Connections

Conference Paper
Abstracts

MRS Annual Conference

22-24 March 2006, Barbican, London
Disclaimer
There may be occasions when changes in content, speakers, timing and location have to be made for reasons outside
our control. MRS accepts no responsibility for the opinions of speakers or any other persons expressed at its events.
Introduction

Welcome to Research 2006 Connections, the 49th MRS Annual Conference,

to be held at the Barbican London on 22-24 March. In this booklet you will find
abstracts of the various papers and sessions of the conference, written by the
presenters. The abstracts appear in the order in which they take place during
the Conference. (Please see Contents Page overleaf ).
The theme of the conference reflects the fact that research occupies a central role in marketing
services and social policy, by connecting people and ideas and business or policies. This represents
a consolidation of research on a new, higher level, and follows on from the last three years of the
Thought Leadership Revolution at the MRS Conference. We are also already looking forward to
next year’s Jubilee Conference, which you will hear some news about during this year’s conference.

We hope that you will enjoy and find value in the abstracts in this book and that you will come
to the conference to hear the papers and attend the other sessions and the social events. Among
the other highlights of Research 2006 are keynote addresses from the Chairman of Chime
Communications Plc, Lord Tim Bell; Professor Adrian Furham, Professor of Psychology at UCL;
and Richard Reed the co-founder of Innocent Drinks.

You can also read more about this year’s conference on our Discussion Board,
on www.mrs.org.uk/res06/discussion.htm where you can also find a link to the full programme.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Co-Chair, Philly Desai (Turnstone Research and
Consultancy) and the other members of the Conference Programme Team for all their hard work:
Neil Swan (Synovate), Corrine Moy (GfK-NOP), Jeff Deighton (Ipsos MORI), Michael Warren (COI)
and Mark Horton (Northcliffe Newspapers).

I hope to see you at the Barbican.

Kevin McLean
Chairman
Research 2006 Programme Team
 Contents
Thursday Main Hall Thursday Theatre Thursday The Hub

Morning
4 Researching the Board
Michelle Norman, Synovate UK
5 Measuring the Value of Insight.
It Can and Must be Done
Steve Wills and Sally Webb,
Customer Insight Solutions Ltd
6 Is WOM Just a Buzz?
Simon Chadwick, Cambiar LLC
and Ed Keller, Co-author of
‘‘The Influentials’’
7 Measuring the Success of
Word of Mouth
Paul Marsden, Enterprise LSE
16 Reading and Writing: The Forgotten 24 Your Career: It’s a Game of Strategy
12 million Training Workshop led by Paul
Jon Cohen, Rosenblatt Ltd Cushing, RPCushing Recruitment
17 Crossing the Cultural Divide:
Access to Justice for Ethnic
Minority Communities
Karen Saunders, COI and
Penny Roy, Turnstone Research
and Consultancy Ltd
18 From Cohort to Communications:
Connecting with the Over 50s
Fiona Wood, COI and
Jill Armstrong, Stimulating World

8 Open Source Thinking: From Passive

Consumers to Active Creators
Graeme Trayner, Opinion
Leader Research

Afternoon
9 Marketing to the
Connected Generation
Neil Samson, Family Kids and Youth
and John Conlon, Nickelodeon
10 Childhood Obesity:
Issues and Insights
Elspeth Bradley, Kellogg’s and
Marie Laver, HPI Research Group
11 The Family Inheritance: Are Attitudes
to Advertising Kept in the Family?
Ian Brace, TNS UK and
Dr Julie Tinson, University of Stirling
12 IPA Touch Points: A New Era
in Integrated Media Planning
Graeme Griffiths, TNS Media and
Lynne Robinson, IPA
19 PVRs: Why Ads Work on Fast
Forward and the Implication
for Assessing TV Campaigns
Dr Alastair Goode, DUCKFoOT
Research and Development Ltd
and Julian Dobinson, Sky Media:
British Broadcasting Ltd
20 Knowing Your Blogs from Your Pods
Simon Andrews, Big Picture
21 Access Panels: The Conditioning Issue?
Trixie Cartwright and Martin Oxley, TNS
and Clive Nancarrow, Bristol Business
School, UWE
22 The Power of Conjoint Analysis and
Choice Modelling in Online Surveys
Ray Poynter, Virtual Surveys
25 How to Market Your Agency
Training Workshop led by
David Foxon, COI
26 The Web of Insights: The Art
and Science of Webnography
Training Workshop led by Anjali Puri,
AC Neilsen ORG-MARG India
27 Connecting with America
and Americans
Training Workshop led by
Hy Mariampolski, Qualidata
Research Inc

13 Motivation to Media: Bridging 23 Pilgrim’s Progress? How the Consumer

the Gap Between Research and Makes Complex Decisions
Media Planning Nick Watkins and Dr Miriam Comber,
Simon Barker, Synovate Censydiam UK GfK-NOP Financial Division
and Malcolm Hunter, Vizeum

14 Researching Lifestyles of the

Gay and Lesbian Communities
Helen Croxon, Channel 4 Research
and Sarah Bridgman, OMD

15 Pitch, Performance and Profit, Part One

Chaired by Marc Brenner,
Research Magazine
 Friday Main Hall
Morning
28 Pitch, Performance and Profit,
Part Two
Chaired by Susan Rogers,
Rogers International
29 Culture, Communications
and Business: The Power of
Advanced Semiotics
Katja Maggio-Muller, Procter
& Gamble and Malcolm Evans,
Space Doctors
30 The Value of Peer Research
Anna Pierce and Jaime Rose,
Ipsos MORI Participation Unit
31 Reconnecting the Prime Minister
Roy Langmaid and Charles Travail,
Promise Plc
Afternoon
32 Bringing the Customer into the
Heart of a Technology Business
Mark Uttley, AOLUK and
John Scott, KSBR Brand Futures
33 Connecting People Across a
Continent: Mobile Communications
in Africa
Jokke Eljala and Keith Bailey, Nokia
and Jane Gwilliam, Research
International Qualitatif
34 Packing a Punch: Using Packaging
as Effective Advertising and
Communication to Build Your
Bottom Line
Chris Sinclair, Ipsos MORI and
Andy Knowles, JKR
Friday Theatre Friday The Hub
35 The Cost of Cliché: Charts I Never 40 Gaining a Competitive Advantage
Want to See Again with Online Panels
Nick Southgate, dfgw Training Workshop led by
Pete Comley, Virtual Surveys
36 Connecting with Clients: Rethinking
the Debrief
Mike Imms, Mike Imms & Partners
in Development and
Audrey Niven, Listengroup
37 Connecting with Elizabeth: Using 41 Video Ethnography: Learning How
Artificial Intelligence as a Data to Conduct Observational Research
Collection Aid Using Film
Craig Kolb, Ask Afrika and Training Workshop led by Nick Leon,
Dr Peter Millican, Oxford University Naked Eye
38 Demystifying Blogs: Embracing
Objective Conversations
Carmen Aitken, Ipsos MORI
and Will Corry, The Marketing Blog
39 Connecting Insight with the
Organisation: Knowledge
Management Online
Luke Allen, Nunwood Consulting
and Corrine Green, Nokia
Paper

Researching the Board

Michelle Norman, Synovate UK

Rarely does market research shape Board-level decisions at a major plc.

But when £1.1 billion marketing services company, Aegis Group, faced the
need to evaluate the performance of its Board it turned to its own leading
research agency, Synovate.

What began as a compliance measure soon
turned into an initiative to drive performance
improvement. Drawing upon the research
conducted, Michelle Norman – Managing
Director of Synovate UK – will explore the
principles of Board effectiveness, the role
of research in evaluating them and, ultimately,
its ability to enhance Board performance
and company strategy.
yielded tactical information for addressing
individual performance issues, gave new focus
for development efforts and even generated
the creation of new appointments. In the
course of this illuminating paper, Michelle
Norman will demonstrate the importance
of research in driving board performance,
the challenges inherent in such a project
and the impact on the profile of MR.

In response to the Combined Code on
Corporate Governance (a directive to all
listed companies) Aegis Board Chairman,
Lord Sharman, tasked Synovate with
conducting an evaluation of the Board,
its committees and its individual directors.
Having successfully researched the key metrics
and met the FSA’s criteria, both Lord Sharman
and Michelle Norman felt that the research
could be taken further.
This paper sits naturally with the premise
of connections, in particular the relationship
between research and business success; the
Aegis Board Evaluation research identified
key priority areas for the business and provided
recommendations for tackling them. It also
explores a new connection between research
and the boardroom – one that can be leveraged
for future use.

Lord Sharman and Norman worked in

partnership to design a research programme
that would explore all aspects of the Board’s
effectiveness, identifying gaps between current
performance and best practice and pinpointing
key areas for improvement. To inform the
questionnaire, contributions were sought
from across the business in order to ensure
its alignment with company objectives.
Not only were views sought on the Board’s
collective performance but on that of
individual directors – some of whom had
never experienced peer review before. Analysis

4 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Measuring the Value of Insight. It Can and Must be Done

Steve Wills and Sally Webb, Customer Insight Solutions Ltd

Do researchers really want to be the pro-active, consultant level professionals

that they so often claim? Or are they actually happier in a reactive role,
applying their professional skills to meet the demands of others? If it is
the former, then they will have to acquire much greater commercial acumen.

Client-side Customer Insight teams are at a
crossroads. They have developed significantly
over the last 2 or 3 years into multi-disciplinary
teams bringing together insight from multiple
sources including market research, database
analytics and customer and market intelligence.
And they have placed much greater emphasis
on the onward communication of insight
within their organisations. But still these new
teams remain primarily reactive, demand led
functions, simply operating at a higher level.
The next few years will determine whether
they will develop into the kind of proactive
drivers of business value that they have the
potential to become.
Measuring the value will deliver benefits to the
company, to the insight team, and to agencies
and third party suppliers. More to the point,
expressing results in terms of value is probably
the most crucial difference between what
consultants do, and researchers don’t do.
This paper is the result of a project undertaken
by the Customer Insight Forum. It puts forward
the argument for value measurement, and
looks at the barriers to valuation as well as
practical solutions that will make insight
valuation a reality.

