Wow, what a day at #TMRE13! The day was bookended by some fabulous keynote speakers, and mid-day we had no less than NINE tracks of sessions to choose from. From Strategic Planning to Disruptive Technologies & New Methodologies, there was definitely something for everyone offered today.
Kicking off the morning was Jeffrey Cole, Director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future who shared results from a study that has been in process for 10+ years, yielding some fascinating insights and well as sharing his thoughts on the future.
We learned that FOMO (fear of missing out) is actually a thing. Discussing social networks (including Friendster “which was the coolest social network for about 12 minutes “) Cole feels that Facebook will continue to grow, especially in developing countries, but will survive as “the phone book to the planet” while folks decamp to smaller networks to socialize. Finally, Cole’s advice to brands? “Your learning curve must be steeper than your action curve!”
Next up was Dan Pink, author of To Sell is Human, who right off debunked the myth that we don’t need sales folks. 1 in 9 American workers in 2000 were in sales. Now? The same, 1 in 9. However, as Pink shared, our gut reaction when we think “sales” is “a guy in a suit selling a car.” In fact, when asking research participants to share what came to mind when they thought of sales, the below is what emerged:
The world of sales has changed – we’ve moved from ‘buyer beware’ to ‘seller beware', so the old mantra of “Always Be Closing” no longer holds water. Pink suggests an alternate: Attunement, Bouyancy and Clarity.
Jumping into sessions, we learned a new mashup word from Randall Janisch of Ford Motor Company – Engagementification - in his talk “Keep it Simple: Simple Innovations in Research Methodology that Go a Long Way.” Janisch focused on innovations from simple ones like making survey questions more visually appealing to more complex or creative methodologies like Ford’s LiveDrive – live, mobile broadcasting (audio/video) so only the moderator goes on the drive along, and the clients follow along in real time online, and can interact with the moderator with questions/prompts. Ford has found this helpful as it removes the reliance on post-drive recall.
The NGMR Award winners (more on that below) were interviewed in a panel discussion led by Kristin Luck of Decipher and Tom Anderson of Odin Text, Anderson Analytics. Key takeaways from the winners included “reverse mentoring – hire folks younger than you as there’s a lot to be learned from them” and “to market yourself in market research you need to be a thought leader – don’t be afraid to take a stand!”
The keynotes that rounded out the day were from Jeremy Sack, Director of the Pragmatic Brain Science Institute, LRW, and futurist Jared Weiner, VP at Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc. Jeremy Sack shared his research on stereotyping and how brand stereotyping creates reality. In order to improve brand stereotypes, “the change effort must feel authentic, the interaction must feel cooperative.” Jared Weiner then took us on a tour of the near future, where gameification will “underpin everything” and where time is simultaneous not sequential, and taught us we should use ‘alien eyes’ to look at things objectively and remove “educated incapacity.”
Finally, befitting an industry gathering, there were two sets of awards given out today, the EXPLOR awards and the NGMR Disruptive Innovation Awards. Congrats to the CDC and Mktg Incorporated who snagged the top EXPLOR award prize! Congrats also go out to BrainJuicer, Insites Consulting, and Bob Lederer (of Research Business Daily Report fame) for winning the NGMR Disruptive Innovation Awards!
Tomorrow promises to be another busy day of learning and networking...and Malcolm Gladwell! See you all bright and early!
