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The Future of Research

Wendy Gordon, Mark Ratcliff, Rebecca Wynberg, Paul Edwards, Richard Helyar, Sid Simmons, Sarah Fryer,
Rhidian Taylor, Yvonne O'Brien
Admap
July/August 2010
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The Future of Research
Harnessing the enthusiasm of the new activist consumer in practical ways, while
making sense of merged data from multiple sources, are key to improving the quality of
research, writes Wendy Gordon
Hear the full audiocast of the roundtable below or individual extracts throughout the piece.
You can listen to them online through the audio player, or save them to your own computer to listen when it's most convenient
for you
Full audiocast: (32:00)
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Title: The Future of Research
Author(s): Wendy Gordon, Mark Ratcliff, Rebecca Wynberg, Paul Edwards, Richard Helyar, Sid
Simmons, Sarah Fryer, Rhidian Taylor, Yvonne O'Brien
Source: Admap
ssue: July/August 2010

Moderator: Wendy Gordon, partner, Acacia Avenue
The Panel: Mark Ratcliff, senior researcher, Murmur; Rebecca Wynberg, Wy
Consultancy; Paul Edwards, chairman, TNS Research International UK; Richard
Helyar, head of research, BBH; Sid Simmons, founder, Incite Research; Sarah
Fryer, head of consumer insight, McDonald's; Rhidian Taylor, head of brand
strategy, Barclaycard; Yvonne O'Brien, managing partner, insight and analytics,
UM London
Photography: Max Hamilton/maxhamilton.com
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So it was that twelve good men and true, well actually five men and four women, met at BBh's offices for an Admap roundtable
to debate the future of research. consisting of two clients, two qualitative researchers, a research agency CEO, a senior
quantitative researcher, a media researcher and an insight/ analytics researcher, the panel look at research from very different
perspectives.
With such scope for debate, we divided the discussion into six broad subject areas: The move from classical sampling to real-
time research; Participation; Behavioural economics and neuroscience; Web 3.0; Global research; and Industry improvements
over the next five years.
1 From classical sample-based research approaches to real-time data
Audio extract one (5:39)
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It is clear that the biggest change in the world of research has been the nature of information (data) now available to
practitioners and users of research.
Richard Helyar:!The fundamental shift is that research is moving from a time when it was
all about samples and classical research techniques and now it's more about servers and
mining data that's readily available." a key shift has been in 'online research,' which is
shorthand for a wide range of data generating approaches, from qualitative or quantitative
surveys conducted online to real-time observation of social network sites, to a granular and
comprehensive census of mobile phone behaviour (GSMA Mobile Media Metrics) recently
launched by comScore.
Sarah Fryer:!The web has changed the role of the researcher on the clientside. It used to
be that your area of expertise was ringfenced. Now you have to know, experience and influence everything from customer
complaints, to customer journey touchpoints to BuzzMetrics#$you are almost drowning in insight sources."
But, whose responsibility is it to integrate the data in such a way as to be actionable and business orientated? Is it the client's
responsibility? Is it an external researcher from a quantitative or qualitative agency? Is it the remit for the new breed of
advertising and media planners working closely with their clients? or is it a new kid on the block data crunchers straight out
of university who can do math and model data?
The truth is that multiple data sources challenge the capabilities of researchers we have to become confident, competent
and efficient in handling large amounts of apple, pear and cucumber information and transforming it into an integrated body of
knowledge. It is becoming clearer that, as data sources proliferate, the greater is the need for a researcher to provide a holistic
overview, a compelling story or inspiration that helps crack the problem whatever that may be.
2 Participant passion or participant representativeness?
With declining response rates and increasing costs of traditional survey techniques come anxieties about the authenticity of
Sarah Fryer
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people responding to surveys, both on and offline.
Audio extract two (2:45)
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Sid Simmons:!Now you have got people signing up to research. They are
willing participants as opposed to people who are grabbed off the street. This
can be good as they may be passionate about the subject, or they may just be
junkies who give us all false information. "
How representative are these willing people? should we worry? have we
somehow cloned the professional respondent the traditional bugbear of
qualitative research and given them a far bigger stage on which to mislead us?
are people who blog, tweet or comment on brands a strange bunch or are they normal?
Rhidian Taylor:!In 2008, we launched the Waterslide ad (Barclaycard) and you could immediately see what people were
saying on Twitter and the 100,000 people on Facebook fan sites. This stuff is not representative but it's hypothesis building.