But how can Customer Insight teams become

proactive drivers of business value? A central
factor in whether they succeed will be the need,
and opportunity, to transform the value of what
they deliver by mastering the skill of measuring
the value of insight.

After reading this paper, if there are just

3 messages that everyone should take on
board, they are these:
Customer insight is a strategic asset. As such,
any business has a responsibility to exploit
it to deliver maximum shareholder value.
In order to deliver maximum value you have
to measure it.
The key to measurement is to learn to talk
pounds, not percents.

5 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Is WOM Just a Buzz?

Simon Chadwick, Cambiar LLC and
Ed Keller, Co-author of ‘‘The Influentials’’

Word of mouth. The most under-rated form of marketing in the modern

age or just another transatlantic buzz-phrase? A huge amount of ink and
conference air is being expended on Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM) but
do we know how it works, if it works differentially based on category, subject
or br why it works? A leading American WOM agency admits that it
is not quite sure how it works, but that it does.
How far does a marketing message reach recruitment system relies entirely on
through word of mouth? To whom? Does member-get-member and is therefore ideally
it make a difference if the person spreading suited to the study of WOM or viral marketing.
the message is an Influential? And is that We intend to conduct a series of controlled
category-dependant? (After all a person experiments using the panel to answer the
who is an automotive Influential may not questions posed above. To be honest, we do
be an IT Influential). not know where these experiments will lead
us. All we know is that the results cannot fail
Ed Keller (and his co-author Jon Berry) can to fascinate as we seek to provide answers
rightfully claim to have been pioneers in the to very fundamental questions.
identification of Influentials and in the study
of who they are and how they operate. What
is not so well known is how the messages that
they promote spread and proliferate. Is one
Word of Mouth Marketing Unit (WOMMU) as
good as another? This paper intends to shed
light on these questions through the conduct
of an unique experiment.

Imagine having a 3 million person Internet

panel where all the panellists were recruited
virally – i.e. it was “member get member”.
And imagine that this panel has been scored
for Influentials. Now imagine being able to
introduce into a select, stratified portion of
this panel a series of messages, promotions
and products and being able to track how
those messages spread through the
remainder of the panel – how far, how fast
and by what routes.

The authors have exclusive access for this

purpose to the Luth Research SurveySavvy
panel in the United States, a panel whose

6 Thursday Main Hall

Paper
Measuring the Success of Word of Mouth
Paul Marsden, Enterprise LSE
We provide data showing that customer word of mouth recommendation
rates predict sales growth for retail banks, car manufacturers, mobile phone
networks and supermarkets in the UK. The more customer recommendations
a company can elicit, the higher the sales growth for that company.
A telephone survey of a random sample of
1256 adult consumers in the UK found that
word of mouth recommendation levels were
statistically significant predictors of annual
2003-2004 sales growth (Pearson’s correlation
coefficients of r=.484 and significance of p < .01).
Word of mouth recommendations are linked
to sales performance in the UK; the higher
the proportion of customers likely to
recommend a company, the higher the
sales growth (Pearson’s correlation
coefficient r=.484, p < .01).
Companies with a relatively high proportion
of customers who would recommend them
included HSBC, Asda, Honda and O2,
and these companies grew faster than
their competitors.
Companies with a relatively low proportion
of customers who would recommend them
included Lloyds TSB, Sainsbury’s, Fiat and
T- Mobile, and these companies grew slower
than their competitors.
Overall, a 7 point increase in net
recommendations correlated with
a 1% increase in growth.
Customer satisfaction scores were not found
to be linked to sales performance; word
of mouth recommendations, not customer
satisfaction appear to drive growth.
Given the relationship between word of
mouth recommendation levels and business
performance, we suggest word of mouth
should be first and foremost measured in terms
7 Thursday Main Hall
of word of mouth recommendation rates.We
also suggest that the role of market research
in word of mouth management should not be
limited to data collection; market research can
actually create word of mouth by listening to,
involving and engaging customers in the
development of new products and services
really worth talking about. Moreover, through
a powerful phenomenon known as the
Hawthorne Effect (the effect that market research
has on turning participants into word of mouth
advocates) market research can drive business
performance directly. By engaging customers
with brands through market research,
businesses create word of mouth advocates;
and the more word of mouth advocates they
create, the higher their sales growth.
We conclude by suggesting that if the answer
to creating word of mouth lies in customer
involvement and customer engagement, then
market research is uniquely placed to achieve this.
Of all the communication channels in marketing,
only market research is based on listening,
on dialogue rather than monologue. Market
research enhanced by the Hawthorne Effect
maybe a powerful tool for driving business
performance, but it is more than that; it is the
first step towards really walking the marketing
talk; putting the customer, not the marketer
at the centre of marketing. Forget PR stunts,
pass-it-on advertising and stealth campaigns,
the future of word of mouth marketing,
indeed marketing itself, is market research.
Paper

Open Source Thinking: From Passive Consumers

to Active Creators
Graeme Trayner, Opinion Leader Research

This paper will outline how the market research industry needs to
adapt to the new relationship between people and organisations.

New information and communications We need to adapt our practices and

technology are allowing people to become
creators as well as consumers, and providing
them with the platform for direct and
unmediated conversations with organisations.
It has given people the means to move from
being passive consumers to active creators.
This new relationship can be best understood
through the prism of ‘open source’ thinking.
Originally a concept from software
programming, ‘open source’ thinking revolves
around everyone having the opportunity
to input into the development of an entity,
whether that be a product, service or
organisation. Successful ‘open source’ initiatives
revolve around co-creative communities that
bring together a sponsoring organisation and
interested parties to meet a common goal.
Openness leads to best results.
This represents a major challenge for the
market research industry as we are too
attached to ‘closed source’ thinking. We
too often connect with people as passive
respondents, rather than as active creators.
In contrast to ‘open source’ approaches that
emphasise ceding power, our way of working
is based on a tight model of command and
control. Moreover, smart organisations and
engaged consumers are seeking out and
creating their own co-creative communities,
which undercut the need for traditional
mediators such as researchers.
approaches to reflect this new environment.
Learning from the success of co-creative
communities, we need to re-frame the
relationship between the researcher and the
researched. We should connect with people
as ‘lay’ strategists, involve them in debate on
the implications of research, and give them
a greater sense of recognition. Importantly,
we should demonstrate that our approach to
recruitment for research can ensure that ‘open
source’ initiatives are not just the preserve of
active aficionados or determined detractors.
The market research industry needs to
constantly remind itself of the new needs and
interests of creative consumers. We must meet
people’s need for their identity to be recognised,
their voices to be heard, and for respect to be
given. As we move forward in the new open
source world, we should constantly seek out
ways to meet these needs, and harness people’s
imagination and creativity to the greater good.

8 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Marketing to the Connected Generation

Neil Samson, Family Kids and Youth and
John Conlon, Nickelodeon

Meet the ‘connected generation’, that is anyone who has been online since
infancy, able to work the video, or rather DVD since they were 3 years old
and for whom convergent technology is a reality not a dream.

A typical member of the ‘connected generation’
is a primary school aged boy or girl, whose
bedroom is an Aladdin’s cave of gadgetry
including a CD player, computer and TV with
DVD player. These children have grown up in
a world where everything connects together.
If they watch a successful TV programme they
expect to be able to buy character toys, the
video game, the DVD, the board game, and visit
the website, as well as buying the licensed food
and drink products that inevitably follow.
The future of marketing will change radically
as these young people grow older.
The ‘connected generation’ are empowered
with a vast array of high quality entertainment
options. Children are no longer passive
recipients of marketing messages, in their
‘connected’ world communications need to
attract and maintain interest in order to cut
through the clutter.
in children engaging in and pro-actively seeking
additional information on a particular brand, in
effect ‘pulling’ rather than being ‘pushed’ content.
Creating a dialogue with children across a variety
of different platforms (TV, on-line and mobile for
example) enables brands to forge powerful
relationships with young consumers.
Nickelodeon UK faces an increasingly competitive
marketplace where ‘content is king’. To remain
at the top Nickelodeon must effectively
communicate with the ‘connected generation’.
The new multi-media landscape lets Nickelodeon
create richer, more multi-dimensional
entertainment experiences for children.
Nickelodeon, using its in-depth knowledge
of its audiences, recognised early on the
potential to engage and cement relationships
with children and parents by using a multi-
platform approach in its communications.

Successful multi-media communications mirror

the range of media that children are accessing,
often simultaneously, recognising the need to
enter into their world. They also demonstrate
an understanding of the need states of their
audience when using different media and
reflect these in the execution of the campaign.

The explosion of entertainment choices and the

increasing ability to interact is driving the trend
towards ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ consumption of
media. Effective multi-media campaigns result

9 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Childhood Obesity: Issues and Insights

Elspeth Bradley, Kellogg’s and
Marie Laver, HPI Research Group

Childhood obesity is a common hot topic which shows no signs of abating.

Media messages regarding the ever increasing weight gain of children
today and their poor state of nutrition are becoming ever more prevalent –
epitomised by the recent TV programme, ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’
documenting his battle against the Turkey Twizzler.

Many studies have already been conducted
to understand the degree to which different
factors have contributed to the reported
increase in childhood obesity as well as
measuring overall levels of obesity throughout
childhood. This report aims to provide a more
detailed understanding of the more
individual-level factors and the inter-personal
level factors that can contribute to childhood
obesity. Individual-level factors are those that
relate to the individual child such as their
knowledge, attitudes and personal preferences.
Inter-personal level factors are those that relate
more to a child’s immediate social environment,
such as their parents’ knowledge and attitudes
towards healthy eating and physical activity.
emotional barriers for children to make
necessary lifestyle changes, and on equipping
their parents with the confidence to help them
over come them.
In addition to this, it highlights the pivotal role
of the parent in the overall task of tackling
childhood obesity. Our study discovered how
incredibly important it is for parents to actively
encourage their children to adopt better eating
or exercise patterns but to also participate in
any activities and represent good role models
to the adults of the future.

