For the second consecutive year, EyeSee has 3 nominations in the finals of Quirk’s Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards! We are immensely honored to be shortlisted and our work and collaboration with Twitter to be recognized in this way.
Our long-lasting partnership with Twitter resulted in an exciting project nominated for the Advertising Research category – ‘(Non)traditional gender roles in sports ads’. The pioneering study was also presented earlier in the year at Quirk’s Online event, and the webinar session can be found here. Our team is also thrilled that Michelle Grushko, who is a Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics, at Twitter and worked on the project, is one of the finalists in the Researcher of the year (client-side) category.
Aside from representing industry recognition, this nomination is a reminder of how far our team has come since winning the Global MR research project Award with Microsoft in 2019. Since then, despite the challenges, we hit a big milestone – EyeSee grew to over 100 employees, having been joined by amazing experienced professionals from the MR field, and fresh young talents alike.
The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards, powered by Quirk’s Media, recognize the researchers, vendors and products and services that are adding value and impact to marketing research. Finalists are selected by a panel of judges made up of a combination of end-client researchers, supplier partners and Quirk’s editorial staff. For more information about The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards visit quirksawards.com
This year has proven that in times of crisis, adaptability is the one strength and skill that is key to helping both businesses and individuals cope with the looming uncertainty. In 2020, we grew in the face of challenges while taking care of each other – all 101 of EyeSee team members.
As we enter the last quarter of the year, we see a rise of opportunities amidst challenges, thanks to a multitude of different perspectives, sophisticated online tools, and diverse and agile skillsets of our people. We spoke to some of EyeSee’s latest global hires about their onboarding experience.
EyeSee grew from a seed of innovation in the face of obstacles – it wanted to change the fact that a very small percent of research was based on behavioral methods, and instead depended on costly and unreliable central location testing. Right now, there is a similar climate and we face obstacles that further challenge our way of work. In a way, our roots were in turning hurdles into an opportunity for learning by using smart tech solutions that bypass our biases. This initial ethos of resilience is the key to our adaptability and managing the COVID-19 realities.
Aleksandar Velikic, EyeSee’s General Manager, shared his feelings on growing the team to over 100 employees during the crisis: “It brings a strong sense of pride – I am very glad our team grew and that we created a great and secure workplace for so many talents. However, working under the pressures of a pandemic is a whole new set of challenges that has to be acknowledged if you care for your team’s physical and psychological safety.”
Amongst the 20+ people that joined us since March is Alexandre de Jubecourt, who previously worked with Veylinx, MetrixLab, Nielsen, and leading the Unilever account at Millward Brown in South Africa.
Q: Why did you decide to change positions right now and how did you choose EyeSee to do that?
Alexandre de Jubecourt: After 15 years in the big companies of our Industry, I joined early 2020 a start-up. It was however not answering my needs, still, I wanted to stay out of traditional Market Research and stick within the behavioral world. I wanted to join the firm of the future, this is how I found out about EyeSee – I find it innovative, growing, dynamic, fun, and shaped for success.
Nikola Golubovic joined EyeSee as a Shopper Insights director and brings over 15 years of experience in the MR industry, to the table – 7 of which he spent in PepsiCo.
Q: How did you decide to move from the client-side to an agency right now, and what are your first impressions about EyeSee?
Nikola Golubovic: Two years ago, I had the opportunity to work with one of EyeSee’s excellent teams. By launching a pack redesign after EyeSee’s recommendations, we at Pepsico managed to reverse a negative category trend and gain market share. It was clear evidence of benefiting from skillful researchers who apply sound science. Once again, I concluded: “Knowledge belongs to the one who best knows how to ask (questions)” (Miroslav Antic). Our researcher community is very small, and when my long-standing colleagues invited me to join the Team, I could only accept it with pride and pleasure. I embraced the offer in order to learn how to pose questions even better. Regarding EyeSee, my first impression was that I need a lot of effort to keep up with the inexhaustible amount of energy, enthusiasm, and passion for research that the EyeSee team possesses. Now, it makes me feel younger and I appreciate the given opportunity to work with highly-intelligent experts who are novelty seekers and status quo challengers at the same time.
Another great addition to EyeSee’s US team is Jennifer L. Guerrette. Jennifer is very experienced in the industry, having worked for Millward Brown, Ipsos and Survey Sampling International with clients such as Amazon, Ab InBev, Nestle, Dannon, GSK, Godiva and many others.
Q: What does a career change and the onboarding process look like during the pandemic?