It won't cause change to happen inside the company. You need to use traditional research to prove or disprove hypotheses."
In this new world, the most sensible strategy is to be pragmatic. Balance your data sources, using 'informal' real-time
observations as hypotheses and include traditional sample-based surveys in the mix to check it out. And when it comes to
measurement, representativeness matters. Senior managers, particularly in large established companies, still require the
security of classical research methods to provide 'proof' that business decisions are well grounded.
3 Behavioural Economics and Neuroscience ! tsunamis or wavelets?
The Admap Focus has recently been devoted to Behavioural Economics (March 2010) and
Neuroscience (January 2010). The IPA convened the first training course on Behavioural
Economics in March this year. Its president, Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland, has made it the IPA's
mission to find what's useful in behavioural economics (BE) so that agencies of all kinds can
develop strategies and interventions to change and influence behaviour. But what effect will
this have on research in the future?
Audio extract three (7:38)
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There were very different levels of awareness, knowledge and experience of both of these big theories among the panel and
this might reflect the broader community of client, research practitioner, media and advertising planner, strategist and data
analyst. About neuroscience and neuromarketing, there is an ongoing question mark over applicability.
Paul Edwards:!Four years ago, we did a seminar that no-one understood. I am sceptical about the practical and ethical
Sid Simmons Paul Edwards
Wendy Gordon
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research use of neuroscience. It provides a confirmation for what good psychologists have known for a long time. For
example, brand hardwiring. That's helpful to drop into a conversation because people understand it. But sometimes it's
easier to talk to people about whether they like something rather than strapping them to a million quid of electronics."
Richard Helyar:!It measures reactions to things and whether or not it's positive or negative doesn't matter. It's not scalable
and I don't ever imagine it will be. As an industry, we used it early on to see if we could understand the difference between a
press ad and an outdoor ad % but the silly thing is that the person is strapped in a box and not outside at all."
Yvonne O'Brien:!We're doing a test with neuromarketing at the moment.
Thinkbox has set up a project and three of our clients are going through it.
What we talk about is, will it help us understand how brand equity is built?
Will it help us understand about memory? What clients want to know is will it
help me understand my competitor activity?"
Neuroscience, and more recently social neuroscience, will have a significant
role to play in continuing to help us understand the fundamental hardwiring of
human beings. How do we interact with the world? How do we absorb and
process information? How and why do we need to connect with others? How do intention and action happen? What happens
when we make decisions? How does memory work? But as a research tool, it is still evolving and offers little to mainstream
practice at the moment.
BE, on the other hand, does appear to offer more immediate relevance in our day jobs. Amongst those who have had some
exposure to the theory and/or read the most popular books, such as Nudge and Predictably Irrational, BE has a role in forcing
people to think differently and to attack a problem in a fresh way.
Paul Edwards:!Many of the ideas in the books don't really surprise the intelligent reader, but they remind you of things that
you should be doing % for example, 'priming' and the importance of context % but I think these are more relevant to planners. I
bet more people at BBH have read one or several of those books than people in the big research companies".
There is a huge opportunity for researchers to take the lead and introduce clients to the value of BE (and other new thinking)
in the most relevant and exciting way possible.
Rhidian Taylor:!Don't come to me and talk about behavioural economics. Just say
'we can help explain the irrational parts of decision-making' and I will listen."
In my view, the research world has not yet embraced BE in any significant way (nor
has the world of communications) and that, for many researchers, it is easier to
practise the familiar than to wrestle with how new thinking can be integrated with what
we know already to generate better or new research solutions. In the final analysis, it
boils down to the energy of individual professionals and their ability to engage,
stimulate and open up the minds of their colleagues and clients.
Mark Ratcliff:!When research agencies try to arrange credentials pitches with a potential new client, the response is often 'I
don't want to see you if you are going to tell me something new'. What they want is stuff which is usable, not something that
is academically interesting."
Mark Ratcliff Richard Helyar
Rebecca Wynberg
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Rebecca Wynberg:!It's about the culture of the company. Some are more receptive than others. I've always been involved
with clients in a team-like way, where they expect more, but I don't think it has always been true of research more widely.
Clients are becoming braver and they are asking more of us than they did in the past."
4 What about the opportunities in Web 3.0, co-creation, collaboration and social media?
The panel spent some time building up a definition of the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, arriving at a level playing
field of understanding. Web 3.0 is 'the semantic web'. It is about connectedness and seamlessness. The web becomes semi-
intelligent and pro-active, suggesting activities and destinations based on previous behaviour and that of all the people to
whom you are connected.