We talked to over 2000 children of all ages

and weights across Europe in order to
understand the key differences that exist
between particular groups in terms of their
attitudes and behaviour to eating and physical
activity. By deploying a number of qualitative
and quantitative techniques the study findings
reveal that there are a number of meaningful
differences in the way normal weight (BMI < 25),
overweight (BMI 26-29) and obese children
(BMI 30+) view food, health and exercise.

There is a vast number of complex and

interrelated factors to consider when exploring
how best to address childhood obesity. However
in order to make real progress a greater focus
needs to be on a better understanding of the

10 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

The Family Inheritance: Are Attitudes to Advertising Kept

in the Family?
Ian Brace, TNS UK and
Dr Julie Tinson, University of Stirling

It is more than 20 years since the concept of a segmentation of consumers

based on their attitudes towards advertising was introduced. It seems likely
that these attitudes could affect the way in which people react to advertising
and as such has implications for advertising.

In the intervening years a number of papers
have been published on this topic, supporting
the view that consumers can be segmented in
this way and that different segments do indeed
react differently to advertising.
More recently, the notion of marketing savvy
has become a topic of hot interest, particularly
in relation to children and their sophistication
in the marketing place.
This paper brings together these two
themes. We shall be looking at how, and if,
the advertising attitudes segmentation can
be applied to children as well as to adults; we
shall be determining whether these attitudes
are handed down from mother to child or
whether children’s attitudes are independent
of those of their mothers. If mothers are
sceptical about television advertising, do
they pass their scepticism on to their children?
The segmentation provides for two key groups
with opposing attitudes – the Players and the
Rejecters, the first of which is far more open
to advertising messages than is the second.
Does this mean that one group is more
marketing savvy than the other? And if so,
which group? The answer may not be as
obvious as it seems.
amongst their peers? This paper will look at
whether the fashion leaders are, or are not,
the children most likely to be absorbing
messages from television advertising, with
the implications for where fashion products
should be spending their advertising budget.
If mothers think that their children are
marketing savvy, does the data from the child
in question support this, or do mothers just
like to think that their children are smarter
than they are?
The study from which most of our evidence
is drawn covered children from ages 10 to 16,
so we shall also be looking at how attitudes
change over this formative period. Are 10-year
olds more open to advertising messages than
their potentially cooler and more sophisticated
older sisters and brothers?
Finally we shall be drawing conclusions about
the openness and the scepticism of children in
relation to both advertising and marketing, and
looking to see if this is passed from generation
to generation or whether children have attitudes
different to those of their mother. And your
mother should know best, but does she?

Do the children who are more marketing savvy

or those who are more open to advertising
behave differently when it comes to shopping,
marketing and being leaders of fashion

11 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

IPA Touch Points: A New Era in Integrated Media Planning

Graeme Griffiths, TNS Media and
Lynne Robinson, IPA

The IPA TouchPoints project epitomises the connections theme of the 2006
MRS Conference. The project comprises a 7 day electronic diary completed
every half hour accompanied by a 48 page lifestyle questionnaire.

TouchPoints objective is to ‘connect’ the and delivery of a truly groundbreaking and

6 main media audience measurement studies
into a single source advertising buying tool.
The TouchPoints ‘hub’ provides the vital links
and hooks necessary to join all the advertising
buying currencies together into a single
database while retaining the data integrity
of the original studies. Once connected, the
hub will be removed leaving behind a single
database capable of scheduling advertising
campaigns across all mediums.
The IPA TouchPoints remit is:
To provide a single source integrated
planning tool.
To deliver new and fresh insights in
its own right.
To act as a gateway across data sources.
To be complimentary to current
industry research.
Lynne Robinson (Research Director – IPA)
and Graeme Griffiths (Managing Consultant
TNS Media) will take the audience on
a journey through the conception, execution
and realisation of what has been heralded
as the biggest development in media and
advertising research since the passive
measurement of TV audiences.
ambitious research project that for the first
time ‘connects’ all the advertising currencies
into a single unifying planning tool.
Using innovative data collection methods and
state of the art fusion techniques, TouchPoints
heralds a new era in advertising planning.
Currently if an advertiser wants to place
a campaign across TV, radio and press then
they need to access three separate pieces
of software and purchase the advertising space
individually on each medium. TouchPoints
will revolutionise this process by enabling ad
buyers to visit one place and plan and purchase
space across all mediums simultaneously.
In addition to the integrated advertising buying
tool, TouchPoints will also be released as a
stand alone time use database containing
around 5,000 respondents, 35,000 days and
1,680,000 individual time periods.
The final integrated advertising buying tool
will be viewed as a template for the advertising
industry in many other countries and all eyes
will be focused on the launch.

At the time of the 2006 conference the

integrated TouchPoints database will have just
been released. The conference will be the first
opportunity to look back on the development

12 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Motivation to Media: Bridging the Gap Between Research

and Media Planning
Simon Barker, Synovate Censydiam UK and
Malcolm Hunter, Vizeum

The media industry is at the crossroads. Consumers increasingly control the

dialogue with brands. This means the old intrusion/interruption model upon
which communication planning has been based is increasingly less effective.
We can no longer force our way into the consumer’s mind because people
can avoid us.

Shouting louder, repeating again and again and People bring this emotional frame of mind to
again, spending more are not the answer. Likewise the paid for communication they receive in or
coverage and frequency are no guarantee of around the content (of the media).
anybody actually receiving a message.
They have a more positive and efficient
So we need to ask a new question. How can processing of communication when they feel
we be invited in? When and where can we a ‘consistency’ between the emotional state
find consumer when they are in the mood to they are in and the emotional content of the
receive the communication? When they will communication.
welcome it in? This means having a people
centric view of communication. Therefore Vizeum in conjunction with
Censydiam believe that as the world changes,
It is generally recognised that there are three key the emotional proximity between the media
elements influencing a consumer response to context and the advertisement or brand should
communication, the characteristics of the viewer, be a key driver in media selection.
the characteristics of the creative content and
context in which the communication is received. A 80,000 sample study across twenty countries
has taken place to identify the deeper emotional
While much research is conducted into the motivations that are satisfied by brands and
first two of these, relatively little has been media. Twenty categories, hundreds of brands
conducted in the latter field, the emotional and six media channels (TV, Magazines, press,
context. As the relationship with communications radio, internet, and cinema) were researched
changes it will become increasingly important. down to specific programme and title level.

People do not engage with media for the paid
for communication but for the content. This
content engenders an emotional response –
TV ads appear in TV programs that create
feelings like a sense of belonging or superiority,
magazine ads appear in magazines that make
us feel connected to the world and in others that
help us feel different from the world, cinema ads
appear before movies that satisfy our desire to
be thrilled, excited, feel warm towards others
and a whole host of other emotions.
This means we can match the motivational
profile of the message to the motivation of
the media.
It represents a significant step forward in
media planning as we move beyond the
demographically driven approach and select
media based on finding the consumer in a
frame of mind when they will be emotionally
predisposed to receive the message.

13 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Researching Lifestyles of the Gay and Lesbian Communities

Helen Croxon, Channel 4 Research and
Sarah Bridgman, OMD

Jointly commissioned by Channel 4, OMD Insight and GaydarRadio, Outright

2006 research is based upon a robust sample of 18,000 gay and lesbian
respondents and 4,000 straight. This makes the survey the largest ever to track
the validity, strength, brand preferences and purchasing power of the UK gay
and lesbian community. It delivers a unique knowledge base essential to
successfully communicate with this distinctive marketplace.
December 21 2005 saw the government finally lesbians claim to be more loyal to brands
recognising long term same sex relationships that are ‘gay-friendly’ and half believe that if
with the introduction of civil partnerships. companies advertise in gay media then they
2006 is without doubt set to be an should tailor their advertising. Sony, Gillette,
unprecedented year for the community with Calvin Klein, Nivea & Virgin are amongst the
interest in gay and lesbian consumer spending brands that they feel most positive towards.
set to spiral. Granted the majority of same
sex couples won’t have a wedding budget In the UK, the revolution has been much
anywhere near that of Mr & Mr Elton John but slower than into the States, but major brands
with an estimated 22,0001 couples expected are beginning to acknowledge the importance
to enter into civil partnerships by 2010 and of targeting the gay demographic in a credible
the average UK wedding cost at £15,000, and ongoing way. What Outright 2006 delivers
a new market is born. to them for the very first time is a substance
behind the speculation and the tools to
In the US the advent of same sex marriages communicate empathetically to the gay
galvanised advertisers leading to the biggest and lesbian marketplace.
increase in advertising spend to this sector
since 2000. An explosion in ads with gay
specific content (astounding 242% rise year
on year) created a 28% rise in ad spend to 207
million dollars.2 Most importantly, the 2004 gay
press report found that more than 150 Fortune
500 brands were active in the gay consumer
market place in 2004, up from 72 in 2001 and
just 19 in 1994.

Outright 2006 will help companies identify

how best to communicate with this unique
consumer group. The research covers lifestyle
issues such as coming out and discrimination,
brand preferences and attitudes for six core
consumer categories and an in-depth look
at media consumption and communication.
It demonstrates that over a third of gays and

1
Regulatory Impact Assessment published by the DTI
2
2004 Gay Press Report by Prime Access In and Rivendell Media Company Inc

14 Thursday Main Hall

Conference Session

Pitch, Performance and Profit, Part One

Chaired by Marc Brenner, Research Magazine

This session will address a number of the industry’s hot topics in a series
of compelling and engaging formats. The session will be pretty much
methodology-free. It will be an hour of unashamed business-oriented
debate, discussion and practical advice.

