Making Research Count

David Evans, MediaTel.co.uk business director, looks at the skills needed by researchers and how these can best be provided.

Researchers on both the agency and owner side have to be chameleon-like in the wide range of skills they possess. The many stages of a research project mean that media researchers have to be able to innovate, implement and ultimately market and sell the ideas and projects that they have sweated blood over for the research to be a success.

It is a tough challenge for people to be skilled in all of these elements, especially when some may be diametrically opposed to each other. For example, someone who is schooled in the rigour and method of implementing a wide-ranging project may find it a struggle to promote and market a project effectively and vice versa. It is an interesting paradox that whilst researchers are able to deliver advice regarding multi-million pound media and advertising strategies, the marketing and promotion of projects they ‘own’ is sometimes left as an afterthought.

The areas of innovating and marketing and “selling in” research projects are to be addressed at the Media Research Seminar put together by MediaTel Group on May 21 in Westminster. Attendees will have the opportunity to see some of the latest techniques being adopted by companies looking to understand the changing media landscape with short, sharp presentations from a wide range of big and small research suppliers.

The approaches will then be assessed by a panel of experts including David Fletcher from me:cia and Scott Thomson from Naked. The panel will also then try to unravel how innovation can best flourish in our industry. What are the key drivers in innovation and where should responsibility sit: advertisers, media agencies, media owners or research agencies?

That will help researchers to innovate, but with a surfeit of research projects all competing for attention, how can companies ensure that research packs a punch? The final panel of the day will look to address this very issue. The panellists will be sharing their experiences of leveraging major research projects and outlining how they “crossed over” to provide insight for the overall marketing community, not just those in research.

We will look to explore the effectiveness of workshopping results and using technology to distribute results to a broad audience. The importance of effective marketing and PR to make sure that the key messages from a project reach the relevant audience will also be a centrepoint of the debate.

The panel includes Sue Elms from Millward Brown, Andre McGarrigle from Guardian News and Media, Nigel Foote from ohal and Richard Helyar from BBH. All these have a broad experience of implementing research across the spectrum of media agency, research agency and media owner.

This event has been put together with the aim that attendees will be able to leave having discovered something that will directly affect their day-to-day roles in commissioning and using market research.

Please visit the MediaTel Group seminar site for more information on the full day and booking details.