Gracie McKinstry-Smith, TargetThough the pandemic made an in-person gala impossible, it didn’t stop the 2020 Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards ceremony from being held in November. Hosts Dan Quirk and Steve Quirk, along with comedian Moody McCarthy returning as emcee, donned evening finery for a virtual broadcast to present awards across an array of categories, from global marketing research project to outstanding young researcher. (You can view the broadcast at http://tiny.cc/s8h6tz.)

Thanks again to our entrants and judges, our partners the Market Research Council and the MREF and to the companies whose sponsorships helped make the awards possible: Canvs, Delvinia, Ipsos, MarketVision Research, MedSurvey, Opinium, OvationMR, ProdegeMR, Toluna and Zappi.

Space doesn’t allow us to include writeups on all of the individuals, companies and teams who won (see sidebar for a full list) so this time around we’ve chosen to focus our recap on some of the winning projects, to give you an idea of the breadth of work that was up for consideration.

Owen Hanks, Measure ProtocolUnlike many recipients of professional awards, marketing researchers typically can’t go into great detail during the ceremony about the work they’ve been nominated for since much of it is proprietary. (Only judges are privy to the details.) But as part of the application process, each entrant was asked to write a paragraph or two for public consumption on the methods used and the business factors involved and that’s what we are presenting here.

If you like what you read below, why not get involved? The awards are open to all researchers worldwide. You can nominate yourself, your co-worker(s), your company or your clients so long as they meet the judging criteria for the category. Early-bird entry for 2021 nominations will open March 1. With the uncertainty around the pandemic and to ensure that potential travel restrictions don’t prevent the awards from being as inclusive and global as possible, the 2021 awards ceremony will again be held virtually next November. Visit https://www.quirksawards.com for more information.

Advertising Research Project – 2020: Twitter and EyeSee

Women’s participation in sports competitions has been on a steady rise throughout history, albeit lined with many hurdles to overcome. Inspired by the historic high in female participation at the postponed Tokyo Olympic games, where 48.8% of participants would be women, Twitter decided to take a deep dive into the way advertising portrayal of gender roles in sports influences brand perception and their consumers. By combining a mix of behavioral and explicit research methods, Twitter and EyeSee analyzed 12 ads to uncover the ways traditional and non-traditional gender roles affected ad performance in a busy Twitter timeline and how the gender of the respondent impacts ad perception. The case study helped researchers understand the nuanced approach necessary for addressing the gender gap in sports advertising in a social media environment.

B2B Research Project – 2020: Feeling Mutual and 2Europe 

Fire-retardant technology company Zeroignition had a new chemical that is impregnated into materials like wood during manufacture to drastically improve fire-resistance. Anecdotally, Zeroignition believed this type of passive fire protection is overlooked by decision makers, who focus more on active fire protection like sprinklers. To validate this, Zeroignition needed a quantitative study with senior decision makers like architects and construction CFOs. This would inform its marketing strategy and provide the basis for thought-leadership in the industry. Feeling Mutual designed a collaborative process involving the client, advertising and PR agencies. It worked with specialist B2B quantitative research consultancy 2Europe, who conducted 25-minute phone surveys.

The research validated the hypotheses and not only shaped the marketing strategy but also generated 41 pieces of coverage in the first three months, with a combined readership estimated at 150,000. After its release, three of the biggest wood industry associations got in touch with Zeroignition’s CEO.

“One of the biggest learnings was the power of an open, collaborative briefing and research design processes. The idea that the researcher and client are the only ones who can input into a survey is wrong. By bringing the ad and PR agency into the process, we developed the ingoing hypotheses even further. This ensured we had the right questions in place, to get the data required, to tell the most compelling story.” – Tom Woodnutt, Feeling Mutual

Global MR Project – 2020: Opinium and Ancestry

As the global leader in family history, Ancestry viewed the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII as an ideal opportunity to tap into renewed consumer interest in history in general, and family history in particular, across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France and Australia. To do this successfully, the brand needed to understand and navigate the cultural, emotional and often deeply personal connections consumers have to WWII in each market. Through an iterative and dynamic research project, Ancestry and research partner Opinium not only navigated this uniquely complex topic but laid the foundation for one of the genealogy site’s most successful multi-market campaigns ever. The insights from the research enabled the development of a compelling global platform that could be tailored to highly distinct market contexts with clear recommendations on themes and sub-themes, imagery and key relationships with relatives.

Groundbreaking Research Project – 2020: Anheuser-Busch and InSites Consulting

Anheuser-Busch has a strong commitment to bring back growth to beer. In 2018, it overhauled its product development process with people-centricity at the core. A-B partnered with InSites Consulting to start a strategic initiative coined “iWeek.” The core of iWeek is a one-week innovation event, taking the A-B team outside of their daily environment and responsibilities to fuel ideation. Overnight idea testing with target consumers allows the team to iterate ideas generated the previous day and qualitative consumer touchpoints further enhance consumer empathy. The overhauled process used to take almost two years from insight to shelf and can now be executed in less than 100 days.