This will be a ‘must attend’ session for anyone First Steps

serious about building a successful research
business in the 21st century.
The session will look at the issues surrounding
the engagement process; the roster system, the
pitch, the presentation and the problems that
can arise at the early stage of the client/agency
relationship.
The session has been designed to appeal
to both the buyers and providers of research.
One of the industry’s most high-profile
researchers also offers clients his own ten-point
checklist for ensuring that communication,
at the early stage of the project, remains
fluid and effective.
This will be a highly interactive session
where questions from the floor will be
welcome throughout.

Engagement
Four senior research players will debate a number
of highly contentious issues which, in the
magazine’s first-hand experience, are of great
concern to readers. We will highlight the current
debate surrounding the roster system; how are
clients evaluating their needs? The trend seems
to be towards shrinking the roster – bad news
for the industry? Clients are demanding more
and more work on the initial pitch – are they
asking too much? Are researchers selling
themselves well? Basically, this section of
the session deals with the early stage of the
client/agency relationship. This session will
be chaired by Research editor, Marc Brenner.

The Pitch
One of the industry’s big research spenders
will offer research agencies his ten-point guide
to guaranteeing a successful pitch.

15 Thursday Main Hall

Paper

Reading and Writing: The Forgotten 12 Million

Jon Cohen, Rosenblatt Ltd

Rosenblatt has been an instrumental part of the development of the BBC

literacy strategy and of the development of BBC ‘RaW’ (Read and Write) –
the BBC’s biggest ever literacy campaign which launched in October 2005.

The BBC RaW Initiative This Paper Aims to Provide:

BBC RaW is a fresh, entertainment led, 3 year
literacy drive. Its target is the 12 million adults
across the UK who have English as their first
language, but a reading age of between 9 and 14.
12 million Adults Across the UK Have
a Reading Age of 9 to 14
That’s the equivalent of being able to
read the Sun. In other words, they can
read and write, they just don’t read and
write very well.
Some insight into the attitudes of the
forgotten 12 million towards reading and
writing and the implications for research in
terms of recruitment, the running of research
sessions and stimulus for research.
Practising What We Preach
This paper is designed to be short, relevant
and simple. Hopefully, that should make
it easier and more enjoyable to read.

Why That Matters

Poor literacy skills can affect the lives and
experiences of people to an extent which
those with proficient literacy skills can only
begin to imagine.

A Huge Proportion of the Population

is Virtually Forgotten by Research
People with poor literacy skills often
stay away from research. If they take part
in research, they may lack the confidence
to express their true opinions. And research
and stimulus is rarely designed with the
needs of those with poor literacy skills
in mind. That’s too many people to
forget about.

Research needs to consider the way

it approaches people with poor literacy
skills in terms of recruitment, the running
of discussions and stimulus development.

16 Thursday Theatre
Paper
Crossing the Cultural Divide: Access to Justice
for Ethnic Minority Communities
Karen Saunders, COI and
Penny Roy, Turnstone Research and Consultancy Ltd
This paper discusses the challenges involved in a recent research project
commissioned to explore how to improve ethnic minorities’ access to the
civil justice system. It will offer insights into the Lithuanian and Somali
communities and some broader implications for government.
Britain is more diverse than ever. In the ten
years to 2001, 1.1 million migrants accounted
for more than half of Britain’s population
growth. The diversity of cultures in different
parts of London is staggering. Walk through
Stratford and you’ll hear spoken Lithuanian and
Russian around you. In South London, phone
shops and food outlets are springing up to
cater for the burgeoning East African
community. In East London, Somalis pray
alongside Bangladeshis.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)
was established in 2003, with a commitment
to place the needs of the consumer at the heart
of everything it does: justice, rights and
democracy. It is this changing context that
formed the backdrop to a research project
commissioned by COI on behalf of the DCA
focusing on ethnic minority communities and
their perceptions, attitudes and engagement
with the civil justice system. Previous research
had already found that people from the more
vulnerable sections of society were less likely
to have the resources, knowledge and access to
information to resolve legal problems. The DCA
were, therefore, keen to ensure that people
from ethnic minority groups and non-English
speakers had equal access to formal and
informal means of resolving such disputes.
The research discovered that cultural differences
meant that different groups had very different
perspectives and approaches to the host nation
17 Thursday Theatre
in terms of what is viewed as ‘acceptable’ and
‘unacceptable’. We explored cultural attitudes
to issues such as forced marriage among Asian
communities and the disciplining of children
among the African populations.
This study highlighted the role that researchers
can play in bridging the divide between policy
makers and diverse and hard to reach
communities. Rarely researched audiences such
as Nigerians and the Chinese were included in
the research along with respondents from the
burgeoning UK Eastern European communities.
Lithuanian priests, Somali community leaders
and African community elders are not your
average research respondent!
Communicating across the cultural divide
and across a system as wide and diverse as
the British civil justice system posed further
challenges which conventional power-point
and written reports alone could not meet.
A number of approaches were used to
communicate the findings from top level down:
Ethno-cultural typologies based on a
qualitative segmentation of the target
audiences enhanced the development
of actionable strategies;
Visual maps demonstrating customer
journeys helped show how individuals
navigated the justice system;
Vox pops from our case studies
were essential to bring the findings
to life for the client.
Paper

From Cohort to Communications: Connecting With

the Over 50s
Fiona Wood, COI and
Jill Armstrong, Stimulating World

The latest Common Good research programme a government funded study

run by the Research Unit at COI, focuses on helping government departments
communicate more effectively with older people.

Aiming to take a look at the world through
the eyes of older people themselves, this study
set out to challenge some of the myths and
stereotypes that surround this audience, and
to identify new ways of targeting them by
exploring how their experience of ageing
impacts upon how they want to be addressed.
Over 65s are a growing demographic within the
UK and the rest of Europe and the growth is set
to continue. From a government perspective,
there is particular interest in terms of the
impact this may have on the shape of future
society and the public services that requires,
but there are wider implications for the broader
body of communicators, in both public and
private sectors. Though this is a broad and
heterogeneous audience that is difficult to
define accurately, it is often one that is referred
to in blanket terms, with little evidence of its
inherent diversity being addressed in current
communications practice.
have with different media and how this
changes over time. The study also cast a glance
to the future of the Boomer generation
currently in their 50s, and how their information
needs and media consumption may be
different from those of older generations.
The findings reveal new insights relevant to
all communicators across the public and private
sectors, including how to address an audience
who commonly reject the notion of being
addressed as older, and turn away from age
related advertising; why age or income related
segmentation is less effective than one based
on how successfully key life events are
negotiated; the importance of personal
networks both formal and informal; how to
devise successful executional strategies that
signal to this audience that they are being
addressed; and how to match the media to
the message.

A comprehensive qualitative study was

conducted by Stimulating World for COI,
designed to challenge old assumptions and
develop new hypotheses regarding
communicating more effectively with older
people. The study explored a range of
questions including whether older people are
really less engaged with advertising messages
than other generations or whether poor
executional strategy and targeting are more
to blame and the relationship older people

18 Thursday Theatre
Expert Briefing

PVRs: Why Ads Work on Fast Forward and the Implication for
Assessing TV Campaigns
Dr Alastair Goode, DUCKFoOT Research and Development Ltd and
Julian Dobinson, Sky Media: British Broadcasting Ltd

Alastair and Julian present the latest thinking on how to tackle new media
problems, such as the growth of PVRs and ad zapping, with new psychological
and technological research techniques.

This briefing is in two parts. Part one describes
a study conducted by Dr Alastair Goode of
DUCKFoOT R&D for Sky Media showing how
ads even shown at fast forward can increase
a person’s emotional response to it – this
finding was produced when Sky commissioned
an independent study to evaluate the impact
of ads seen on Sky+ when the viewer was
fast-forwarding through the ad break of
a recorded program.
The finding demonstrated that ads viewed at
x30 fast forward had a positive effect on both
brand and ad liking, providing they’d been
viewed previously to the study.
To understand this result the cognitive
psychology of implicit (‘unconscious’)
memory was considered. Cognitive psychology
suggested that when consumers see an ad they
implicitly store many different facets of the ad
experience, one of these is their emotional
state when seeing the ad. As the vast majority
of ads are designed to be pleasing to watch
the emotional state stored is virtually always
positive. It appeared that when the ads were
seen at fast forward they acted as a catalyst
to re ignite this stored emotion leading to the
increases in liking found.
This positive emotional increase however was
not found when the same ads were viewed at
normal speed. The implication of this finding is
that allowing consumers to consciously reason
their response suppresses their emotional
reaction. This finding highlight just one of
the problems that occurs when research is
conducted where respondents apply their
conscious reflections and underlines the
approach taken by Sky when setting up
the SkyView research technique.
In the second part of the briefing, Julian
Dobinson describes SkyView, the research
technique set up by Sky to underst and consumer
behaviour in relation to television viewing, an
approach that does not require consumers to
consciously report their on their behaviour.
It describes how SkyView not only measures
what people view but also in a single source
captures what they purchase. An outline is
given as to Sky’s motivation for setting up the
SkyView, how the technique was implemented
and the process of data collection. The paper
suggests how panels such as this can help in
keeping pace with and accurately monitor
technological developments in television in
a way that will provide a wealth of information,
based on actual consumer behaviour, on which
to base marketing decisions.
To Sky this research will bring a far better
understanding of customers and their
motivations. For advertisers it will add to the
existing industry research and bring some light
into areas such as interactivity, PVRs, consumer
targeting, and return on investment.

