What I Learned from the 2013 ESOMAR Congress via Twitter

2013 ESOMAR Congress “Tweetable” Takeaways

I love conferences, specifically for the networking aspect, but unfortunately due to a limited number of hours in the day I’m not able to attend every conference I want. For the conferences I miss out on, I try to monitor activity via Twitter by following conference specific #hashtags. As more people become accustom to sharing their every thought in 140 characters, I find it fascinating that I can feel like I’m at the conference without actually being there. This year’s ESOMAR Congress was held in Istanbul and featured some of the biggest names in research. By following the conversation on Twitter, here’s my attempt at sharing what I learned from the conference without being physically present. My conference highlights are in “tweetable” format so tweet away!

Error and Innovation

Tim Harford, Author and senior columnist, Financial Times, UK

Massive results can come from tiny innovations built on top of each other

You can’t jump over a canyon in tiny steps

You can have multiple failures if the success is big enough

Turning Farmers into Miners

Collaborating to enrich behavioural big data sets with perception surveys

Patricio Pagani, Company Director, Infotools, New Zealand
Reed Cundiff, General Manager, Microsoft, USA

Perception data is attitudes, understanding why but has high cost, and low precision

Behavioural data has precision, better costing but problems with storing and control

Most companies have some form of passive data available to them

Avoid compromising business objectives to fit the data

From Research Management to Knowledge Management to Learning Planning

Haiko van Lengen, COO, Market Logic Software, Germany
Philip De Wulf, CEO, Psilogy, Belgium
Sjoerd Koornstra, Global CMI Planner, Heineken International, Netherlands

The ability to learn faster than your competitors is the only sustainable advantage

Research management saves time and allows for better research via standardized practices

A 4-Dimensional View of the Digitally Engaged Consumer

Creating a single-source methodology to harness insights of today’s ‘new’ consumer

Heather Dougherty, Director of Research – Strategic Services, Experian Hitwise, USA
Maria Domoslawska, Vice President – Global Digital Strategy & Research, Research Now, USA

Only 4% of people said they planned to shop using their mobile phone on black Friday

83% of searches for a retailer were navigational only

Affluents are less interested in early sales

There is no such thing as average customer

Feel Nothing, Do Nothing

Unlocking the emotional secret of online spending

Joost Vastenavondt, Business Leader Consumer & Market intelligence, MasterCard Europe, Belgium
Koen De Vos, Senior Business Leader Consumer & Market Intelligence, MasterCard Europe, Belgium
Orlando Wood, Managing Director, BrainJuicer, UK
Tom Ewing, Digital Culture Officer, BrainJuicer Group, UK

Happiness of a first purchase is a good predictor of a second purchase

“Purchase zone” – where people bounce from site to site in no order at all

Emotions simplify and guide our decisions

My Mum’s Throne Room

The technology that defines modernity in a developing world

Dave McCaughan, Regional Strategy Planning Director, McCann WorldGroup, Japan

The most important piece of technology ever is the toilet

38% of teens admit using their mobile phone on the toilet

A New MR Mix for the New Age Information Ecosystem

Proposing big change in content mix, not process

Radhecka Roy, Regional Client Leader – APAC, TNS, Singapore
Sunita Venkataraman, Head of Marketing and Consumer Sales – South East Asia, Intel Corporation, Singapore

Consumers behave impulsively, and move from task to task without thinking

Business cycles are getting faster and shorter, decisions are often real-time

Why Big Data is a Small Idea…

And why you shouldn’t worry so much

Stephen Needel, Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations, USA

Bigdata relies on determinism, data acquisition & merging, available paradigm, & competency

The Next Normal

An unprecedented look at Millennials worldwide

Carlos Garcia, Senior Director, Nickelodeon International Research & Insights, Viacom International Media Networks, USA
Christian Kurz, Vice President – Research and Insights, Viacom International Media Networks, USA
Jo McIlvenna, Director, Jo McIlvenna, UK

Technology lets me be who I am, it doesn’t define me

3/4 of millennials consider themselves to be very happy, very optimistic

Millennials are more “we” than “me”

Let’s Face the Music…and Dance

Music’s lessons for research in the big data age

Oliver Nelken, Founder & Lead Guitarist, Adam & the Asbo’s, Mornington Media, UK
Will Goodhand, UK Board Director, TNS, UK

Big data is to research what the synth was to music

80% of activity in big data is cleaning it

Fidorka re-launch in the Czech Republic

How combination of traditional and co-creation research techniques engaged collaboration and inspired successful relaunch

Jaroslav Cir, Founder, CEO and Crowdmaster, Perfect Crowd, Czech Republic
Jiri Michal, Manager Consumer Insights Biscuits CE, Mondelez International, Czech Republic

Research agencies must be in the forefront and take risks, co-creating with consumers

Ditch the crap insights and focus on having fun w/ads & experiential marketing

Leveraging Predictably Irrational Decisions

The incredible potential of counter-intuitive marketing strategies

Florian Bauer, Member Of The Board, Vocatus AG, Germany
Rüdiger Peters, Director eCommerce, L’TUR Tourismus, Germany

Value, loyal, indifferent, and risk avoider buyer segments can all exist in a single buyer

Motivation, cognition, and behavior must all be understood to predict decisions

Thinking Big: Innovation in Decision-Making

Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion and author, USA

Don’t just try to win, try to make a difference

Decisions made quickly are often based on instincts

A smartphone is equally as powerful as the computers which sent the US to the moon in 1969

All we see today are incremental improvements of what was there before

You can take risks and put man on the moon, or throw bricks at birds

Intuition is like a muscle, trust your intuition & take risks to exercise it

Failure is a step towards success

You need challenges, without those you won’t be able to move forward

Start accepting risk as part of decision making

Combine risk taking and exercised intuition are ingredients for advancement

Random Tweet from the lovely Annie Pettit ?@LoveStats (I don’t know which session it came from)

Data doesn’t mean anything unless you can respond to it