Jennifer L. Guerrette: Global and personal crises makes one reevaluate their life. Reflect on what you truly want. Career is no exception. Sometimes you need to take the risk & move forward even when you don’t have a sure outcome. When it comes to onboarding, I’m very used to onboarding virtually & working remotely. This feels no different to me. What is nice is the human touch. At larger companies, there is less face to face virtual training… many rely on 3rd parties to house pre-recorded trainings + quizzes. They are impersonal.
One of the people who joined EyeSee as the crisis started to develop was Jonathan Asher, EyeSee’s Executive Vice President. Jonathan spent 10 years as an Executive Vice President at PRS In Vivo, where, in addition to overseeing the client service group, Jonathan also established the e-commerce section.
Jonathan Asher: I chose to make a change to a specialist in online shopper research just prior to the crisis hitting, and the timing was quite fortuitous as just after starting, clients could not conduct and in-person research and sought online providers they could trust. I found myself in the right place at the right time – and EyeSee was an ideal option to do that. I chose to pursue an opportunity here because, during my exploration of online shopper research Firms, it became very quickly that EyeSee was by far the best. This was due to several factors, including:
A proven method that mirrored the in-person methods I knew worked well
Technology that provides real eye tracking on respondent devices – rather than relying on proxies such as “click on what you saw”, mouse hover time or recall
Broad-based experience with a range of top clients as well as across several types of testing such as packaging, shopper marketing, e-commerce, advertising and innovations
A very talented and experienced staff of research experts with backgrounds from top tier research firms
A high level of client satisfaction
Staying agile in a dynamic market
As we look back on the challenges surmounted and opportunities seized in the past few months, we are reassured that staying adaptable, embracing change headfirst, and caring for our people is the way to move forward in even the most unpredictable of circumstances. Whether it is by making sure that our insights are reliable during changed consumer sentiment, keeping track of the developing trends, or sharing our knowledge on consumer behavior in an ongoing webinar series – we are here, prepared to turn hurdles into stepping stones forward.
Complex environments like stores have elements competing for customers’ attention. Therefore, it is no surprise that many traditional research approaches that rely on stated responses and standalone assessment fall short in their ability to predict the real impact of promotional materials after launch. Over the last couple of years, market research industry has seen a steady rise in online context testing solutions such as virtual stores which offer cost-efficient and fast findings, but also boasts very high validity. Apart from providing stable results even in changed circumstances, Virtual shopping has a very high correlation with real shopping behavior – as much as 0.8-0.9. Check out the full webinar below to learn more.
A more realistic context guarantees more accurate results
Even though it’s been gaining traction in recent years, what makes context testing so imperative now is the inability to conduct in-person research. An accompanied shopping trip is great for qual insights into what the shopping process looks like on a smaller scale. Still, with a bigger, quant sample, in the right (virtual) context and void of variations that might spoil your data, you can be much more confident that your results are reliable.
In an average supermarket that contains around 50k SKUs, consumers spend only 5 seconds per aisle, which is indicative of why it’s so important to test everything in a realistic context – if consumers miss your POS display, SRP, or a new pack in the environment, they won’t be bought.
In-context remote testing options, such as virtual stores, provide a realistic environment for conducting consumer research. Although virtual shopping is not identical to shopping in front of a real shelf, implicit studies produce results that are far less biased and more impartial than verbal self-reported data, which is often saturated with personal inclinations.
Pick the right virtual stores for your KPIs
Depending on the research question, the three testing levels of virtual stores – 2D, 2.5D and 3D environment – can provide highly reliable results.
Check out a demo on the three types of virtual stores here!
Setting up a virtual shopping study for different needs
Virtual shopping is most effective when combined with other methods. Standout and visibility data is the key in shopper research, which is why we use it in combination with eye-tracking in virtual stores to gauge if products are noticed in their environment – a necessary prerequisite to being bought. Additionally, we suggest coupling virtual shopping studies with traditional surveys and Reaction time measurement – an excellent tool for assessing attributes and seeing how strong the connections between the product and some descriptors are.
The added value of virtual shopping as a method is that it collects behavioral shopping-specific KPIs – sales uplift, the share of shoppers, value share, and several others. Since it uses a monadic design on a large sample (from 300 to 1000 respondents per cell), these results can be compared to different benchmarks – that of your brand’s other products, your competitor’s performance, and our benchmark database.
Virtual shopping is a versatile tool that complements many study types. While it is first and foremost a shopper marketing mainstay, it is also useful when running tests of a new flyer, a TVC, or long-form content such as branded videos, as it can measure the impact of tested material on the uplift in sales. Take a look at the table below, showing which solutions use VS as a method.
The question that is on everyone’s minds right now is should you still keep on testing during a period of shaken consumer sentiment. This is why we put Virtual shopping to the test: we compared data collected in April to data from last year to see if our findings hold up – we found that all the results remain stable. If you used VS before the crisis, you can continue to rely on it now!
