind of fell into the industry. Brian and Brianna talk about what could happen to the industry if an effort was put into having people pursue careers in market research rather than just fall into it.

Next, Brian, Gabby, and Brianna dig into what agile research exactly is. Brianna explained that agile research involves applying the agile mindset to research, emphasizing rapid progress and change, unlike traditional methods. She noted that agile research often involves shorter, more DIY studies but stressed that these characteristics are not its core but rather a byproduct of the larger values and principles behind agile.

Next, Brianna discusses the benefits of the agile methodology in product development, emphasizing its focus on incremental steps and iterative processes. She highlights the importance of not being too invested in one question or aspect but rather focusing on the current answer that can help progress. Brian asked if shorter surveys were a part of this process, to which Brianna agreed, suggesting that while there’s room to reduce the length of surveys, it’s important not to eliminate all depth in favor of brevity. She proposed thinking in terms of ‘must haves,’ ‘should haves,’ and ‘could haves’ and focusing on the first two to keep the length of surveys manageable.

They then turn to the challenges of agile research. Brianna mentions that the biggest challenge is implementing agile research, highlighting the need for a mindset shift and change management. She emphasizes the importance of buy-in from stakeholders and teams, to the reality that change takes time.

This leads to Brianna talking about realistic timelines for implementation. Gabby and Brianna then discuss the potential of using agile research methods within traditional market research frameworks to identify insights quickly. Brianna explains that while agile research may not be suitable for every project or need, it can be beneficial between larger research projects. Brianna also suggested that agile research can be particularly effective during innovation cycles and for new initiatives.

In the last segment of the interview, Brian, Brianna, and Gabby discuss AI’s impact on the future of agile research. Brianna highlights the potential of AI in data analysis, designing questionnaires, and building visualizations while also voicing some concern about the potential loss of human interaction and richness of insights.

If you ever wanted to know about agile research, this is the episode for you.

You can learn more about AYTM by visiting their website: https://aytm.com/

You can connect with Brianna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannalboyer/

Thanks for tuning in!

We are proud to have collaborated with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

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Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and

reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

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Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, Brian Peterson is joined by Jason Inderhees to talk about the latest market research and AI news! 

Kicking off the episode, Jason and Brian discuss the latest Bellwether report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), which found that market research budgets declined in Q4 2024. It also mentioned that the industry is expected to decrease by 1% over the next few years. Jason talks about how, while the overall industry may decline, pockets still experience growth, and you just need to uncover them.

Next, the guys talk about the new appointment to the Toluna board. They ponder if this accelerates Toluna’s move to target brands and offers them a full suite of solutions.

The guys then switch gears a bit and talk about a $33 million investment in Anomalo, a California-based data quality platform. They talk about how the platform works and if there are any potential applications for the market research industry.

The second half of the episode starts off with the debut of the new intro music for the AI News segment. Jason and Brian then dig into some recent AI news stories, including news that Publicis Group plans to invest 300 million Euros in AI over the next three years.

The next few AI stories aren’t market research-specific but could impact the industry and industries we serve. First, the guys talk about the recently issued executive order around AI that aims to ensure that the US leads the way and manages the risk of artificial intelligence. Brian and Jason postulate that this is probably just the start of AI legislation. 

In the last story, they guys dive deep into news that New York had proposed a new law called the New York Robot Act that would impose a tax surcharge on “using technology to displace workers,” in an amount equal to taxes and fees that would have been paid on what an employee would have earned in the eliminated position. Jason and Brian are a bit on opposite sides of the debate on this one, but come out at the end seeing each other’s point of view.

Thanks for tuning in!

We are proud to have collaborated with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and

reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

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Welcome back to Intellicast! 

On today’s episode, we are joined by Dan Braker of Breakthrough Research.

Just a note, we recorded this interview in December.

Kicking off the episode, we learn a bit about Dan’s background and what led him to get into market research and start his own company Breakthrough Research. This leads to a discussion around design, and its importance, especially in marketing materials and market research reports.

