Thursday, June 2, 2016
1:00 - 1:20 PM
Ted Talks - Duluth/MacKenzie

Danger ahead … Or is it opportunity?

The word for danger is the same as opportunity in some Asian languages. There is a very dangerous future ahead in MR but for those who understand and embrace change there will be some amazing opportunities.

We have been hearing about it for years that the MR business is going to dramatically transform. But now it is actually happening. We hear clients saying that 80% of the MR they are doing now uses questions/surveys and that in just 2 years time that will fall to 20%! Now that is a big change.

There are many questions and implications that Canadian market researchers need to consider as they plan for the future.

• How are client needs changing in this new world? What is marketing expecting from their market research partners?
  
• How will we as an industry move forward with less surveys/questions?
  
• How is machine learning and artificial intelligence going to impact our industry? How are clients going to use ecommerce, digital, big data to form probability models that replace the need for definitive answers?
  
• What are some of the latest MR technologies that are coming out? How are quicktools such as Zappistore, Instanly and Survey Monkey changing the way insights are gathered?
  
• What new skills do researchers need to succeed in this new world?
  
• How did the Head of Insights at a leading global brand become the second most powerful person in the organization behind the CEO? Ad conversely why is insights being completely marginalized at other global brands? What can Canadian Insights Leaders do about this?
  
• What’s the role of the MRIA in helping guide us through these changes? (why is it more important than ever to me an engaged member)
  
• What can Canadian researchers do TOMORROW, NEXT MONTH and NEXT YEAR that will put them on a path to continued success in this time of great opportunity?

Michael, and likely a client or two, will answer these questions with case study examples and several technology demonstrations in an exciting 18 minute talk. Michael is Senior Vice President at Hotspex Inc., a Canadian based MR consultancy that is focused on helping brand builders build their brands. Hotspex works in over 25 countries around the world with 15 of the top 20 global advertisers. Hotpsex is the 15th most innovative MR company in the world and the 2nd most innovative that is privately held.

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Michael Dorr Senior Vice President, Hotspex Inc. Is the insights and market research world on the verge of massive change? Is it about to be Uberified? Will your company fight to survive or will it go beyond that and thrive? What can you do to proactively lead your organization to leverage technology to do more with less? How can new cutting edge insights and methodologies from the fields of brand building, human motivation, and implicit measurement ensure that you're helping your marketing team better understand how to influence consumers and shoppers to accelerate brand growth? Recently voted among the top most innovative insights consultancies according to GRIT, the Hotspex team of brand builders are on a mission to become the world's most innovative and impactful brand builders. They are helping 9 of the top 10 global advertisers in over 25 countries evolve and grow in the face of budget pressures, such as zero based and recent merger and acquisition activity. Michael has spent over 15 years within the research & analytics profession, working at large institutions such Loyalty One and Transcontinental to boutique research consulting firms.   The common thread across his experiences has been deriving consumer insights through multiple data sources (qualitative and quantitative research, trends research, big data and more…)  Passion areas of Michael’s include innovation, packaging design and trends research.  Michael holds an MBA (with a focus on marketing and research) from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo. Michael will be sharing examples of how their clients have leveraged the Hotspex globally validated and proprietary human motivation measurement platform to ensure that brands trigger consistent emotions, personality associations, sensory cues, and rational alibis across all touch points along the shopper journey. He will explain how your brand's elements can become your most valuable assets so that you leave with a fresh understanding of why some brands have more success driving consumer behaviors and accelerating growth than their competition.