Programme - all times in GMT
Main Stage
Welcome
Jane Frost CBE, Chief Executive Officer, MRS
Strategy & Analysis
Keynote interview
Sir David Spiegelhalter OBE
Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge and Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. Board member of the UK Statistics Authority.
Interview: Tim Phillips, author and editor
The creation and communication of statistical data has, through the Coronavirus crisis, been under great scrutiny. In an age where data is front and central in the news, what are the challenges for those who deal in the considered generation and dissemination of data? Sir David, an Impact conference favourite, offers his expert view.
Sir David Spiegelhalter, Statistician and author
The Impact Magazine Debate
The long and short of it: From in-the-moment insight to long-term
Never has it been so important for organisations to have access to timely, reliable insight about their customers and consumers in general. However, there is a fine balance to be struck between gathering in-the-moment data to stay close to customers now, and understanding longer-term trends to build resilience for the future, as highlighted by Covid-19. How can research suppliers help organisations with this – what are they looking for?
Chair:
Katie McQuater, Editor, Impact and Research Live
Panel:
Participants: Impact and Research Live, Pearson, Reckitt Benckiser, PepsiCo,
Provocation
Stable genius: We need to stop talking about change
Why is there an obsession with ‘newness’? In this provocation, Ben Page asks how much is changing – and how much isn’t. It’s a wide-ranging analysis of consumers and society over the last year – and the last 20 years. Has Covid19 really changed ‘everything’?
Participants: Ipsos MORI,
Debate
Rewriting His-Story: Do we need to invent a new language to speak to male consumers in 2021?
It has never been a stranger time to be a man. Conflicting messages abound; be a good man, be masculine, reject masculinity, redefine masculinity. For brands speak to men, it’s not just about navigating this mess, it’s about cutting through it. This debate will draw insights from some of the most taboo-breaking categories to ask: how should we really be talking to male consumers in 2021?
Chair:
Hannah Marcus, Associate Director , Discover.ai
Panel:
Participants: Discover.ai, MEND, Durex, RB, Make Love not Porn,
The CMO Agenda
Tamara Rodgers, Global CMO, GSK Consumer Healthcare
Tamara Rogers, Global CMO, GSK Consumer Healthcare
Interviewer:
Participants: GSK Consumer Healthcare, GSK ,
Lunch
Provocation
#doesmytitlematter? We need to talk about brands getting political
What happens when brands become political? The world has changed, and brands are expected to take a social stance – however, the pitfalls are many, and jumping onto bandwagons can do more harm than good. #doesmytitlematter will uncover a framework for brands to understand when to be political, when to steer well clear and how to drive market success though a sensitive and adaptive strategy.
Participants: Kubi Kalloo,
Debate
A new deal for advertisers: How can brands ethically navigate a complex, divided and changing world?
It’s never been more critical, or more challenging, for brands to communicate effectively. The ethical, regulatory and creative pitfalls are legion. In this febrile environment, how is insight helping to ensure that brands cut through? How can they retain trust in a world of fake news, align themselves respectfully with activism, and operate ethically under increased scrutiny?
Chair:
Fiona Blades, Founder, MESH Experience
Panel:
Participants: MESH Experience, Fidelity International, Direct Line, Sanofi,
Break
Keynote interview
Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour Party
Close
Skills & Practice
Case Study
Sounds intriguing: Using insight and design thinking to uncover new content consumption behaviours around COVID-19
COVID-19 had some unexpected effects on consumer behaviour – effects that will resonate far beyond the duration of the pandemic. How did behaviours change in the digital world? How did insight and design thinking uncover new learnings for Spotify around content consumption and streaming behaviours, brought about due to the virus. We will also deliver the lessons Sparkler learnt from running a multi-market study using a community method and how it adapted processes for a global client.
Participants: Spotify, Sparkler,
Skills Zone
Breaking bad: How to create newsroom buzz that transforms data in a post-Covid world.