Next, we talked with Dan about Breakthrough Research’s new Brand Authenticity Approach. It was built to measure the authenticity of brands, as well as spokespeople and others who may be associated with it. Measuring the authenticity of a brand means measuring if a brand is meeting its standards and values in the eyes of consumers. It tries to show if a brand is being honest, transparent, and acting on what they say they stand for.

Dan next talks about the results from the pilot program testing brand authenticity they ran earlier in 2023. Dan talks about how they found 3 of the top 4 most authentic brands were kid’s brands. He also discusses how in the top 20, there were several competitors that both ranked.

You can read the results by downloading the report here.

In the last part of the interview, we switch gears a bit and have some fun with Dan, and learn how he became a basketball fanatic.

You can learn more about Breakthrough Research by visiting their website: https://bthrough.com/

You can connect with Dan on LinkedIn here.

Thanks for listening!

We are proud to have collaborated with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

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Welcome to a new season of Intellicast! We start the new season with some big news about Brian Lamar. Brian has decided to embark on a new professional journey and has decided to leave EMI. We wish him nothing but the best in his new adventure!

Stepping into guest co-host for today’s episode is Tony Brown, a B2B sample expert whose expertise is well-regarded in our circles.

Tony and Brian then jump into the latest market research news. First up, the guys discussed the latest news from YouGov, including the closing of their GfK panel acquisition and their new acquisition of KnowledgeHound. With his keen understanding of the market, Tony shared his thoughts on how these acquisitions could reshape the competitive environment and enhance the analytical capabilities available to researchers.

Keeping with changes in the sample industry, the guys next discuss Norstat completing its integration of Panelbase into its network. Tony’s past interactions with Panelbase provided a personal touch to our discussion as he recounted his experience with Angus Webb, its founder, as well as the company’s growth trajectory and its potential to influence the UK market research scene further.

Tony and Brian switch gears and talk about the latest AI news in market research. Before they jump in, Brian mentions that they should make AI in market research an official segment with intro music and everything.

They then discuss FlexMR’s new generative AI-based text analytics tool, TextMR. This leads Brian to wonder if we are at the early stages of a new tools arms race, similar to a couple of years ago when Research Defender and other data quality tools all popped onto the scene.

In the last story of the episode, the guys congratulate the newly elected members of the Insight Association’s Board of Directors. They include friends of the podcast Katie Gross and Jim Lane.

Stay tuned for more episodes featuring rotating guest co-hosts, and as always, feel free to reach out with your thoughts and questions.

Thanks for listening!

We are proud to have collaborated with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

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Welcome back to Intellicast! It is our last episode of season 6. Rather than revisiting past interviews as we have in the past, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian take a look back at this past season.

They talk about the biggest trends from this season, their favorite guests, favorite news stories, what they felt were the best episodes of the season, and more.  They even go back to see if what they think are the best episodes match the most downloaded episodes. 

We want to thank everyone for tuning in this season. We had a blast, and we hope you enjoyed it!

Happy Holidays and we will be back in January!

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Welcome back to Intellicast! Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have a bit of a different episode today – they are continuing the AI discussion from a couple of weeks ago but with a market research news twist.

Jumping right in, they guys congratulate EMI’s Angelica Jump on being named to the Significant Insights Global 30 Under 30 list for 2023. You can check out the full list here: https://www.significantinsightsmedia.com/30-under-30/2023/

Before they jump into the AI/market research news discussion, the guys discuss the drama going on at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Brian gives a quick recap of the situation that went down.  The guys then give their opinions of it and what it means. The OpenAI conversation leads to Brian Lamar talking about Insights Takeover week at EMI and everything he and his team have planned. (Much of what Producer Brian was hearing about for the first time)

Next, the guys jump into some AI news from around the market research industry, starting by talking about findings from a recent study from Ofcom around generative AI usage among kids and teens. The study found that four out of five teens ages 13-17 use generative AI tools, which wasn’t even the most eye-popping insight. The discussion around this story led to a couple of rabbit holes.