“From online communities to uncover new insights and collaborate with people throughout the process, to overnight screening of ideas, the goal was to bring in methods that could accelerate the process. As a result, A-B drove 50% of the industry innovation volume in the last two years, up from 10% in 2017.” – Thomas Troch, InSites Consulting

Health Care/Pharmaceutical Research Project – 2020: Healthcare Research Worldwide and RealityMine

In rare and invisible conditions, digital patient influencers play an important role in sharing experiences and making connections to form community. But where do patient influencers get their information from? And how do they use this information in the content they post? In a self-funded study, Healthcare Research Worldwide partnered with behavioral data technology provider RealityMine to develop a novel methodology to overcome the limitations of self-reporting using passive measurement of digital media consumption. The study demonstrated important distinctions with implications for digital research, including gaps between behavior and recollection, and between posting and influencing – with findings benefiting academic research, the digital health industry, and the National Health Service.

Nonprofit/Social Enterprise Research Project – 2020: Southwark Council, Shared Intelligence, Analogue Strategies

London’s Southwark is one of the most culturally and economically diverse boroughs in the U.K. Its youth offer is widely integrated with other services, with 24 local plans and strategies referencing children and young people. This level of integration shows passion and commitment but also brings the risk of losing clarity of purpose. This project was designed to redefine that purpose, against a backdrop of a decade of budget cuts, a paradigm in which youth services are seen by many as purely a crime-prevention tool and uncertainty about the future of youth service provision. Shared Intelligence and Analogue Strategies were commissioned to design and deliver an innovative research plan with young people and stakeholders, including training a team of young people to co-deliver ethnographic research. The findings informed a new vision for the youth offer in Southwark, putting the voices of young people at the heart of the strategy.

Qualitative Research Impact – 2020: Disney Channels Worldwide

YouTube is a titanic force molding kids’ worldviews. It’s kids’ most-loved media brand, their No. 1 daily media destination and has upended kids’ standards of what makes their favorite stars engaging and likable. Disney Channels Consumer Insights identified the four underlying need states that drive every child aged 2-14 to YouTube and YouTube Kids and distilled them into an innovative content strategy that is brand-building, rooted in what kids love about Disney Channels, and ensures cultural alignment between Disney Channels and YouTube. This 12-month, multi-phase study, fueled by insights from kids, parents and YouTube experts, provided: an evergreen framework for understanding the role of YouTube in kids’ lives; a new content strategy for Disney Channel and Disney Junior that is rooted in brand and human truths; and led to new ways of Disney Channels’ YouTube content being algorithmically-optimized to win viewers.

“A massive research project like this can offer great insights but we found that in order for the insights to truly translate into action, we needed to tailor them to each team throughout our organization. Via custom workshops, we were able to create an engaging, effective and rewarding forum that not only transformed the insights into tangible action items for stakeholders but also helped deepen their understanding – and therefore acceptance of – the insights themselves. Today, our more integrated relationship with each team continues, because lasting change requires ongoing, conscious effort and advocacy.” – Andrea Acevedo and Gretchen Betzholtz, Disney Channels Worldwide

The 2020 Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Award winners
BKirsty Fuller, Big Sofa Technologies2B RESEARCH PROJECT • Feeling Mutual and 2Europe
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IMPACT • Disney Channels Worldwide
TECHNOLOGY IMPACT • Measure Protocol
PANEL COMPANY OF THE YEAR • MedSurvey
BEST NEW PRODUCT/SERVICE INNOVATION • Big Sofa Technologies
CLIENT/SUPPLIER COLLABORATION • Verizon and buzzback
OUTSTANDING YOUNG RESEARCHER • Gracie McKinstry-Smith
GLOBAL MARKETING RESEARCH PROJECT • Opinium and Ancestry
NONPROFIT/SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PROJECT • Southwark Council, Shared Intelligence and Analogue Strategies
GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH PROJECT • InSites Consulting and Anheuser-Busch
ADVERTISING RESEARCH PROJECT • Twitter and EyeSee
HEALTH CARE/PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH PROJECT • Healthcare Research Worldwide and RealityMine
MARKETING RESEARCH SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR (2019 REVENUE BELOW $10 MILLION) • EyeSee
MARKETING RESEARCH SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR (2019 REVENUE AT OR ABOVE $10 MILLION) • Zappi
BEST CLIENT-SIDE TEAM (WITH LESS THAN 10 RESEARCHERS) • Liberty Mutual Insurance
BEST CLIENT-SIDE TEAM (WITH A DEPARTMENT OF 10 OR MORE RESEARCHERS) • BT
RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR (END-CLIENT) • Michelle Gansle
RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR (SUPPLIER) • Christopher Barnes
MREF EVERYDAY HERO • Sabina Ramdas
MREF PHILANTHROPIC COMPANY OF THE YEAR • Research Results