Insight and strategy - and how to do it better.
What will it mean for research now the robots are winning the battle for average?
Looking ahead to some of the big trends that will shape us in the coming year.
As robots are now at least as good as a proficient research agency junior, the rest of us will need to keep upping our game.
The renaissance of qual - and why this is good for brands, baked beans and Ariana Grande
Qualitative research is having a bit of a moment again. This is partly because brands are nothing without emotion.
And when it comes to emotion, there’s nothing like qual research.
How To Do Insight Tutorial #3
We're In The Inspiration Game
The real value we provide isn’t insights, it’s commercial success.
If you want to make things happen, you have to persuade people. And if you want to persuade people, you don’t tell them facts, you appeal to their emotions.
How To Do Insight Tutorial # 2
Seeing Things From a Fresh Perspective
Sometimes you need to look beyond the stuff that people say.
Instead you can find insights by looking behind and around the things you see or hear, finding answers in the unexpected connections between disparate pieces of evidence.
How To Do Insight Tutorial #1
An Attitude of Empathy
Great insight requires empathy.
As an industry we assume we’re good at it - but it doesn’t always come naturally. It’s something you need to remind yourself to do. Or to feel. This is how.
Five Things I've Learnt From A Year Overboard
A year after quitting agency life - and with a little help from a global pandemic - I wrote about brains, proposals, digital techniques, travel and family.