Brian and Brian then talked about Unilever’s new AI Research lab in Toronto, SightX’s new Generative AI consultant solution, Stagwell's partnering with Google to create AI solutions, and CivicScience’s new AI tool, Sage.

In the last segment of today’s episode, the guys look at AI from a legislative perspective.  First, they break down the comments made by the UK’s Minister for AI and Intellectual Property recently at Parliament about how regulation was needed for AI.

Next, the guys talk about all the different new laws that have been proposed in the US that deal with AI in some way.

Finally, the guys discuss MRS’s newly published report, The BEST Framework for Generative AI: How and When to Build AI into your Research Processes. They also touch on the ethical guidelines that were

included in the report. You can download it here: https://www.mrs.org.uk/campaign/id/genai

Thanks for listening!

We are proud to have collaborated with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Intellicast! It's hard to believe we are in

the final month of 2023. Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have lined up a quick

news episode to help you ease into December.

Starting the episode, the guys talk about the Q3 earnings

reports from Ipsos and ComScore. The two are like two sides of a coin regarding

the financial results they reported. 

Next, the guys discuss some of the executive changes at Toluna

in the wake of its acquisition of MetrixLab earlier this year. The changes

included MetrixLab's former global HR director, Hans Verhulst, being named

Chief People Officer and Jolique Weelink being named the Chief Insights

Officer.

Brian and Brian then discussed GMO's new API connection

method, Organic Sampling. Producer Brian asks if this is just River Sampling

2.0, which Brian Lamar thinks could be. Although he feels it improves

connecting studies to the right respondents, it doesn't matter.

In the last story of today's episode, Brian and Brian discuss

the rebranding of Kantar Public to Verian. 

Thanks for listening!

We are proud to collaborate with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative

Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer

data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today!

Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and

reports? You can find it all on our Resources page

on our website here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Intellicast! Today’s episode is a bit different than normal. Brian Lamar and Producer Brian kick off the episode by jumping into some market research news, but all stories are tied to the theme of today’s epsiode: AI.

First up, the guys discuss the news of SurveyMonkey’s new AI tool called Build with AI. They talk about how this can help non-researchers write better questionnaires, along with some speculating about what they hope to see in the tool in the near future. It leads to Brian Lamar touching on a recent WIRe event in Cincinnati where AI was discussed.

Next, the guys touch on Voxpopme’s new AI tool called Live Interviews. It leads to a conversation about how quickly qualitative firms have embraced technology since COVID.

In the final news story, Brian and Brian discuss the recent findings from a Qualtrics study on market researchers’ impressions and feelings of AI in market research. There were some surprising results, but the guys found it helpful that while people were optimistic, they did recognize the potential hazards.

In the next segment, they guys dig into how AI is being used throughout the industry, along with a variety of examples. They also talk about how EMI is using it internally, for both market research and just to increase efficiency. They guys talk about how they are personally using it along with some of the experiments they have been doing. Brian talks about how while he was testing image creation, he found a glitch where AI was misspelling words in the images, even after being told not to misspell it and being given the correct spelling. Brian Lamar also gives an example of one of the other applications that his team is using AI for. 

Thanks for listening!

We are proud to collaborate with Brandtrust, combining their Narrative Inquiry and our Strategic Sample Blending to unlock deeper insights and richer data, enhancing our ability to understand the complex topic of mental health. Download the eBook today.

 Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here.

 Did you miss one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian dig into some of the recent news from around the market research industry.

The episode kicks off with some commentary about how fall has really set in over the last week or so. Then Brian Lamar starts to provide some updates on upcoming conference dates. He talks about not only the ones left on the schedule for 2023 but many that have been announced for 2024 as well.

Brian then gets into the upcoming Cincinnati WIRe event where EMI’s own Mary Draper will be speaking on a panel with Mike Herrel and Rudy Bublitz about artificial intelligence, diversity, and more at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati.

