Welcome to Day 2 of Quirks London!

It was another lovely day of meeting new friends and renewing existing friendships. We enjoyed many more insightful and intriguing talks too! Here are a few more AHA moments that made me rethink what I thought I already knew.

Transforming Insight at Carnival
Jan Worsley and James Wycherley; Insight Management Academy (IMA), Carnival Cruise Line

• As important as it is to have a senior stakeholder who will champion a project and see it through to action, agile research, as was essential during the height of COVID, is often too fast to secure a stakeholder before it’s too late. But, having a good team means it’s not always necessary.
  Be sure to celebrate today’s research successes today because they won’t necessarily be relevant tomorrow.

What consumers and shoppers want from brands in the future
Jeannine Ferguson, Lindsay Parry, and BV Pradeep; Nepa, DS Smith, Unilever

• Most retailers are aware of the need for omnichannel services but many have yet to fully achieve it. Depending on what country you’re in, up to 70% of consumers believe ALL their shopping will take place online in ten years. Those retailers that aren’t taking omnichannel seriously will fall behind.Don’t believe 70%? Well, in some regions of China, shop owners catch their fish before 7am, take photos for their e-commerce website, shoppers choose their fish online, and that fish is delivered to their door by 9am. From sea to breakfast table in 2 hours. It will happen whether you are prepared or not. And your competitors are prepared.

Trends in sustainability: Learn from Reckitt, Bimbo Bakeries and more
Martin Oxley; buzzback

• Awareness of the need for sustainability has grown but it needs to be vastly more top of mind. Current trends focus on increased use of recycled materials, reducing and removing packaging, finding plastic alternatives that are perhaps even edible, designing for recycling and reusing, and using single material packages that are more easily recycled. Consumers want to do the right thing and brands need to do a better job of facilitating that. Sustainability is financially advantageous, and can win when brands are otherwise equal.

Don’t get lost in translation: Ad performance in the context of cultural differences
Andy Drake; DVJ Insights

• Countries have unique cultures in terms of individuality, egalitarianism, collectivism, restraint and more that can’t be changed. Because of that, an ad that works in one country won’t necessarily work anywhere else, even among seemingly similar countries. If brands want ads to work globally, they need to focus on creating exciting and relevant ads with both rational and emotional aspects.

Applying science to art: The role of research in a cultural institution
Alexander Wheatley; National Theatre

• Researchers are very used to the traditional research business of consumers buying from retailers, and pollsters predicting elections. But the research skill set can be applied in any niche area of life such as charities and the arts. Those areas may even have other aspects of research beyond traditional audience segmentation and targeting, including academic style research to understand the arts and theatre business. Learn the research process and then find a way to apply it to your personal passion.

It was great meeting so many new people at our booth, and we had a fantastic time at Quirks! We look forward to connecting with you again. In the meantime, feel free to chat with us via email using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. Or, catch up with Rupa, Yogesh, or me on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much to the Quirks team for creating a great event!

See you soon!