On the 4th and 5th of May, the annual Quirk’s Event resumed its much awaited in-person conference in London with two days packed of client and supplier presentations, networking, and a busy expo hall.
After two years of enforced quarantines due to COVID, we were not sure what was going to be more anticipated: great content about the overarching theme (Driving Your Market Research Forward) or seeing colleagues and clients in person after being separated for such a long time by the pandemic.
Attendees got a generous helping of both with over 80 sessions in 5 tracks covering a broad range of topics. We were fascinated by presentations introducing the new thinking around building effective online communities and creative client-side innovation hubs, solutions to optimize and operationalize online qualitative research to integrate it more seamlessly into quantitative solutions, and the globalization of research with its challenges and opportunities.
Not surprisingly, there were numerous sessions around the importance of behavioural science to ensure your research is aimed at seeing what consumers do rather than strictly relying on asking direct questions. Examples of observational research focused on practical application of leading-edge new tech whether through the use of AI for text analytics of social posts or using video as a tool for sourcing consumer-generated ethnographies to mine for insights around home use of products.
Our own session on AI image recognition and computer vision, showcased the Behaviorally approach to optimizing images for conversion in e-commerce sales. We demonstrated not only practical application of AI data science to a robust behavioural database of KPIs, but also category expertise, resulting in a clear actionable solution to real pain points in online retail marketing.
There were sessions that addressed sustainability, storytelling, climate change, and the impact of inflation on pricing plus how to leverage the right insights tools to address each.
There were even cautionary tales that Gen Z and now even Gen Alpha will be the arbiters of brand fame and consumption trends in the very near future (oh wait, they are spending their pocket money NOW!). Lessons were shared around the need for transparency, authenticity, and ethical interaction in everything from data privacy to the use of ethically sourced ingredients and materials in products. Presenters shared cases around the best ways of engaging evangelists and brand champions from the 7 to 24 year-old cohort.
All in all, there was something for all practitioners who wanted to learn and lean into proactive ways of creating our future of market research and driving success of our respective clients! Next stop for Quirk’s: New York, July 20th – 21st! Contact us for complimentary VIP tickets to the event. We hope to see you there!
THE AUTHOR
Grant Montague is the Vice President, Client Development for Behaviorally in the UK. He likes nothing more than watching football and enjoying a decent British pint. Connect with Grant on LinkedIn.