To make research more emotionally resonant at a time of disconnect, transformation and uncertainty, we’ve become data journalists. The 3 core storytelling principles that make news so compelling now service the needs of our clients – and our teams - more fully. We call it ‘Buzzing like a newsroom BEE’ – Bad, Entertaining, Empathetic data storytelling. Here’s how to create that virtual newsroom buzz.
Panel:
Participants: Truth,
Case Study
Culture is the Heart of a Brand: Evolving the Boots brand through Cultural Analysis
The new Age of Public Consumption has made consumption publicly visible, more fraught and created a whole new range of experts and authorities on what we do with the things we buy. We explore what this means for brands and how we Boots has repositioned itself in this new world.
Panel:
Participants: Walgreens Boots Alliance, The Answer Semiotics,
Skills Zone
Seditious teapots, flat wives and self-loading freight: How to incubate your way to insight.
Too often those at the coalface of the research industry equate insight with staring longingly at data until magic elves sprinkle insight-dust on them. Quoting from his new book, “InCitations”, Tas will explore how genuine insight connects disparate ideas, why too much domain-specific knowledge amplifies fixation and impairs insight, why our brain needs to incubate “external serendipitous influences” and why we need more humour and impertinence
Panel:
Participants: POV Marketing and Research Consultancy,
Case Study
From lightning rod to Beacon: How Colston Hall is shedding its slave trader associations
Bristol’s Colston Hall, named after slave trader Edward Colston, was for years a lightning rod for the city’s disquiet over its past. This summer, as Colston’s statue was being torn down, Colston Hall prepared to announce its new name; the culmination of three years of research to create a musical legacy of which all Bristolians can be proud.
Panel:
Participants: Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, Bristol Beacon,
Skills Zone
Finding your remote control: How to master working from home
Working from home is not as simple as switching meetings to video calls. To deliver at our best we need to re-think more deeply about how we do things. This session will provide some simple steps you can take to do your best work, feel motivated and more in control of your remote working life.
Chair:
Sinéad Jefferies, Founder, Vela
Participants: Vela,
Case Study
Getting real: Artificial intelligence in a time of crisis
Creative development was not immune from the challenges caused by the pandemic. There is more pressure in choosing which ads to invest in as budgets tightened and in launching ads that could be deemed irrelevant. How did artificial intelligence play a significant role with creative executions? And are they really cost and time effective?
Participants: Unilever, Kantar, Unilever Homecare,
Lunch
IJMR Debate
Reach for the stars: How can insight win the war for talent?
Insight is a people business. However, even though insight is increasingly at the heart of decision-making, surveys show a consistent decline in interest in research careers amongst graduates and young professionals. This session explores how the sector can stop relying on yesterday’s logics when attracting talent and the steps needed to make insight a career of choice.
Chair:
Dan Nunan, Editor IJMR, and Professor of Management, University of Portsmouth
Panel:
Participants: University of Portsmouth, Twitter, Google,
Case Study
Drive for progress: how to get drivers to go green and switch to electric’ (and dial down the hysteria!)
Discover how electric car manufacturers worked with Facebook and The Nursery in a global study to understand how consumers really feel about electric cars. Using models derived from behavioural economics and anthropological psychology they were able to find out what’s actually going on inside consumers’ heads and what the auto industry needs to do to unlock the true drivers to purchase.
Participants: Facebook, The Nursery,
Case Study
A question of privilege: When older, white, middle-class researchers are just not the right people for the job
Many young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are seeing their future blighted by COVID-19. Disclosing their experiences to researchers who seem to have so many privileges can add to the sense of exclusion. Versiti reports on its work to train ethnic minority young people in qualitative research to understand ethnic inequalities in the impacts of COVID-19 and build capacity among ethnic minority young people. The project team and the client, Youth Futures Foundation, will discuss experiences, lessons and key insights.
Participants: Youth Futures Foundation, Versiti, Pearson,
