Intellicast

Welcome back to Intellicast! Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have a bit of a different episode today – they are continuing the AI discussion from a couple of weeks ago but with a market research news twist. Jumping right in, they guys congratulate EMI’s Angelica Jump on being named to the Significant Insights Global 30 Under 30 list for 2023. You can check out the full list here: https://www.significantinsightsmedia.com/30-under-30/2023/ Before they jump into the AI/market research news discussion, the guys discuss the drama going on at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Brian gives a quick recap of the situation that went down.  The guys then give their opinions of it and what it means. The OpenAI conversation leads to Brian Lamar talking about Insights Takeover week at EMI and everything he and his team have planned. (Much of what Producer Brian was hearing about for the first time) Next, the guys jump into some AI news from around the market research industry, starting by talking about findings from a rece

Welcome back to Intellicast! It's hard to believe we are in the final month of 2023. Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have lined up a quick news episode to help you ease into December. Starting the episode, the guys talk about the Q3 earnings reports from Ipsos and ComScore. The two are like two sides of a coin regarding the financial results they reported.  Next, the guys discuss some of the executive changes at Toluna in the wake of its acquisition of MetrixLab earlier this year. The changes included MetrixLab's former global HR director, Hans Verhulst, being named Chief People Officer and Jolique Weelink being named the Chief Insights Officer. Brian and Brian then discussed GMO's new API connection method, Organic Sampling. Producer Brian asks if this is just River Sampling 2.0, which Brian Lamar thinks could be. Although he feels it improves connecting studies to the right respondents, it doesn't matter. In the last story of today's episode, Brian and Brian discuss the rebranding of Kantar Public to Verian

Welcome back to Intellicast! Today’s episode is a bit different than normal. Brian Lamar and Producer Brian kick off the episode by jumping into some market research news, but all stories are tied to the theme of today’s epsiode: AI. First up, the guys discuss the news of SurveyMonkey’s new AI tool called Build with AI. They talk about how this can help non-researchers write better questionnaires, along with some speculating about what they hope to see in the tool in the near future. It leads to Brian Lamar touching on a recent WIRe event in Cincinnati where AI was discussed. Next, the guys touch on Voxpopme’s new AI tool called Live Interviews. It leads to a conversation about how quickly qualitative firms have embraced technology since COVID. In the final news story, Brian and Brian discuss the recent findings from a Qualtrics study on market researchers’ impressions and feelings of AI in market research. There were some surprising results, but the guys found it helpful that while people were optimistic, th

Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian dig into some of the recent news from around the market research industry. The episode kicks off with some commentary about how fall has really set in over the last week or so. Then Brian Lamar starts to provide some updates on upcoming conference dates. He talks about not only the ones left on the schedule for 2023 but many that have been announced for 2024 as well. Brian then gets into the upcoming Cincinnati WIRe event where EMI’s own Mary Draper will be speaking on a panel with Mike Herrel and Rudy Bublitz about artificial intelligence, diversity, and more at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati. After the conference discussion, the guys jump into some market research news. First up is the news of the new Delete Act in California that strengthens CCPA regulations. The guys wonder how this will impact companies and people who are based outside California but work with businesses/people who are. In the next story is a big one for those of

Welcome back to Intellicast! We have another great guest joining us on today's episode. Craig Alter, who works in consumer insights at Perfetti Van Melle, joins Brian Lamar and Producer Brian to talk about how research has evolved from a brand perspective this year. Before diving into the discussion, Craig brings us up to speed on what has happened with him since his last appearance on the podcast back in 2022. He explains how he joined Perfetti Van Melle and the reasons behind his career move. Next, Craig shares his perspective on how research has adapted this year, considering the volatile economy and tightening budgets. He mentions that the impact on Perfetti Van Melle has been minimal, and we even speculate that candy might be recession-proof. Craig also highlights Perfetti Van Melle's growth mode, citing their recent acquisitions of new brands from Mondelez earlier that week. The conversation then evolves into a discussion about how Craig and his team gather and utilize global insights, applying them to

Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, we are joined by Jeremy Zogby, the managing partner of John Zogby Strategies to talk about the current state of America, polling, and we even get a sneak peek into some results from their own proprietary research. Hang in there too, it is a long one, but an awesome one. Kicking off the episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian get Jeremy’s take on the current state of America and what historical analogies may exist for our current times. Jeremy talks about how 10 to 15 years ago we saw the simultaneous rise of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street; two movements that could be considered on the far ends of each political spectrum. One led to the rise of Bernie Sanders and the other MAGA and Trump. He discussed how we almost saw a face-off between the two populus factions of the parties. In the end, he shows how populism is here to stay. We pivot a bit in the next segment and talk to Jeremy about what he is seeing right now in polling in terms of the presidential no

Welcome back to Intellicast! In this episode, we’re joined by Colson Steber. This is Colson’s fourth time on Intellicast, so we’re very excited to have him. The guys waste no time in setting Colson up to share a special announcement: Communications for Research is rebranding on its 27th anniversary (to the day) as Qlarity Access! Colson shares some of the thoughts and strategy behind the rebranding and we could not be happier for them! In the next segment, Colson shares the Qlarity Access journey from its founding in 1997 to now. He discusses how the business has changed and adapted to expand its services. He also talks about the future of Qlarity Access and opportunities for future growth. This leads Colson to share another announcement: their new sub brand, Vet Access. This is an awesome interview with one of the podcast’s good friends. We highly recommend connecting with Colson on LinkedIn for motivating, entrepreneurial content. You can reach Colson at Colson.Steber@qlarityaccess.com. Thanks for listening

Welcome back to another episode of Intellicast! Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have some market research news stories to share with you in today’s podcast. As per usual, the episode kicks off with some conference updates. If you’re listening to this as it’s released, you might be headed to the Insights Association North Central Chapter Fall Conference in Minneapolis. CRC is also upcoming in Chicago this October. The first news story of this episode covers QuestionPro’s launch of a new generative AI feature for questionnaire building called QxBot. The next story discusses the Insights Association, along with Gallup, Precision Opinion, ReconMR, and the Professional Association for Customer Engagement calling upon the FCC in regard to voice service research calls. In the third segment, Brian and Brian chat about Researchbods, a part of the Strat7 Group. It’s intended to combat survey fraud such as bot farms, ghost completes, or professional panelists. The last news story covers Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD

Welcome back to another episode of Intellicast! The Brians are joined by a special guest in this episode: Angelica Jump! Angelica is EMI’s Director, Research Manager and Global Team Lead (unless Brian Lamar comes up with another job title for her); she also leads our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, is an active representative in WIRe, and more! The episode kicks off with Angelica and Brian talking about their hopes and expectations for the conference. They discuss the theme of the overall conference as well as the individual sessions. With this being Angelica’s first conference in her career, Brian asks her about what she hopes to gain from the experience. Brian and Angelica also talk about nerves and excitement before a conference! In the next segment, Brian dives into some of the sessions that will be at the IA NCC fall conference. There will be speakers from Dairy Queen, Duquesne Light Company, Hormel, and more! There will also be sessions on data quality from Brad Franz and Brooke Reavey. Brian is espe

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Intellicast! We’ve entered the August lull, so this is a quick, news-filled episode. Brian and Brian waste no time jumping into the first news story: Bain & Company has acquired Max Kelsen’s consulting and managed services divisions in Australia. The second story tried to slide under the radar, but ultimately had quite the buzz. Zoom has updated their terms of service to allow Zoom to train its AI on customer content including meetings, chats, etc.... with no opt-out option. Since it’s release on Friday, both Zoom’s COO and CEO have made comments on the update. From these statements it seems as though they may be working on an option for consent. The guys also discuss the endless violations an AI training without clarifying consent could have. The next news story is an exciting one! MRII and Know Research have launched a new program that will award $5k grants to women-owned businesses in the US who have been operating for 5 years or less. Additionally, The Coalition