Audio extract four (4:03)
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The idea of passive collection of data (from store cards, loyalty cards, Facebook and so on) generates both excitement at the
game-changing access to information (already discussed earlier) and anxiety about data blindness.
Perhaps the most optimistic thought came from a qualitative researcher, reminding us that in the final analysis what we care
about (or should care about) is to understand real people, not data sets:
Rebecca Wynberg:!Might it also be a way of making people more whole than they are being seen at the moment. I
constantly hear people being talked about as consumers, shoppers, viewers and ex-customers, and yet they are all the same
person with different personas. Being able to interconnect all their behaviour provides a more holistic picture of them."
In the future, we will increasingly be forced to design research approaches that combine multiple
methodologies. The list of tools that researchers now have at their disposal is growing
exponentially; a Swiss Army knife is what we need when out in the bush smart, sharp, robust
and adaptable.
5 Global clients, global research approaches and pragmatic research solutions?
Everyone accepts cultural and market development differences (such as the internet and mobile
ownership) across geographies. Research has to be conducted in ways that are appropriate for
the community, country or region. This is the right way.
Audio extract five (5:39)
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But there is a pressure from global companies, particularly in today's climate to produce global strategies and global product or
communications solutions. So, it's a small step from there for clients to want research that is comparable across markets,
mainly by using the same approach or methodology.
Yvonne O'Brien
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Sid Simmons:!At the end of the day, people think this: 'I don't care about the 900 million who are different, I care about the
100 million who are similar enough to spend the money on what I am selling.' It feels dangerous to me."
This is an old chestnut, which first reared its head in the 1980s among users and practitioners of qualitative research, and led
to different approaches by different research companies some offering methodology consistency and standardisation across
regions and others offering interpretation and cultural sensitivity with a global overview.
Looking to the future of international research, there are conflicting pushes and pulls. 'Make my life easier' is a cri de coeur
from clients; !You are risking lowest common denominator output leading to bland communication or product ideas," say
trained researchers; !This is far too expensive," say the client procurement folk; !Let's centralise (or de-centralise)
responsibility for global research," say senior management. It seems that conducting international research in the future will
not be much different from today. The decisions that clients make, like any decision-making, are often heuristic let's do what
we've done before, let's use who we used last time, or let's make life pain-free.
But again, there are new possibilities. In developing countries, where mobile use is high and internet penetration is low, it is
now possible to conduct quantitative and qualitative mobile surveys with surprisingly powerful results. It is also increasingly
common to create MROCs (market research online communities) or bulletin boards that bring customers from different parts of
the world into virtual space.
It will be the responsibility of those with a knowledge and understanding of the benefits of new
research approaches and methods to prove their worth.
6 How can the industry improve over the next five years?
Finally, each of the panellists delivered their wishes for improvement.
Audio extract six (5:39)
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Rebecca Wynberg:!There are loads of researchers out there doing really good work. Let's
celebrate that and accept that those of us who work closely with client teams do have a voice#$
and stop flagellating."
Richard Helyar:!It would be great to have tools that are in real-time, looking at current behaviour. Then you could look at it
in forensic detail. It would be a census, not a sample. But we must not lose sight of the need to understand motivation. Then
we need a cool way of visualising it all % a mix of art and science."
Yvonne O'Brien:!I want data and consumer research to co-exist (merged data sources)."
Rhidian Taylor:!If you can crack the fact that this massive amount of data can be crunched and combined with data sources
from many different places, turning information into insight."
Mark Ratcliff:!I want to look back and say we figured out how opinion and behaviour travels by word-of-mouth and social
networking."
Rhidian Taylor
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Paul Edwards:!We need to find ways not just to store and present data, but almost to internalise it. If we can create a
'consumer instinct' within our clients, then we are doing our job of turning research into useful information"
Sarah Fryer:!It's the story-telling thing. I don't want my team to say 'that's interesting' after a debrief and then sweet FA
happens. So for me, it would be about inspiring people internally (through story-telling)."
Sid Simmons:!Wouldn't it be wonderful to engage people in what you say, not what's on the slide behind you (PowerPoint-
less presentations)?"
For me, the challenge for research today is expressed best by one of the slides at the IPA's training day on BE. Stop asking
people directly to explain why they do what they do. Instead, get as close to different sources of information about the what,
where, when and how of behaviour and in that way we might have a chance of understanding why.







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