19 Thursday Theatre
Expert Briefing
Knowing Your Blogs from Your Pods
Simon Andrews, Big Picture
The world is flat.
Things have changed so much through digital technology that much
of what drove business in the 20th century is no longer valid in the 21st.
We’re all now used to email and the web,
the mobile phone and the Blackberry,
Google and PowerPoint. What did we
do beforehand?
Thomas Friedman’s’ must read book
“The World is Flat” details how digital
technology has changed business through
connecting people and led to outsourcing
and insourcing and opensourcing, the growth
of China and India as major economies and
made the world a truly connected place –
a flat playing field.
We think the marketing industry has a tendency
to believe they’re immune to these sorts
of changes.
We disagree; we think the new digital
channels will change marketing completely.
Over 100,000 people a week watch premiership
football live – for free – through Chinese P2P
websites – and thousands more search Google
trying to find out how to. What effect will that
have on the next round of negotiations for
TV rights – and what does that mean for those
advertisers who support TV with advertising
and sponsorships?
8 million videos have been sold through
Apple for viewing on video ipods – with
no advertising. How does that affect the
TV audience for those shows?
20 Thursday Theatre
Blogs have become an important channel –
how does their ability to break news and
drive rumour affect brands?
Google have announced their intention to
move into TV (they’re already selling press ads) –
when they can use their databases to determine
what is the best ad to show each viewer – and
measure the effect – where does that leave
media planning?
Over 1 million UK homes have personal video
recorders and evidence suggests they avoid
the majority of advertising – so what is the
future hold for TV advertising? (Carat predict
a $40 billion switch out of US TV!)
And as the BBC trial their media player –
allowing users instant access to every BBC
programme of the last 7 days – and PVRs grow
in memory size ( the BBC have one that can
store every UK programme shown in the last
week, what will the point of TV channels be?
We can’t answer these questions but Big Picture
was formed to help brands understand how
the world is changing and to help them
experiment with new approaches to marketing
and communications that might help them
survive and prosper in this new world.
Paper

Access Panels: The Conditioning Issue?

Trixie Cartwright, and Martin Oxley, TNS and
Clive Nancarrow, Bristol Business School, UWE

Given the increasing use of online access panels, especially for ad hoc
research projects, interest in the validity of online access panel research
has heightened. The major thrust of the paper addressees one aspect of this
validity in the form of the thorny issue of panel conditioning –
myth or reality?

It asks when, if at all, might respondent
conditioning occur and, how can it be
handled. What are the guidelines for
online panel management rules? For
example to what extent can the same
respondents be used in different waves
of brand and advertising tracking research
and, if so, what should the rules be for
frequency of recontacting and intervals
between these recontacts?
To address these questions the authors first of
all define and present a typology of respondent
conditioning. They argue there may be two
broad types of conditioning. The first is
conditioning that directly affects the mindset
on a topic or product category. Examples
include possibilities of learning during the
interview or after the interview as respondents
are sensitised to the topic, “the stimulus effect”
where the interview prompts the respondent
into action, “freezing” where a respondent tries
to be consistent and resistance to change
where the interview acts to crystallise and
harden attitudes.
Moving from theory to empirical work the
authors review and assess the evidence on
conditioning from past studies and in the
process describe and evaluate different
research designs. The value of theory and
empirical work to underpin rules on
recontacting respondents are discussed in
relation to ad hoc projects and tracking projects
using fresh samples of respondents drawn from
an online access panel. The authors describe
innovative exploratory research on online
tracking studies using the same respondents.
One aim of the research is to develop rules on
recontacts that might eliminate any unwelcome
conditioning effects on key measures such as
brand awareness, use, brand perceptions and
advertising recall. These exploratory online
tracking studies are currently running in the
France, Germany and the UK. Early findings
will be presented and recommendations made
regarding this potentially insightful way of
conducting certain types of tracking studies.

The second type of conditioning affects

the respondent’s disposition to the research.
Respondent motivation, honesty and research
‘savvy’ are potential factors. In the latter case
the conditioning, if planned and built into
the early stages of panel membership and
maintained, can be beneficial to the quality
of research.

21 Thursday Theatre
Paper

The Power of Conjoint Analysis and Choice Modelling

in Online Surveys
Ray Poynter, Virtual Surveys

The Internet has created new opportunities to use multivariate techniques,

amongst the reasons for this are: the fact that sample sizes tend to be larger
online and the power the Internet provides to use more complex designs. There
have also been tremendous advances in the mathematics underlying this field,
creating an exciting range of possibilities. This paper reviews how state-of-the-art
conjoint and choice modelling is being implemented via the Internet.
Conjoint and choice models have developed Most researchers will not be able to
over the last 30 years to allow researchers to understand the inner workings of the
quantify how much each attribute contributes Hierarchical Bayes, something which
towards the purchase intention of a product. will make many uncomfortable.
Early, paper-based, developments in this area
went from trade-off matrices to full profile The great improvements in online choice
conjoint (including ratings, pairs, and card modelling created by Hierarchical Bayes, and
sorting exercises). With the advent of CAPI being applied to Choice Based Conjoint and
new options appeared on the scene, in Adaptive Conjoint, should not blind researchers
particular Adaptive Conjoint Analysis in the to other innovations happening in this sphere.
80s and Choice Based Conjoint in the 90s. Max-Diff scaling is a new and radically effective
Towards the end of the 90s and to the current tool for applying a metric measure to complex
decade the methodological growth has centred scaling problems and issues. Build Your Own
on Hierarchical Bayes and the implementation configurators allow respondents to construct
has centred on the Internet. their own products or services and thereby
reveal their attribute preference structures.
Non-Bayesian statistics tend to be built on New options for measuring price sensitivity,
a paradigm where the hypothesis is held such Product Equilibrium Pricing allow the
to be true and the data conditioned upon researcher to harness the power of Internet
it. For example, if we assume that there is a to produce new, increasingly accessible, insight.
regression-based relationship, then we search
for the line of best-fit, and measure how well
the data fits our model. Bayesians hold the data
to be the given and condition the hypothesis
from it, which leads to new insight and options.

The great benefit of Hierarchical Bayes is that

it allows the researcher to ask each respondent
a sub-set of the choice questions, then calculate
the total distribution of results, and from there
work out the answers for the individuals – the
statistical equivalent to having your cake and
eating it. A potential problem introduced by
Hierarchical Bayes is the loss in transparency.

22 Thursday Theatre
Paper

Pilgrim’s Progress? How the Consumer Makes

Complex Decisions
Nick Watkins and Dr Miriam Comber, GfK-NOP Financial Division

Whilst many consumer decisions are quick and easy, it is unlikely

that these words would be used to define mortgage decision-making.
Instead, consumers are more likely to compare their experience to that
of the Pilgrim’s Progress – a long and arduous journey, made bearable
only by their desire for the ‘house beautiful’.

This paper addresses the implications for research
of lengthy and complex decision-making.
Given that the whole process can take months,
if not years, does it matter whether we interview
consumers at the beginning, middle or end
of the process, (assuming that longitudinal
quantitative surveys are ruled out on grounds
of timing and cost)? Can we even define these
stages in a meaningful way? And if so, do we
need to classify respondents so that we can
impose quotas or weight the data? Does
this matter more for some types of research
than others?
The starting-point for this paper was an
ethnographic study, carried out by GfK
Financial’s qualitative team, using ‘blogging’
to observe and interrogate consumers,
involved in the mortgage decision-making
process, for a period of two months in late
2005. This research suggested at least three
main stages of decision-making – scoping,
choosing and implementing. Having said that,
decisions were found to be anything but neat
and linear, with examples of consumers
‘bouncing back’ to earlier stages, changing
direction or giving up entirely.
of importance for the relevant decision criteria,
than those in the middle, or at the end of
the process. They also claim to use different
information sources.
This suggests that we should interview only
consumers close to their final product choice,
since decision criteria are claimed to change
over time. However, a conjoint exercise on
product features, included in the quantitative
survey, generated results that were much more
stable across the stages of the decision-making
process. This suggests that, for product research,
provided we use something like conjoint to
force respondents to think through the issues,
and don’t rely on top-of-mind stated importance,
a broader sample is acceptable. This may not be
appropriate when testing communications or
investigating information sources and channels.
In these cases it would seem advisable to
accept the different experience levels but
build them into the sample design and analysis.
Any experience measure will need to reflect
not only how far the respondent is through
the process, but also the buyer type since
the research also confirmed clear differences
between first-timers, movers and re-mortgagers.

A quantitative survey of over 1,000 mortgage

decision-makers was then conducted using
GfK NOP’s on-line panel. This confirmed that
consumers do observe changes in their own
behaviour and attitudes over time. Those at the
beginning of the process claim differing levels

23 Thursday Theatre
Training Workshop

Your Career: It’s a game of Strategy

Training Workshop led by Paul Cushing, RPCushing Recruitment

You don’t have to be a Bob Monkhouse fan to come along and join in our
game of ‘Career Fortunes’ (but a knowledge of eighties game shows would
give you a distinct advantage!).

Our fun, interactive session, based on
everyone’s favourite game show, Family
Fortunes, will help you to look at career
scenarios from a strategic angle. It will help
you to explore options and alternatives open
to you as you navigate your way through your
individual career path.
Remember, as the good Bob once said:
“Career Fortunes are never made by those who
leave it to chance!” (...or at least we’re sure he
would have said it if prompted!).
Attendees will receive a comprehensive
‘Career Guide’ to take away from the session.

Some members of the audience will be split

into two teams as they arrive for the session.
People will then be asked to give individual
answers to career related questions, to give
a broad range of thoughts and ideas on each
topic. Questions could include:
What are the benefits of relocation?
How do I kick start a career in Market Research?
What options should I consider before
accepting a job offer?
How do I get to the top of my profession
within the next five years?

If a team answer matches one of those on the

score board, provided by our panel of experts,
audience members could be on their way to
earning ‘BIIIIG MONEY’ as they learn how to
progress up the career ladder!

Expert recruiters and client-side HR personnel

will be on hand to share their thoughts, pinions
and experiences with potential candidates
from the audience. Candidates will benefit from
informative guidance on good and bad career
decisions and a focused session on how to take
control of your own career destiny!

24 Thursday The Hub

Training Workshop

How to Market Your Agency

Training Workshop led by David Foxon, COI

The session will include practical guidelines for selecting, approaching and
presenting to prospective clients. It will also share some, hopefully, useful
insights of what to do and what not to do based on first hand experience
of both the agency and the client sides of the business.