Welcome back to another episode of Intellicast! Brian Lamar and Producer Brian are talking about market research news in today’s episode! First and foremost, you can no longer reach us on Twitter. You’ll have to find us on “X” @Intellicast1. It’s only fitting that the episode would open with a discussion of Elon Musk’s latest update of the social platform. In the words of Producer Brian, “this just shows you can be a genius, but you’re not a genius at everything.” Elon Musk, if you’re in need of some market research, you know where to find us. In our first actual market research-oriented segment, the guys cover the upcoming conferences in the industry. At this point, it’s a permanent segment. Brian Lamar shares some updates on the Insights Association North Central Chapter conference in September and announces a fun (unofficial) award as well as a Halloween happy hour. Next up, Brian and Brian discuss our Cincinnati neighbor, MarketVision, and their new hires. They also discuss SampleNinja’s partnership with

Welcome back to Intellicast! Thanks for joining us for a Midsummer Market Research News Update! Today’s episode starts with updates on upcoming conferences. It’s hard to believe in just a few weeks kids will be back in school and fall conferences will be starting. Get the overview of events before they’re here! In the first news story, the guys discuss GfK’s plans to sell its European Consumer Panel business to YouGov as part of its deal to merge with NielsenIQ (NIQ). Producer Brian shares a great sports metaphor to explain this decision. In another M&A news story, Brian and Brian talk about Qualtrics receiving a $500M investment from venture firm Accel following its acquisition by Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CCP) for $12.5B. This gives the new owners 100% of Qualtrics, including all the shares owned by SAP. The next story is AI-focused with a discussion of ESOMAR’s new task force to address the use of artificial intelligence in the research, insights, and analytics sector. The new t

Thanks for tuning in to this special episode of Intellicast! Today, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian are joined by Chief Data Scientist Deb Ploskonka and Vice President Holly Smith of Cambia Information Group, as well as EMI’s Mary Draper to discuss all things data-quality related! The episode kicks off with Deb, Holly, and Mary each giving their individual backgrounds and discussing how their careers led them to market research. Their passion for data quality can’t be ignored in each of their introductions. As Brian Lamar says in the episode, if people were awarded doctorates for data quality initiatives, there’d be a lot of them in this podcast! In the next segment of the interview, Deb, Holly, and Mary give dimension to the problem of fraud in market research. They talk about how no studies are immune to fraud and how fraud goes beyond just bots. In fact, they discuss 5 categories of cheaters and how fraud is always evolving. Deb and Holly also share highlights from a paper they wrote titled, “Defeating Ende

Thanks for tuning in to Intellicast! In this episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian discuss conferences and some news stories from the past few weeks (yes, we know it’s been a while since our last episode!) So, without further ado, let’s jump right in. The episode kicks off with some feedback we received on our last episode! In it, we had a conversation on the conference in Hilton Head, which was a unique location, but it was expensive, hard to get to, etc. Our listener recommended that maybe we need to go to some second-tier cities (Ex: Charlotte, New Orleans, Nashville, Philadelphia, Cincinnati) for our conferences. The reasoning being that these cities are cheaper, and the airports have less travel hassle/cancellations and are easier to navigate. What do you think? The guys also give an update on the upcoming conferences in the next few months and even some in 2024! In our first news story, the guys discuss Momentive’s announcement that they will be returning to its original name, SurveyMonkey. As expecte

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Intellicast! This week Brian Lamar and Producer Brian have a short and sweet episode with everything you need to know to stay up to date on the market research industry. Let’s dive right into it! Kicking off the episode, the guys discuss some upcoming events: The Insights Association Chapter Event, Quirks New York, Insights Marketing Day, and more! They also go on a quick tangent of best places to have conferences and events. Let us know what you think! In the first news story, Brian and Brian discuss Forsta and Cint’s partnership. This is a step in the right direction to solve the data quality issues our industry is facing and reduce fraud. Next up, we touch on the Insights Association’s DII Council and their new website. The site allows people to access the DII Toolkit and the Data Integrity Pledge. A lot of cool stuff is coming from this group, so you’ll want to follow this page. The final news story is SamplNinja’s introduction of a new mobile app that will impro

