Insights

Antoine Levêque, CEO of Marvellous France

asks what the real potential is for mobile internet in 2008

“Much hyped in recent years, mobile internet is finally becoming a reality: around 30% of mobile users have access in the US and Europe. But what are the real opportunities for brands? And is it just another way of accessing the existing internet?

“Display campaigns on mobile sites are a given, even though audiences are still very small. This universe will expand as media owners continue to optimise sites for mobile access and operators finally do away with metered data charges.

“But the mobile is not just another way to get the internet: it is personal, and it knows where you are. So the big opportunity for brands now is to start treating mobiles as…well, mobile.

“Slick ‘designed-for-mobile’ applications are straightforward. These might exploit the operator billing relationship, allowing users to buy or test products. Or tailored location-based services, which could indicate the nearest McDonald’s, adidas store or train station. Moving forward, 3G connectivity will enable fast downloads of bespoke games, video and music, with sponsorship, pre-roll ads and social networking opportunities as standard.

“With the right content, a targeted approach and ease-of-use, these services have the potential to become powerful, indispensable vehicles for brands.”

Nigel Sharrocks, CEO of Aegis Media UK

gets his head around a fragmenting world

“What we are shift in how people consume media.

“The digital consumers control over how they this new world they can choose need to understand what that means.

“Traditionally the advertising industry has operated in silos – above-the-line, below-the-line, direct etc. But now things are different and much more fluid. We need to know how above-the-line can drive a search strategy, and figure out the best way of getting advertising involved with new formats like video on-demand.

“As a company, we want to be at the cutting edge of this change. And that has meant reappraising everything about the business – from our systems and processes to the way we think – because what we had was built for a different world.

“Clearly things aren’t going to change overnight. Traditional TV advertising and conventional broadcasting are going to be around for years to come. But the challenges we all face are around the fragmentation that the digital age is bringing, and managing the transition between the relative simplicity of an analogue world and the complexities of a multi-dimensional digital one.”

Fredrick Marckini, chief global search officer of Isobar

ponders the fiendish maths and verbal subtlety of search strategies

“All paid advertising – print, radio, TV – drives people to search engines. Unless these searchers find you at the top of the results page, they will find your competitors.

“That top spot is the ‘holy grail’ for generating traffic to your site. It can be bought, on a ‘pay-per-click’ (PPC) basis, or it can be sought, by optimising your site for natural search.

“PPC is fiendishly complicated. Keyword bidding is affected by many variables, including particular keywords, time of day, creative, landing page, click-through rate and even seasonality.

“And 70% of searchers click on “natural” search results, not paid ads. Optimising a site needs a deep understanding of search engines’ algorithms, as well as website architecture.

“Attracting links and placing targeted keywords in the parts of the web page deemed important to the search engines is the difference between being found in the top three or on page three of the results.

“In addition, search tools are no longer just about text. Google already aggregates news, video, images, retail offers and social networking content into its search results.

“So marketers need search strategies. A lot. Eighty per cent of all content is expected to be digital soon, and all content will be digital – and searchable – over time, putting search at the centre of an on-demand world.”

Jacky Cheung, director of qualitative research at Synovate China

asks where next for China’s 1.3 billion consumers?

“There’s a ‘gold rush’ mentality in China right now. People can be very materialistic, single-minded and – at times – almost ruthless in pursuit of making money.

“We have become a nation of triallists. There’s an obsession with novelty: people are eager to try new things. For brands, this is a challenge. The market is flooded with tempting new products from home and abroad, and as a result brand loyalty is low.

“There’s an expectation that higher prices mean higher quality. But this is tempered in rural areas, where limited disposable incomes put a cap on what people can afford to buy.

“It’s difficult to predict how this market will evolve – it’s moving forward in leaps and bounds, rather than step by step. This is most evident in the automotive sector and online – internet users have doubled from 100 million to over 200 million in under two years.

“Perhaps all marketers in China should heed the wise words of Deng Xiao Ping: ‘Feel for the stones when you’re crossing a river.’ In other words, take careful steps and keep monitoring the changes.”

Jan Hofmeyr, director of Synovate’s brand and communications practice

wants insight to deliver new ways of looking

“‘Insight’ is generally about trying to establish what clients think they need to know.

“But that’s boring. Discovering new ways of looking, on the other hand, and helping clients to see their marketing landscape in ways that were previously beyond their imagination – that isn’t boring. Redefining how marketers think is exciting.

“We can use technology to break down the silos between behavioural and attitudinal measurement. And we have the vision to do so. Combining the knowledge of how many people went to a store with an understanding of why they went there is valuable information. Was it because it stocked the brands they wanted, or did they buy the brands that it stocked? Insight today has two main drivers – and they end at the same point.

“First it‘s getting harder and harder to persuade people to take part in surveys. So we need to make surveys shorter. But clients still want the same depth of information.

“And clients’ budgets are under pressure. So they want more insights for less money. Therefore, the next place for market research to go is really efficient metrics that deliver value for money without losing validity.

“That spirit informs our approach. Innovation in measuring attitudinal equity means we can now establish customer commitment and loyalty more efficiently than anyone else. Our eyes are firmly set on the research methods of the future.”

Jonathon Jephcott, director of Synovate Viewsnet

sees virtual communities replacing real ones in the search for market data

“Twenty-five years ago, six out of ten people would have agreed to a 20-minute market research interview. Now the figure is one out of ten. People used to think it was a civic duty. But not any more. Citizens are increasingly time poor, and value what time they have.

“This is changing the landscape for researchers, and is why we increasingly rely on panels for our information.

“In the US, where legislation has also empowered people to say ‘No’ to information requests, paid panels already account for 30-40% of all data capture.

“In ten years’ time we will be collecting data in a different way from different kinds of community and with less emphasis on structured capture. While there are subjects that people are prepared to talk about at length in structured surveys, these don’t include the details of FMCG purchases. That route is dying.

“The emphasis in future will be on qualitative research obtained by, for example, seeding conversations on sites like YouTube, and building on community communication that already exists.

“Technology is liberating us to collect data in a passive fashion – and nirvana for market researchers is being able to capture people’s opinions without them regarding it as a burden.”