Schedule and agenda

Chair:
Anita Bhardwaj, Vice President, Research, Morgan Stanley

Chair:
Austin Dorsett, Head of Research, Tesco

Chair:
Alison Bannister, Group Insight Director, BT

Take a first-look at C Space and Sage’s synthetic respondent exploration. This session will share early thinking, design principles, reflections from live experimentation and explore how synthetic respondents, when built from real human stories, could redefine how we scale empathy.

Hear initial findings from trials that help answer what forms of synthetic data could help solve the problem of recruiting niche or hard-to-recruit audiences without losing authenticity and how to train synthetic respondents on real community data so they reflect human complexity.

Expect a frank assessment of how and where synthetic data works well.

Participants:
Andy Fitzgibbons, C Space, Director of Solutions
Eddie O'Brien, Senior Director, Global Customer Insight, Sage

Welcome to 2026 where agentic AI has become the brand gatekeeper. In the same way as TikTok shop is creating a level playing field for retail, agentic AI like Chat GPT and Google’s Gemini is democratising brand visibility. Your brand must now win both hearts and algorithms.

In this session Kantar will draw from it’s media touchpoint study and digital analytics capability to reveal how to beat the bot and make sure that it’s your brand that the algorithm favours.

• Understand AI search’s influence in the customer journey
• Generate a ‘share of model’ from the questions consumers ask LLMs
• Identify the sources LLMs use to generate answers and how to influence them

Participants:
Jodie Gillary, Head of Brand Activation, Kantar
Sam Curtis, Head of Big Data, Analytics, Kantar
Masha Kamyshanova, Global Digital & Media Manager, Consumer Tissue Global Marketing & Innovations, Essity

Consumers are often unreliable reporters of their own behaviour. Could digital twin communities offer a new way to overcome this challenge? This session explores whether large language models can simulate System 1 behaviour more accurately than direct questioning, drawing on experimental research with leading brands to test whether real humans or digital twins are better predictors of intuitive decision making.

Participants:
Paul Child, Head of UK, Human8
Annelies Verhaeghe, Chief Innovation Officer, Human8
Client to be announced

Ageing is the marketing industry’s blind spot. While brands chase Gen Z, they’re quietly alienating the older generations that are driving most of today’s spending and brand loyalty. This session exposes the commercial and cultural cost of marketing’s youth fixation.

Using data and behavioural insights, speakers will discuss how ageism is shaping research briefs, creative decisions, and growth strategies. They’ll discuss the commercial loss of ignoring, misrepresenting and alienating older audiences in advertising and discuss how brands would benefit from replacing generational stereotypes with a richer understanding of shared human values and mindsets.

Participants:
Kurt Stuhllemmer, Partner, Hall & Partners,
Terry Burke, Director, Strategy, Business Development & Commercial Planning, EMEA, Royal Caribbean International 

Tom Vannozzi, Head of Insights & Analytics, STRAT7 Jigsaw
Eloise Wroe Wright, Research Director, STRAT7 Jigsaw
Kam Atwal, Research Lead, Advertising Standards Authority

With so much Research Technology to choose from selecting the right solution for your objectives can be challenging. In this session Res Tech expert, Mike Stevens looks at real-world applications of some of the latest platforms.

Introduced by:
Mike Stevens, Founder, Insight Platforms

Eighty-six per cent of parents shop online with their children, and two-thirds have purchased something their child discovered on social media. Together, parents and teens are redefining what influence means and it’s more about shared curiosity and co-creation.

Snapchat’s latest insights show advertisers that they should move beyond targeting demographics toward engaging with families as evolving ecosystems of behaviour and meaning.

Participants :
Heather O'Shea, Chief Research Officer, Alter Agents
Jess Percival, Research & Insights Lead, Snapchat

Speed to insight defines competitive advantage. Yabble’s Virtual Audiences allows brands to test ideas, language, and visuals with AI personas that think and act like real consumers producing meaningful insight in hours, not weeks.

This case study session explores how Ecology & Co, Pure Purple, and Yabble collaborated to reinvent the packaging of Ecology & Co’s alcohol-free RTD range for its global relaunch. Hear how this approach delivered topline insights in under 30 minutes and a full report within one week, cutting research time by over 50% and reducing costs from US$45K to US$25K.

Participants:
Doug Guion, Chief Growth Officer, Yabble
Raewyn Topp, Director & Head of Marketing, Ecology & Co

Quasai is the research world’s first AI video avatar-led interactive moderator, designed specifically for applications within market research. In this demo session you’ll explore how humanoid AI video avatars build empathy and engagement with research audiences, and are a helpful tool for accessing hard-to-reach participants and for researching sensitive topics at scale. You’ll also hear a case study from M&S which demonstrates its commercial application.