Welcome back to Intellicast! This episode is a much-anticipated recap of the IIeX conference last week. It’s not your average recap though; we’re joined by Mike Herrel of Directions Research! He’s a long time listener and first-time guest so we’re excited to have him! Before we get into the IIeX recap, Mike gives an overview of Directions’ integration of Seek a few years ago as well as Aimpoint Research. The three brands interact to answer any questions their clients have regarding their business. Producer Brian and Mike kick off the interview with their overall impressions of the conference. They were both first-time attendees—and have mixed reviews of the unique headphone experience. The guys all agree that the conference is always jam-packed with back-to-back sessions. Many of those sessions surrounded artificial intelligence and how it can be used to assist researchers. Their main takeaway is to think of the relationship with AI as less of a battle and more of a partnership. The guys round out the intervi

Welcome back to Intellicast! Brian Lamar and Producer Brian are back for some market research water-cooler talk including the latest industry news and a preview of the IIeX conference this week! The episode kicks off with some current events. The Insights Associations Annual North Central Fall conference is September 4-6th in Minneapolis. There are several upcoming WIRe events in Chicago, Atlanta, NYC, Cincinnati, and more! Brian Lamar will be a speaker at the Cincinnati event on June 8th. There will also be an Insights Association event in Indiana at Top Golf on August 17th. It sounds like it’s going to be a busy summer for industry outings! In the second segment, the guys jump into some MRX news. They start with Toluna’s acquisition of MetrixLab and their majority stake in Precision Sample as part of the acquisition. M/A/R/C Research acquired Horowitz Research, a New-York based marketing research firm known for its thought-leadership in the multicultural space. In the final segment of the episode, Brian Lam

Welcome back to Intellicast! We have a special interview today with Lindsey Bartel of Brandtrust and Andrew DeCilles of EMI! This is Lindsey’s third time on the podcast and we’re so happy to have her on again to discuss some of the research we’ve partnered on surrounding mental health—a great segue into Mental Health Awareness Month! The interview kicks off with some background into Brandtrust’s relationship with EMI and how these projects got started. It all began with Brandtrust’s work with Narrative Inquiry and a subject we were all passionate about: mental health. As talking about mental health became less stigmatized, we recognized a need for people to talk about it. This interview gives a behind-the-scenes look at the research and methodology. In the second segment, we discuss some of the key takeaways from the research including reading a real open-end response from the study. This portion of the interview boils down what Brandtrust and EMI have spent hours discussing and analyzing over the past few mo

Welcome back to Intellicast! In today’s episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian cover the latest market research news and give a recap/teaser of some conferences! The episode kicks off with a chat about the upcoming IIeX conference at the end of May. Producer Brian will be speaking as he was named to the Greenbook Futures List. We’re all familiar with Producer Brian and his awesome work behind the scenes so we’re excited to see him on the main stage for a change! Brian Lamar shares some insight from his experience at IIeX and Producer Brian gives a little taste of his upcoming session. In the second segment, Brian and Brian discuss the latest market research news including the announcement that Big Village has sold its Insights and Agency Business to Blue Mountain Media for $20M and the latest Bellwether report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising which found that UK market research spending fell by a net 3.2% in Q1 of 2023. The Brians discuss what that might mean for us here in the US. The episod

Welcome back to Intellicast! On today’s episode, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian cover the latest news from the market research industry. The guys will take some time to cover current events, conferences, and more. Brian Lamar has had a busy travel schedule for Q1, so he kicks off the episode by sharing his experience with a few different industry conferences including Quirks, the Pharmaceutical Conference, the upcoming IA Annual Conference, and more! The overview of the IA Annual Conference is a great way to get warmed up for the event if you’re attending. Brian even shares a preview of our speaking session with Chuck Miller of DM2. In the second segment, Brian and Brian discuss the 5th edition of The Sample Landscape report which launched April 11th. The report has an entirely new look and feel—listeners will get a sneak peek into how the sausage gets made in terms of laying out the research and its evolution. The report is truly a labor of love for everyone at EMI and we’re always looking to make it better,