Integrated insight - paradigm shift or tipping point?
15 March 2018

On the 22nd February the MRS held in central London its first one day conference devoted to data analytics, ‘Data Analytics and Insight’. With over 180 delegates it was the largest one-day conference ever held by the MRS, showing the big appetite for knowledge in this field and complements other MRS data analytics activities undertaken as part of the Advanced Analytics Network (ADAN).

In addition to the record-breaking delegate numbers, the packed programme for the day contained 13 sequential sessions, covering a wide spread of topics under the umbrella theme. In my Editorial for IJMR 60/3 (published in May) I cover a one-day conference on multi-source data in the field of social research in which I refer to a tipping point in what we call research, where the traditional quantitative and qualitative methods are becoming simply one source of input to developing insight. Leigh Morris (Bonamy Finch) in his opening remarks as chair of the MRS event described a paradigm shift with analytics moving to the heart of insight, driven by data literate, consumer insight professionals. So, in just two months, both sides of the research sector, social and market, experienced a foretaste of the new, rapidly evolving world, of data integration, sometimes with, but sometimes without, traditional research methods, especially question-based, at the core.

Integrated insight comes of age?

The first, tantalising, glimpses of this were in fact back in the 1980s with the growth of database marketing, but the challenges that emerged then deterred all but the most persistent organisations in an era where data sources were very limited with copious limitations. But, fast-forward to today where the choice of data sources has grown exponentially, integration and analytical methods have improved, and cheap computing power is available, as demonstrated in the presentations throughout the day, with examples from the gaming, cinema and TV sectors; furniture design and football. Many of these data sources are client derived, but the range of sector level data sources now available was also underlined.

Take for example the project described by Paul Carney and Paul Jackson (Bonamy Finch) to try and identify the reasons behind a steady decline in adult football participation in the UK - vitally important as grants (performance funding) to various sporting activities within the UK are based on levels of participation, as measured through the annual Active People and Taking Part surveys conducted for Sports England/Department of Cultural, Media and Sport. The data sources included in the analysis covered: the numbers of registered referees, football teams, fixtures, team performance and investment in the sport held by the Football Association; the two surveys mentioned above; population data; weather data; people in education; economic data; social media; TV audiences (BARB); the impact of sporting events, covering trends over several years. Some key factors could be addressed by the FA; others are outside of their control. For example, the analysis identified the importance of weather (especially negative in particularly wet winters) as the key example of the latter, and the level of investment by the FA at grass roots level under the former. The prediction was for continued decline, but the findings provided the FA with ways to try and arrest this trend by honing the case for funding and prioritising future investment.

Similarly, in the case study from Hayley Dean (ABA Research) and Ruth Hinton (Vue Entertainment UK) using data to develop a competitive strategy for the Vue multi-plex cinema chain in a sector where there maybe little opportunity to select the core product (films on offer), but big opportunities to target promotional activity to a segmented audience (and potential on-screen advertisers), and, influence additional spend on consumables. The presenters described their challenge as being to create a hybrid segmentation to create site specific strategies in a market lacking differentiation. Ingredients in the mix covered: brand tracker and pricing surveys; online booking data; transactions; geodemographics (Mosaic). Catchment area demographics are an important element in developing effective strategies.

‘Sound insight’

One rather different input from the day came from Michelle Heywood and Scott Simonelli (Veritonic), describing what they claim is the first tool developed to analyse the impact of audio (music, voice etc) and its contribution in developing effective advertising, citing that whilst most brands have visual guidelines, few have similar guidance for audio. They described the use of machine-listening and measuring the by-the-second emotional response in real time to individual advertisement to generate what the presenters called ‘sound insight’, plus the development of an audio library for referencing and benchmarking, containing for example, an analysis of all radio commercials in the USA.

Integrated insight needs integrated cultures

So, what did I take from the day? I started off this blog describing the arrival of a new age of data integration. This was demonstrated by the case studies, and the delegate numbers. There is no doubt that the era of integrated insight has arrived, and this future looks both exciting and innovative. Traditional research methods still have a key role to play, as evidenced, for example, by Vue. Perhaps surprisingly to some there, geodemographics, first developed in the 1970s, emerged as remaining a vitally important tool to help create segmentations, being at the heart of two presentations. Methods have evolved over the years, enriched with data from new sources enabling them to remain relevant and continue to add value.

But, challenges emerged during the day. Firstly, for delegates (and possibly clients) the difficulties in judging the validity of what was on offer. In the ‘old’ days, presenters described their research design in detail, enabling the audience to judge the robustness of what was derived from the research, and maybe gaining sufficient knowledge to try out something for themselves. Today, it is a case of taking it on trust as getting to a necessary level of methodological granularity is simply inconceivable. How is the data matched; how is data quality accounted for; what gets lost along the way etc., etc.? One glimpse into this came during one of the two panel sessions where something I first heard mentioned several years ago, and the subject of an earlier IJMR blog, is that the lack of common definitions and metadata in survey research continues to inhibit the role for quantitative survey data in these integration projects.

Research platforms, rather than research agencies, were posed as the solution by one panel member. Client organisations appear to be in the driving seat, as is possibly the case in developing the new skill-sets needed for integrated insight. Aji Ghose from Sky is Head of Research Analytics/Insight and Decision Science, who described in his presentation how the roles and skillsets within this part of Sky had changed in recent years, with only three of the original team still present. Susan Baker and I discussed the need for ‘hybrid’ researchers in our 2004 IJMR paper, or ‘straddlers’, a term coined by Ralph Darandorf when MRS President back in early 1980s, where IT and research expertise plus knowledge of the business are fused together, appears to be becoming more of a reality. Analytics projects are highly complex, but clarity and focus are necessary if key action-orientated messages are to be effectively and imaginatively communicated to clients. Sam Knowles (Insight Agents) referred to the controversial 1959 Rede lecture delivered by the celebrated novelist CP Snow who warned that science and arts were becoming two cultures and this division was preventing the world from solving the most pressing problems. We need to ensure that these two cultures work together in generating integrated insight. MRS plan a range of new training courses in the analytics field, but can we find and attract enough talented people to the sector? Finally, and touched on during the day, is the impact of privacy, especially the GDPR, and the ethical culture of this new world, compared to traditional research methods, with new guidance seeming necessary.

A very interesting and thought-provoking day. I look forward to their next event.

‘Integrated Insight’: IJMR Call for Papers

IJMR has also just issued a Call for Papers entitled ‘Integrated Insight’, where we hope to attract authors from academic and practitioner communities to submit methodological and case study papers covering this field. Maybe discussing some of the challenges I described in my blog.

You can find full details of this Call for Papers here, including deadlines for submissions, categories of submissions published in IJMR and how to submit.