Participants:
Pui-Tien Man, Head of Growth & Innovation, Simpson Carpenter
Benedict Kenney, Research Manager, M&S

The world didn’t just change after Covid, it reshaped its rhythm. In this session, Magenta and The Guardian will explore just how much people’s working, social, and leisure patterns have evolved over the past three years, and what’s stuck. Examine the intersection between macro and micro trends and discover how this new rhythm plays out across generations, sectors, and even continents - and why this matters to brands.

Participants :
Dr Sam Jenkins, Associate Director, Magenta
Dr Jo Meredith, Associate Director, Magenta
Tibet Quinn, Research Manager, The Guardian
Lara Enoch, Head of Strategy, The Guardian

For Britain to achieve Net Zero by 2050 a profound change in energy consumers’ behaviour is needed. However, actionable evidence on consumers’ behaviour is often undermined by the “say-do gap”.

This session will spotlight Ofgem’s groundbreaking research programme which is enabling a robust analysis of the say-do gap for the first time by linking consumer research with granular energy consumption data. This includes the Flexibility and Net Zero survey, which integrates real-world consumption data with attitudinal and behavioural insights to understand consumers’ potential to adopt flexible energy behaviours. It will also showcase the Split Standing Charge Trial, which tests consumers’ appetite for financial incentives to change behaviour.

Participants:
Dr Michael Kattirtzi, Research & Insights Manager, OFGEM
Elizabeth Vourdas, Principal Researcher, OFGEM

Traditional qualitative research timelines don't match the pace of modern business decisions. Agentic AI / autonomous qualitative research is enabling brands to conduct in-depth consumer research in days rather than weeks. This session looks at when you should deploy an autonomous model versus traditional methods.

Join Motives and a client partner to explore real-world applications, implementation decisions, and results from autonomous qualitative research at enterprise scale.

Participant:
Sean Conley, Co-founder & CEO, Motives

Throughout MRSs 80th birthday year, the AMSR will be dipping into the Archive to find hidden gems that show what’s changed (not always for the better), what hasn’t and what really should, on topics from teenagers to banks to booze. This first LIVE session, tackles the hairy(!) topic of Men.

Participants :
Judith Rose, Co-Founder, EXPLNERS & AMSR
Phyllis Macfarlane, AMSR

The move to the right and understanding what this means

Participants:
Pauline McGowan, Head of Strategy, The Nursery Research & Planning
Steven Lacey, Founder, The Outsiders
Annabelle Phillips, Founder, AP Research

Establishing credibility with senior stakeholders as a young researcher

Grace Ennis, Senior Research Manager, B2B International
Matthew Reilly, Research Manager, B2B International

Inclusive research in practice: a playbook round table

Amelia Martin Davies, Director, Firefish
Sophie Stuart, Head of Operations & Resource, Firefish

What’s cooking in innovation? lessons from the kitchen table

Dr Nick Coates, Global Director, Strategy & Innovation, C Space
Risham Nadeem, Director of Innovation, C Space

What happens when research becomes unlimited?

Sean Conley, Co-founder & CEO, Motives

When class meets colour: navigating identity, bias & belonging at work

Theresa Jones, Founder, Luminance Insight & member of MRS Social Equity Group (SEG)

Chair:
James Sallows, Global Marketing Effectiveness Director, Global Marketing Performance , LEGO

Chair:
Seema Hope, VP, Insights, The Economist

Chair:
Lewis Reeves, CEO, Walr

This award-winning project shows how Mars Petcare and Verve transformed Pet Parent insight into strategic and cultural impact, embedding empathy at scale across the globe.

It started with building empathy, understanding and connection with pet parents via live unscripted video conversations across the world - and evolved into an actionable empathy asset via Verve AI powered Personas. Teams across Mars are now empowered with limitless access to AI Pet Parents, able to ask real questions and receive emotionally authentic, real-time responses.

Discover how this scalable, living empathy engine is changing the business culture to lean in, listen and learn from pet parents.

Participants:
Gav Holt, Executive Director, Verve
Gareth Townsend, CMI Global Insight Capabilities Director, Mars

The EU’s Digital Identity Wallet is a programme to give 450 million EU citizens a single, secure digital ID by 2030. But digital identity is divisive and to build trust at scale, policymakers and brands must recognise that identity systems operate within a landscape of cultural memory, misinformation and unequal tech readiness.

Join speakers as they discuss how megatrends like sovereignty, polarisation and AI-anxiety show up in research related to technology, why insight often determines trust and adoption paths and how to design digital propositions that create citizen value and avoid fuelling mistrust.

Participants:
James Wallis, Director, Yonder Consulting
Carla Allen, Senior Product Insight Manager, Gen Digital

This is a story about loyalty and how consumer insight transformed how Sky connects with its customers.