A broad outline for the session is as follows:

Getting noticed: different kinds of
approaches, what works and what doesn’t?
Positioning the agency: why should clients
take the trouble to meet you, what’s in it
for them?
The credentials meeting: are you telling
client what they really want to hear?
Keeping your prospects warm: staying
in touch with your contacts without
pestering them.

25 Thursday The Hub

Training Workshop

The Web of Insights: The Art and Science of Webnography

Training Workshop led by Anjali Puri, AC Neilsen ORG-MARG India

There are many ways in which the World Wide Web has been transformational
for this generation. As a new medium of communication, as a catalyst
to globalization, as a dissolver of boundaries, as a source of knowledge,
as a virtual marketplace, and as a convenience in the daily business of living.

One of the most significant roles the web
has come to play in our lives, however, is
that of a social forum – a living, responsive,
interactive community that provides a means
of connecting as well as self expression.
While market research has gone some
distance in refining the art of ‘online research’,
the focus of online efforts has been largely on
using the internet as a tool to reach potential
respondents efficiently. The potential of the
web as the object of study has remained
underexploited. It is this dimension of the
web – as a rich source of data on people’s
lives, interactions and collective opinions –
that offers tremendous possibilities in the
years to come.
As qualitative research moves increasingly
towards ‘natural’ contexts – observation over
interrogation, ethnography over focus groups –
insights culled from natural conversations on
the web have even greater value. It is thus time
to take a closer look at virtual ethnography
(or ‘webnography’!) to understand its potential,
its limitations, and the best ways of going
about it.
reservations that we need to deal with if we
are to truly make this a viable tool – and some
ways of bringing order and rigour to the chaos
that the web can be!
The training and discussion session will comprise
the best practices based on our own experiences
with this method, as well as the experiences
of other pioneering ‘virtual ethnographers’
that we gather through secondary sources.
Some of the issues that we cover are:
The representativeness and ‘authenticity’
of online respondents.
What are the sources of data that we can
access? Which are the best ‘texts’ to study?
How do the ‘findings’ of a webnographic
study compare with traditional qualitative
research/traditional ethnography?

‘Doing’ Webnography
While the advantages of webnography seem
compelling (particularly with audiences that
may otherwise be elusive or ‘closed’ to formal
research – for e.g., leading edge / tech savvy
youth), there are some obvious hurdles and

26 Thursday The Hub

Training Workshop

Connecting with America and Americans

Training Workshop led by Hy Mariampolski, Qualidata Research Inc

Whether you conduct research in the United States, sell products and
services there or you are just interested in visiting “across the pond,”
you will gain insights and information in this session.

Expect to be provoked and challenged by

Hy Mariampolski, author of the monthly
“Stateside” column for Research Magazine,
as you learn about the US trends that will
be influencing UK lifestyles, stimulating
opportunities or just creating a nuisance
for British marketers.

A key element of this workshop is an outline

of the major differences between American
and European cultures and worldviews.

You will learn how to leverage facts about

American culture:
The fixation on health and longevity.
The passion for sports and leisure pursuits.
The obsession with security.
The enduring strength of regionalism.
The realities of American demographic categories.

This presentation by an expert on American culture

and marketing guru will entertain, challenge
stereotypes, deliver valuable marketing insights,
and offer unexpected opinions.

27 Thursday The Hub

Conference Session

Pitch, Performance and Profit, Part Two

Chaired by Susan Rogers, Rogers International

The session will start with a very brief reprise of the Thursday evening
session for those unable to attend it, and will then examine the second
half of the statement – performance and profit.

The focus of the session will be what makes

or breaks the relationship.

Using the old “marriage” metaphor – the

session will cover not just the positive side
of the maturing and continuing deepening
and development of the relationship, but
also such things as “the 7 year itch” having
affairs, the blues, spicing up a relationship,
bad habits that creep in until they become
intolerable and relationship drift. The session
will feature a paper from Tom Peck (McDonalds)
and also stimulating contributions from Virginia
Monk (Network Research) and Danny Wain
(Research International). Profit will be
examined – thought not solely as an “ROI”
discussion, but also from a non financial
perspective such as examining the overall
“gain” for both agencies and clients together

There will be the top 10 wish list for maintaining

mutually fruitful relationship from both the
agency and client sides of the fence, and
we’ll examine the “true cost of divorce”.

The session will culminate with a Keynote

Speaker – Adrian Furnham, professor of
psychology, UCL, London, who will talk
about the body language of business.

28 Friday Main Hall

Paper

Culture, Communications and Business: The Power

of Advanced Semiotics
Katja Maggio-Muller, Procter & Gamble and
Malcolm Evans, Space Doctors

Since 2001 Procter & Gamble has worked with UK-based marketing semiotics
agency Space Doctors to evolve a substantial semiotic capability within P&G.
Our paper tracks this voyage of discovery – from specific semiotic projects
delivering fresh consumer insights and identifying brand opportunities to
realising an ambitious new dimension of learning and understanding by
installing semiotic knowledge in the client organisation.
The journey begins with a connection made In parallel, at the level we call Development
at MRS’s Research 2001 Conference: between Semiotics, we discuss various aspects of the
Michael Harvey and Malcolm Evans’s award design, management and implementation
winning presentation of the Guinness of an internal P&G semiotic capability. Topics
Competitive Advertising Decoding Kit and, here include: Space Doctors’ analysis of P&G
Katja Maggio-Muller’s vision of the competitive internal culture and discourse to assist ‘magic
advantage an extensive and practical bullet’ delivery of findings; the development
application of semiotics could bring to P&G. of customised semiotic processes and of tools
The Guinness project, delivering a tool kit the for measuring the impact of semiotic
client organisation could use to update for itself understanding to demonstrate return on
a semiotic map of global beer codes and brand investment; training in semiotics for P&G
meanings, suggested to Katja a tangible case people; and most recently the development
of semiotic thinking with concrete deliverables of intranet resources to co-ordinate semiotic
and measurable results – a good start point for knowledge across categories and geographies,
realising her vision of a P&G semiotic capability. facilitating meta-level understanding and
optimising reapplication of learning.
Looking back and reviewing four years of
subsequent co-operation and development In conclusion, at the start of a new chapter,
some clear highlights emerge: we share learning from a hitherto confidential
At the level of ongoing work we call collaboration. Some headlines: the need for
Core Semiotics there have been numerous more transparent and accessible semiotic
projects addressing specific challenges in processes so clients know what they are
culture and communications across P&G buying; the positive role for a marketing
categories and geographies. These include, function with client-side experience within
among many others, brand rehab work to semiotic consultancies; the semiotic dimension
develop more engaging advertising for ailing of branding which marketers increasingly need
P&G brands in particular European markets; to understand – the importance, as a point of
semiotic portfolio mapping for P&G brands difference, of cultural relevance and of how a
in specific categories North American brand speaks; and the emerging case for client
Beauty care, and designing a better model investment in something more fundamental
for understanding acculturation processes than just the occasional shot of semiotic insight.
among immigrants in host cultures – and
their implications for brand communication
targeting key acculturation stages or segments.

29 Friday Main Hall

Paper

The Value of Peer Research

Anna Pierce and Jaime Rose, Ipsos MORI Participation Unit

Last year our MRS conference paper ‘Fair Trade Research’ explored the theory
behind participative research and was received with interest across the industry.

Twelve months on it’s time to stop talking and start doing...

In this paper we argue that building sustainable
connections with participants, using a ‘Fair Trade’
approach is the cornerstone of successful
research, and that this will become increasingly
important in the future.
We are seeing increasing demand for
participative research, not only from social
sector clients, but also from the private sector.
Recent projects suggest a fundamental shift
is occurring in the way organisations and
citizens/consumers interact. We wanted
to give our clients (and sceptics within the
industry) concrete evidence for the value
of forming closer connections with participants
as well as a detailed analysis of the implications
of adopting such an approach. In particular,
we focus on the value of peer research as a
good example of Fair Trade principals being
put into practice.
evidence for the value of peer research.
These experiences also helped us crystallise
considerations that should be kept in mind
when involving peers in research. The paper
draws on our experience to highlight the
key issues.
Finally, we end on a call to action. As we see
it, the industry has three options: do nothing,
go our separate ways or work together to
ensure that we form meaningful connections
and relationships with our respondents and by
doing so ensuring we will continue to not only
have a willing pool of participants for years to
come, but an engaged and empowered one.

The paper draws on a number of recent case

studies involving peers at different stages in
the research process – from research design to
implementation, analysis and the trace that this
approach leaves behind. We include evidence
from an experimental parallel research project
we conducted for Drugwatch using executive
and peer interviewers, which utilised discourse
analysis to understand the differences between
interviews conducted by MORI interviewers
and peer interviewers. This experiment has
important implications for the involvement
of peers: not least because it provides strong

30 Friday Main Hall

Paper

Reconnecting the Prime Minister

Roy Langmaid and Charles Travail, Promise Plc

This paper describes our work with the New Labour strategy team in the
run-up to the British General Election of 2005. Uniquely this work features
the combination of brand analysis with insights from qualitative research
applied to political parties and figures.

In its application to a national issue it represents
an example of the role of consultancy at the
highest level that we in the research community
strive towards. In writing the paper we hope
that others will take inspiration from the use
of creative techniques and cross-functional
methodologies to tackle the issues arising
when brands and their icons are damaged
in the eyes of their consumers.
The paper is divided into four parts. The first
describes the chronology of events in the
project and hopefully gives a sense of the pace
at which the work had to be done to be useful
to key members of the New Labour team.
The second section describes some of the
methods and materials we used in the
qualitative work.
The third section highlights some of the
thinking that went into constructing our
analysis of the problems facing New Labour
in the months between January – May 2005
and the recommendations we made to the
Prime Minister.
the electorate: in this particular election,
between Mr Blair and female voters. We point
out the recommendations made towards
what became the Prime Minister’s reconnection
strategy, widely reported in the media. We also
draw conclusions on the New Labour brand
as a whole and upon the steps necessary to
reinvigorate it by renewing the lens through
which it was perceived by the population in
the run-up to the election of 2005.
Finally we point out that although treated
with some incredulity at the time, the
framework of a complex emotional relationship
with the British people that was adopted by
the Prime Minister was instantly picked up
and reworked by the media in the aftermath
of David Cameron’s election as leader of the
Conservatives and may have become a new
ingredient on the British political scene.