After the conference discussion, the guys jump into some market research news. First up is the news of the new Delete Act in California that strengthens CCPA regulations. The guys wonder how this will impact companies and people who are based outside California but work with businesses/people who are.

In the next story is a big one for those of us in the sample industry. Research Defender was acquired by Rep Data. Brian and Brian discuss the acquisition, and how it will enhance the competitive landscape around data quality. We also want to send our congratulations again to friends of the podcast Vignesh and the entire Research Defender team. 

In the next story, the guys discuss another data quality-related story, this time the new initiative, Colab, from Verve and Basis research. It takes a different approach to data quality that the guys hadn’t seen before. Brian is encouraged and hopes it is successful. Producer Brian plays devil’s advocate and asks how they could account for someone using the new voice chat function of ChatGPT to game their validation methods.

The guys switched back to data privacy news with a story about the new federal legislation being proposed called You Own the Data Act. The proposed legislation would prohibit a lot of data collection, use, and storage by a number of insights companies and organizations, as well as requiring several common consumer data privacy rights. The guys talk about Howard’s response to the legislation, as well as give their own perspective on it.

In the last couple of news stories, the guys touch on the winners of the MRX Podcast of the Year award, as well as the winners of the Female Founders Award.

In the last segment of the podcast, they guys discuss a recent Greenbook article titled, Why the Sampling Ecosystem Sets Up Honest Participants for Failure, from Karine Pepin of 2CV. The article talks about how EPC is a cause of fraud in the industry, and for honest participants to fail when taking surveys.

You can read the article here: https://www.greenbook.org/insights/why-the-sampling-ecosystem-sets-up-honest-participants-for-failure

Thanks for listening!

Watch our most recent webinar, Dangers to Trackers in the Age of Aggregation, on-demand here: https:/us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4916911556997/WN_NhLDtUJRQdC5v7awO_BTAw#/registration

Download our new whitepaper, Strategic Sample Blending: The Premier Methodology for Tracking Studies! You can download your free copy here: https://emi-rs.com/strategic-sample-blending-the-premier-sample-methodology-for-tracking-studies/

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Welcome back to Intellicast! We have another great guest joining us on today's episode. Craig Alter, who works in consumer insights at Perfetti Van Melle, joins Brian Lamar and Producer Brian to talk about how research has evolved from a brand perspective this year.

Before diving into the discussion, Craig brings us up to speed on what has happened with him since his last appearance on the podcast back in 2022. He explains how he joined Perfetti Van Melle and the reasons behind his career move.

Next, Craig shares his perspective on how research has adapted this year, considering the volatile economy and tightening budgets. He mentions that the impact on Perfetti Van Melle has been minimal, and we even speculate that candy might be recession-proof. Craig also highlights Perfetti Van Melle's growth mode, citing their recent acquisitions of new brands from Mondelez earlier that week.

The conversation then evolves into a discussion about how Craig and his team gather and utilize global insights, applying them to regional brands. They also explore the overlap between regional brands and tastes in different areas.

In the final segment of the interview, Craig discusses how he and the team at Perfetti Van Melle are incorporating artificial intelligence into their research process. He explains their plans to use AI to test video ads by analyzing a database of previous ads to determine their potential success.

It was enlightening to gain a different perspective!

Thanks for tuning in.

You can connect with Craig on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-alter/

You can learn more about Perfetti Van Melle here: https://www.perfettivanmelle.com/

Watch our most recent webinar, Dangers to Trackers in the Age of Aggregation, on-demand here: https:/us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4916911556997/WN_NhLDtUJRQdC5v7awO_BTAw#/registration

Download our new whitepaper, Strategic Sample Blending: The Premier Methodology for Tracking Studies! You can download your free copy here: https://emi-rs.com/strategic-sample-blending-the-premier-sample-methodology-for-tracking-studies/

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