Hear how Sky turned customer closeness into senior stakeholder commitment and investment. Discover frameworks for co-creating propositions that blend emotional connection with tangible value. Gain practical tactics for embedding research into activation to drive measurable impact and lasting loyalty.

Participants:
Ed Nash, Qualitative Research Controller, Sky
Charlotte Klahn, Research Lead, Sky
Martin Diamond, Senior Research & Insight Specialist, Sky

In an experiment for the 2024 general election, Ipsos crafted five AI personas to simulate the decision-making processes of undecided voters in critical constituencies. The 2026 political landscape has changed significantly with traditional parties struggling to connect with voters and fringe parties gaining traction. So how will personas fair now in the context of a changing political landscape?

This session will compare the performance of long-lived personas and new personas built on updated data for understanding voter sentiment and decision making in 2026. It will identify where and when AI personas work best, their limitations and how to use AI personas effectively in a market and social research context.

Participants :
Eileen Irvin, Co-Head of Ipsos Survey, Research Methods Centre, Public Affairs, Ipsos
Steve Ginnis, Research Director – Public Affairs & Head of Innovation, Ipsos
Marzieh Azarbadegan, Senior Researcher, Ipsos

In 2025, Virgin set out its ambition to grow customer obsession. The insights team took on the challenge to develop a year-round customer closeness programme called The Customer Playground - to bring the voice of the customer out of decks and dashboards and into the decisions that shape our products, partnerships, and experiences. Through the programme, Virgin enables colleagues across the business to meet real customers, immerse themselves in emerging behaviours, and translate insight into action. Discover how the Customer Playground acts as a living ecosystem - connecting data, storytelling, and collaboration to inspire action across teams.

Participants:
Giulia Barresi Dubey, Insight Lead, Virgin

360 Future Casting is redefining how Symrise anticipates future trends and consumer behaviour to inform more strategic and timely planning. Hear how this pioneering two-phase approach, which blends qualitative insights from high-reach content creators (each with 10,000+ followers) with the predictive power of consumer-driven prediction markets, is informing Symrise’s futures work, innovation testing and driving strategic decision-making.

Participants:
Dr Pippa Bailey, senior vice-president for strategy and innovation, CRG Global
Dr Mansi Patney, Senior Manager, Global Data and Digital Analytics, Symrise

In an increasingly competitive CPG sector, justifying brand investment demands more than traditional metrics - it requires proof of real business impact. This is the story of how a novel measurement ecosystem, which integrated a suite of Share of Experience measures with brand health metrics and econometric modelling has driven transformational impact for Molson Coors.

This impact case study will show how over two years this integrated ecosystem has delivered significant benefits: replacing Share of Voice with more predictive metrics, impacting brand positioning, research investments, optimising through-the-line activation, and focusing channel roles to encourage cross-functional collaboration. Discover how integrated measurement caused a shift from reactive reporting to predictive intelligence.

Participants:
Fiona Blades, President & Chief Experience Officer, MESH Experience
Sherissa Naicker, Head of Insights, Traction
Daniel Siddle, Head of Marketing Insight, Molson-Coors

Explore how behaviours on the edges can quietly signal where mainstream culture is heading - and how tapping into them can guide future-fit innovation.

Cultural shifts and unmet motivations are reshaping how people socialise across Africa, prompting a reimagining of alcohol’s role in connection and celebration. Diageo’s challenge is to innovate at the edges of socialising, where emerging motivations and new behaviours signal what’s coming next. In this case study, you’ll hear how Kantar identified these unmet motivations and edge behaviours to pinpoint the gaps where opportunity lives. You’ll see how a blended approach - combining digital, behavioural and cultural research, is enabling Diageo to future-proof alcoholic beverage innovation across Africa and beyond.

Participants:
Janeke de Jong, Innovation Client Director, Kantar Insights UK
Tom Lees, Director of Creative Strategy, Kantar Consulting

From summer sceptics to summer loving, this is a story of resilience and long-term thinking.

Discover how M&S shifted the dial on its fashion lines and brand messaging, repositioning itself with a new generation of shoppers through emotionally-led insight.

Learn how these insights drove market share and sales growth, and continue to shape M&S’s meaningful conversations throughout 2025.

Participants:
Charlotte Smith, Managing Partner, Basis Global
Paul Burditt, Consumer Insight Manager (Clothing & Home), M&S

Revisit a pivotal moment in British history: the five days in May 1940 when the fate of the nation, (arguably the world) hung in the balance, and hear how market research played a significant role in shaping history.

Travel back in time to hear how pioneering qualitative research methods gauged public sentiment and brought the voices of everyday people to decision-makers for the first time.

Participant:
Alex Johnston, Commercial Director, Jigsaw