The fourth section discusses the outcomes in

terms of speeches and events that followed the
line of the strategic analysis up to polling day
on the 5th May 2005 and afterwards.

As a conclusion we stress the importance of the

emotional relationship between politicians and

31 Friday Main Hall

Paper

Bringing the Customer into the Heart of a

Technology Business
Mark Uttley, AOLUK and
John Scott, KSBR Brand Futures

This paper shows researchers how to connect as powerfully as possible

with the decision-making apparatus within client organisations.

It argues that: It demonstrates that research can be made

Decisions are made by people, influential not just for the people directly
not organisations. involved in projects, but for whole
People tend to respond to human truths organisations; and not just for the duration
more powerfully than they do to empirical of the project, but also after it has finished.
facts; you need to identify ways to get clients
as close to the critical bits of the actual
research process as possible.
People need to be helped and encouraged
to have ideas and to have the faith to act on
them: you need to make it fun, you need to
make it safe and you need to make it about
outcomes not processes.
Organisational culture means that ideas that
generate a currency are more likely to be
influential than those that are kept private.
The articulation or expression of ideas, and
the way you design and run your project
should both recognise this. You should make
your ideas graspable and make your project
highly inclusive.
To see what mileage there is an idea, you
should let consumers take it to pieces,
rearrange it and put it back together again,
and do this with the active participation
of your clients; don’t be precious about it.
You should ask yourself throughout: is there
a way to get more people to connect more
directly with the work?

Through a series of project design principles,

each described in detail and illustrated with
specific methodological examples from a major
AOL UK segment sensitisation and NPD exercise.

32 Friday Main Hall

Paper
Connecting People Across a Continent:
Mobile Communications in Africa
Jokke Eljala and Keith Bailey, Nokia and
Jane Gwilliam, Research International Qualitatif
In the Developed World we take material things for granted. To the extent
that goods and brands are seen as disposable and we all hanker after the
newest and the latest.
We assume ‘they’ in the Developing World
cannot afford the ‘real thing’ and will be
happy with some ‘approximation’ of what the
Developed World enjoys. Historically this has
led to the ‘dumping’ of inferior goods and the
marketing of cheap products which it is
thought ’will do’ for very poor people.
Our paper argues that such behaviour
is short-sighted in the medium/long term
for most product categories. Nokia and
Research International have undertaken
desk and original research in Sub-Saharan
Africa and taken advice from researchers
living and working in the region to
understand the needs, hopes and
aspirations of local people.
A lot of information gleaned was already
known in general terms but was quite
shocking when collated and analysed.
Equally we have learnt that people’s
aspirations transcend their temporal ability
to acquire things they want and need. They
may have to buy the cheap products today
but are unlikely to be loyal to a brand which
they believe has patronised them. In business
there is often the mistaken assumption that
because consumers are low income they can
be grouped into a single, monochrome group.
And we must not forget that the small
percentage of ‘better off ’ people in developing
markets may still constitute a very large
number of actual consumers.
33 Friday Main Hall
That said, there are not just issues of affluence
to take into account but environmental, cultural
and political issues too. For example, what use
is the best mobile phone in the world if there
is no obvious (and reliable) way of charging it?
Our work was not just born of altruism.
There was a need to learn about local
cultural meanings such as attitudes, values
and motivations in order to understand how
these things reinforce blueprints for action
and interpretation. There is an on-going
need to ensure that product offerings are
relevant, culturally sensitive and in step with
socio-economic and political developments.
Whilst lowering cost margins to suit local
conditions, it is imperative that product
offerings are not patronising or trying to
impose culturally, environmentally or
ethnically irrelevant products on consumers.
Our paper explores these issues and how
Marketing can connect with people in the
most engaging, respectful and relevant way.
It discusses how this work sparked ideas for
marketing activity and, most importantly, how
this kind of work can contribute to clients’ and
researchers’ collective consciousness about
developing markets.
Paper

Packing a Punch: Using Packaging as Effective Advertising

and Communication to Build Your Bottom Line
Chris Sinclair, Ipsos MORI and
Andy Knowles, JKR

This paper focuses on how packaging has evolved into a critical part of a
manufacturers advertising, brand communication and sales mechanisms and
how the actual physical vessel and product container has become so valuable
in building resonance and relevance with consumers.

Facing the pressures of rising media costs,
fragmenting marketing channels, and the
average retailer now stocking some 30,000
sku’s, manufacturers face two critical questions:
How to support their entire portfolio.
How to grab the attention of their
target consumers.
This paper will challenge you to change from
testing your packaging as an after-thought
in research, and lay down the challenge
to the floor that only with an integrated
packaging design and research process
component can any company truly
influence purchase cycles.

Our paper will illuminate how manufacturers
are working with us – a design agency and
a research agency – to ensure their products
and their packagings are key communication
tools supporting and delivering sales on their
own with little or no advertising or promotional
support. By following some simple rules, using
creative design and appropriate research, our
paper reveals the steps you can take to address
these critical questions to support the product
and deliver increased sales.
So if you want to hear how to make
connections with end consumers that
might just be useful to your own business,
then please come along to our paper on
the afternoon of Friday 24th March in the
Main Hall – just prior to Richard Reed from
Innocent Drinks.
We will evidence this by including recent
and current examples of real products that
dramatically increased their market share
from design and research agency working
in tandem. Although traditional research
techniques had shown identical appeal
and purchase intent between very different
packaging alternatives, we will show how we
were able to sensitise research to choose the
right new pack (and deliver e.g. 50% extra sales).
If you are a researcher, brand manager
or marketer who wants to identify how
to effectively build sales (without expensive
advertising campaigns), then come to our paper.

We will talk to you about knowing you

have built love at first sight with consumers –
from identifying the right creative essence,
the critical needs and how to translate
and optimise your ideas into effective
physical reality.

34 Friday Main Hall

Expert Briefing

The Cost of Cliché: Charts I Never Want to See Again

Nick Southgate, dfgw

Commercial pressures, industry trends and technological advances have all

conspired to fill many a debrief with illustrations, audio & video clips and other
multimedia embellishments. This might have made debriefs more colourful,
eye-catching, noisy and entertaining (although not always) but has it made them
better? Is the modern debrief more compelling than the debrief from yesteryear?

One of the tasks, and occasional pleasures,
of being a planner is going to a lot of research
debriefs and reading lots of reports and
presentation decks. The dfgw team sat down
collectively and used the century’s worth of
collected experience between us to isolate the
charts we feel we had seen too often. Far, far,
too often. And, guiltily, that we knew we’d used
ourselves in our younger days eager to please
and liven up a presentation.
This paper uses extensive examples from
various areas where cliché has infected
the debrief. These include:
Illustration clichés
Marketing clichés
The science of pseudo-science
Brand Comparison clichés
Video clip clichés
Mood film and soundtrack clichés
fetishisation of the debrief, this debrief looks
to challenge the techniques and attitudes that
make it possible for so much cliché to survive in
the industry. By too easily embracing common
place or uninspiring habits in our methods we
risk not only that style with obscure substance,
but that it will suppress, obscure and destroy
the substance of research altogether.
Furthermore researchers risk betraying their
own talents and the very real, valuable and
pertinent insights they are perfect equipped
to provide to their clients.

This briefing aims to give immediate and

practical advice by alerting researchers to
the gathering swathe of cliché in debriefs
while also giving the point of view of a
research recipient.

More broadly the cost of cliché to individual

research projects and to the industry at large
is discussed. Cliché is the enemy of progress,
insight and clarity. Building on previous
conference papers and other publications
that have discussed the corrosive effect
of PowerPoint and the sure and steady

35 Friday Theatre
Expert Briefing
Connecting with Clients: Rethinking the Debrief
Mike Imms, Mike Imms & Partners in Development and
Audrey Niven, Listengroup
In this paper we argue that debriefs are a missed learning opportunity.
Our view is based on primary research amongst researchers and their
clients, together with a review of learning theories.
Our research found that most market research
debriefs conform to a standard structure and
style that can be summed up as ‘delivery’;
the researchers stand up and give a formal
PowerPoint presentation to an audience who
listen (with varying degrees of engagement).
Typically, some questions are asked and, if
there is time, there is some discussion at the end,
usually in an unplanned and un-moderated way.
This is one of the great and enduring ‘taken for
granteds’ of market research. Some innovation
is evident – usually in terms of smarter charts and
a more engaging ‘performance’ by the resenter
but still within the standard Delivery structure
and style. (There are of course exceptions to this.)
Close examination of the standard structure
(in combination with insights from learning
theories) suggests that most debriefs are
relatively comfortable and undemanding
for both presenter and audience. The mainly
didactic, lecture-like style helps the researchers
come across as authoritative and worthy of
respect, but does little to engender the trust
and rapport essential for the closer, more
collaborative agency/client relationships both
sides say they want. In addition, we must
recognise with some concern that this way
of learning is widely regarded by learning
theorists as inefficient for our purposes.
As learning experiences, our standard debriefs
are substantively incomplete and, as such,
36 Friday Theatre
much of the real value of the findings is all
too easily wasted.
Ironically, when debriefs go particularly well,
the standard prepared structure is abandoned.
So why is it there in the first place?
We argue that debriefs should be about
exchange – with the audience playing a more
active role and responding to the findings,
rather than simply ‘taking delivery’. These
audience activities need planning, managing
and facilitation by the researcher and therefore
require researchers to take greater account of
how clients ‘learn’ and how findings from the
research project are deliberated, integrated
and finally applied in the client organisation.
Our proposal further requires researchers to
recognise that ‘actionable findings’ and ‘being
more involved in decision-making’ is not about
writing more of their own conclusions and
recommendations. Instead, we encourage
researchers to think again about helping clients
to integrate research learning for themselves
so they can go on to make effective decisions
based on that learning.
We accept that this is more demanding for
researchers and clients alike, and requires
different skills, expectations and approaches
from both parties. However, we believe the
potential rewards for meeting this challenge
are enormous.
Paper

Connecting with Elizabeth: Using Artificial Intelligence

as a Data Collection Aid
Craig Kolb, Ask Afrika and
Dr Peter Millican, Oxford University

This paper proposes a new approach to data collection in marketing

research. A simple form of artificial intelligence, commonly referred
to as ‘chatbot’ technology, is shown to provide a viable way of probing
open-ended questions.

Typically, open-ended questions in a Four criteria are proposed specifically for

computer-aided web interviewing (CAWI) or
computer-aided personal interviewing (CAPI)
environment, are left to self-completion.
Though economical, sometimes little benefit
is obtained, as self-completion often yields
superficial responses. An approach which
would allow a computer to ask open-ended
questions, probe a respondent’s initial answer
to those questions, and create the sense that
the respondent is engaging in a conversation,
would result in far richer responses.
To explore the potential of such an approach,
a simple open-ended question ‘Why did you
choose your current cell phone network
operator?’ was asked of 10 subjects, who
were successfully probed by a chatbot named
Elizabeth. The Elizabeth system was chosen for
this research because it is a general platform
which is powerful and flexible enough to be
easily re-programmed for different tasks and
is well documented, while also being freely
available for non-commercial use. As such,
it provides an ideal platform for marketing
research practitioners to experiment with
chatbot technology.
chatbot-based interviewing:
Relevance of interviewer questions
Avoidance of suggestion
Relevance of respondent answers
Maximisation of the volume of
information elicited
Elizabeth performed well against these criteria,
significantly outperforming the self-completion
method. Elizabeth’s operating techniques in
this application are explored, and the reasons
for its success discussed. In order to advance
our understanding of what factors improve
interviewing success on the four criteria,
hypotheses are also suggested to direct future
research into chatbot-based interviewing.
The paper concludes with a discussion of possible
future developments of this approach to
marketing research, and the potential for further
applications of artificial intelligence in the area.

Criteria for evaluating the success of

automated interviewing are discussed,
including Alan Turing’s test for intelligence,
it being concluded that existing criteria
are unsuitable for the marketing research
interviewing context.

37 Friday Theatre
Paper

Demystifying Blogs: Embracing Objective Conversations

Carmen Aitken, Ipsos MORI and
Will Corry, The Marketing Blog

Come and find out why leading edge companies and marketing professionals
are focussing on this fast growing part of the communication mix.
Come and find out how to reach and influence consumers... because for
many consumers, blogs are their key means for ascertaining information
and messages they believe are more accurate and more trustworthy than
above-the-line advertising.
We will outline:
The types & forms of blogs.
The implications of blogs as powerful
marketing and corporate instruments.
How to launch a successful blog (through
a live case study).

We will show:
How Blogs can be used to inform others about
you and how to find out what others are saying.
How to use headlines to grab attention and
how to create quality of copy.
Why entertainment is so crucial.
Opportunities and threats for manufacturers
and MR agencies?

We will help you understand:

Why brand owners should pay more attention
to on-line detractors and critics.
How to get your email audience to stop and
open a story.
When to embark on an objective conversation
New trends already emerging.
Why “small” is the new “BIG” (and why the
person running the ‘small’ has to think ‘big’).
You combine your website with a blog.
How to make your message translate
powerfully for readers in ways more creative
than generic claims on websites.

So if you want to hear how to connect in a powerful

and trusted way and to truly differentiate your
company, please come along to our paper on
the afternoon of Friday 24th March in the Theatre.

38 Friday Theatre
Paper

Connecting Insight with the Organisation: Knowledge

Management Online
Luke Allen, Nunwood Consulting and
Corrine Green, Nokia

To present a serious evaluation of the implementation of an online document

management system; the hurdles faced and overcome, and the financial and
social benefits gained. Through this paper, we are hoping to highlight the
need for researchers to adopt web technology in order to best share and
utilise the wealth of information available to an organisation.

Introduction
As researchers who use technology as a business
enabler, we at Nunwood have the opportunity
to effect real usage of information by
developing intelligent systems to manage
enterprise information.
The goals of research generation are, to
provide the right information to make
an informed decision, and educating an
organisation on key issues, where existing
information is not available.
focus for information. If people know where to
look for information, or who supplied it, then not
only will they be able to find what exactly what
they’re looking for, but they will also connect
with a source that they can work with to gain
further insight.
This is a key focus of the paper, and one of the
potentially unseen benefits in centralising
information resources and then using the same
system to promote and publicise.

Locating, managing, and distributing this
information is a universal requirement,
so efficient and simple access becomes
crucial. Tools able to facilitate ‘find-not-search’
solutions, and intelligent promotion of
information will offer a key business advantage
to those organisations that are aware, and
willing to invest in better information
management systems.
This paper is intended to promote further
discussion on this business need, and to
detail Nunwood’s recent practical experiences
with Nokia and ALCB (Alliance & Leicester
Commercial Bank). A key objective is to provide
a detailed insight into why this need arose,
and how it was acted upon.
Social Aspects as a Focus
Developing a portal – a central meeting place
for people to locate information, creates a social
How the Contribution will Benefit the Audience
We will stimulate debate around a topic which is
vital to the continuing success of the industry.
It will give delegates food for thought, and
challenge the way they currently work.
People believe that storing files electronically
on a local server (i.e. in the yellow folders in
Windows Explorer) is sufficient for an enterprise
to ‘get connected’. However, this can become the
electronic equivalent of reports ‘collecting dust
on a shelf’.
But compare this often restrictive approach,
with that of a company wide portal which
returns relevant research and internal
information, and intelligently connects people
with the information they need. The business
advantages soon become apparent.

39 Friday Theatre
Training Workshop

Gaining a Competitive Advantage with Online Panels

Training Workshop led by Pete Comley, Virtual Surveys

This workshop provides a guide through the maze of determining how

best to work with online panels with information on the latest options
and opportunities.

The market for online panels is maturing fast
within the UK and there are now a plethora of
options available to researchers. Many agencies
are wrestling with dilemmas over whether and/
or how much more to invest in an online panel.
At the same time, many in client companies are
beginning to realise that running their own
online panel (or buying online field and tab),
can result in substantial cost savings.
have issues. Although the most frequently
used techniques online are customer research,
concept testing, it is fast becoming adopted for
a wider range of research including ad/brand
tracking, ad testing and U&As. However the
workshop also stresses the problem areas too
e.g. samples such as the old, socially deprived
and tight location quotas, B2B, long/boring
surveys, online qualitative – to name just a few.

Initially the workshop reviews the current
state of the UK online market, which is
estimated to be between 5%-20% of UK
research now. Although not as big as places
like Holland and the USA, it is growing very
fast now. There are many established panel
providers and the workshop will consider how
best to choose between them and typical costs
that you may pay.
Finally, the workshop looks at the future and
some likely scenarios. These are likely to include:
online research increasing (together with
greater sample options becoming available),
but these changes will probably be accompanied
by decreases in costs and consequently the
number of online companies may also decrease.
These changes could therefore have major
implications for all researchers.

It will also provide guidance on how to set up

an online panel and current best practice for
panel motivation and management. It will
provide tips on how to recruit panellists
(e.g. using a variety of sources, how to avoid
abuse, etc). It looks at the research on panel
motivation, and reviews the options currently
available and the ones that seem to work best.
It will also examine issues such as professional
respondents; how best to avoid them and their
potential impact.

It also examines where online panels should be

used and where experience has shown them to

40 Friday The Hub

Training Workshop

Video Ethnography: Learning How to Conduct

Observational Research Using Film
Training Workshop led by Nick Leon, Naked Eye

Within the market research industry, video ethnography refers to

a research technique that involves primarily immersing oneself in
the lives of the people we wish to understand over a period of days
in order to learn about the relationship they have with products,
brands and services.

The session will offer beginners and enable participants to see recorded
intermediates an overview of the various observations through the lens of discovery.
different techniques used during the research
process in order to record true-to-life scenarios. How To Use the Output for Collaborative
Thinking in Organisations
Introduction on How to Conduct Video-Based Finally how do you gain maximum value from
Observational Research ethnographic research? Suggestions on how to
The opening part of the session will discuss the use the analysed footage across an organisation
importance of the fieldworker’s interpersonal to allow people to make connections between
skills to gain intimate access and rapport in ideas and to support a more joined approach
order to sustain observations. Discussions will to research.
include how the validity and meaningfulness
of the results obtained depend directly on
the observer’s skill, discipline, and perspective.
The value of ethnographic research it will be
discussed is in understanding the meanings
that people attach to objects and activities,
whilst also helping counteract the temptation
when studying other’s lives to read things into
them. A process will be outlined on the various
techniques ethnographers use over a typical
research period of 3-days. These include:
Day 1: Techniques to help blend in or be
accepted by a participant/group including
self-disclosure technique.
Day 2: Ways in which ethnographers engage
with people yet remain objective.
Day 2 and 3: Re-involvement – how to blend
in, how to become ‘invisible’ how to capture
and add meaning to key scenarios on film.

Minds-on Exercises: Analysing Film

This part of the session will involve practical
exercises in small groups. The exercises will

41 Friday The Hub

The Market Research Society
15 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0JR
T: +44 (0)20 7566 1878 F: +44 (0)20 7490 0608
E: conference@mrs.org.uk W: www.mrs.org.uk/res06