Main takeaways
There are 3 key reasons why using virtual stores is a good idea for brands right now:
Context testing has been growing in relevance for years – but now add to it the COVID-19 crisis, and the inability to conduct in-person research, we will notice a more intense switch to remote testing in virtual environments.
Not only is the validation of virtual store results very high – 0.8 compared to that of 0.6 of surveys, but the findings are stable as well, even during the crisis.
Pick the right type of virtual store for your specific research objectives!
Interested in learning more about virtual shopping? Reach out to us at [email protected]
Whether you should be conducting market research during these turbulent times is a complex question with many opposing opinions – we already discussed the ways you can ensure reliable research results right now. In this blog, we elaborate on several perspectives on trend development and forecasting in the coming months, and one of the fundamental roles of insights – understanding what is happening in the consumer environment. How does a crisis influence trends? If companies are delaying research, how long should they delay studies for? What is the impact of postponing research?
Crises accelerate trends
One of the roles of research is to understand how the world is evolving – so that insights can advise senior leaders and the c-suit about actions that need to be taken. Insights departments should always be on the lookout for emerging trends. And what we are seeing now, is not all that new. After (and during) the COVID-19 crisis, the world will not be entirely different – instead, the evolution we were already on the brink of is just speeding up. For example, e-commerce is definitely not new, but its penetration has tripled or quadrupled in only 6 weeks. The same goes for remote education and work, or some product attributes – for example, a focus on health and wellbeing was already a trend; now, it will be even more relevant. What would have been the reality in 6 to 12 years, is currently taking place in 6 weeks only. We see many existing trends experiencing a decade-leap forward.
Constrained by their environment and circumstances, people are forced to or feel the need to try out new options. In a way, a product or experience may be new for the individual, but on the other hand, it was already there for the early adopters. Due to these circumstances, the trend adoption rate among consumers is becoming much steeper.
Conflicting forces make trends more unpredictable
We will witness many things happen in the upcoming months, just like we did in the last few weeks, only, hopefully, a little bit slower. Trends are not random events, though. They are steered by external forces (e.g., the obesity issue created a healthcare trend) that differ in strength, speed, and length – and this, along with conflicting pressures, make it difficult to predict trends:
A surge in buying healthy products (health-conscious consumers who want to prevent getting sick) vs. purchasing the cheapest products due to a difficult financial situation, or
a decrease in using public commute (spurred by the fear of disease) vs. no money to afford a car, an increased need for public transport
Length of forces: When will the economy reopen? How much time will it take to not feel anxious anymore while shopping?
….
Before the crisis, these forces evolved more slowly and gradually, which made predictions easier than now – in a world dominated by sudden changes in trends.
This is where insights come into play – to monitor the trend directions and understand the forces driving them. Brands need to start thinking carefully about each new trend and try to uncover their unseen consequences for both their customers and their business in this extreme duality.
How much do actions lag after insights?
A big part of the role of insights is understanding consumer needs – research needs to measure trends as they happen, and so to speak – put ‘the black dots’ on the graph. Let’s take a look at what we mean by that. Below you can find a simplified example of a consumer trend over time. You measure the trend direction (insights: the black dot) and then develop the product that your consumer needs. This product is launched 6 months to 2 years later (the red dot). By the time it is on the market, the client has already evolved a little bit, but as the gap is not too big, so the consumers are still happy with the product. If the were to be too big, then the consumers would have an incentive for a brand change. During a crisis, when trends form and change much faster than usual, it is even more critical to both measure and launch new products that fit the needs of the consumer.
With a steeper trend growth, it is essential to try harder to understand the current trends as the client’s needs are also developing faster. This means that the delta between the client’s requirement and the product offering is becoming even more significant – thus, the chance of switching brands grows higher if these needs are not fulfilled. Highly volatile environments have much steeper trend curves – when that is taking place, it is imperative to monitor them with more research, rather than stepping back until things settle.
Not all trend curves are the same
Another interesting topic is the shape of the trends. Especially now, with abrupt changes, we might see many more variations of specific trends. This is another reason why it is so hard to predict trend outcomes in fast-changing environments – as we said, sometimes, opposing forces are at play. For example, the healthy food trend – we spoke about the two types of effect the crisis has on it – but which one will prevail depends on how these socio-economic groups will change and come out on the other side of the crisis. The same is valid for online education. Right there’s a surge in online educational platforms because people have more time on their hands (no job, less socializing (e.g., team sports, going out…). However, once the economy is picking up again, you might see a significant drop in the interest, as people will need to work more than before to compensate for the period of income loss, or people will prefer enjoying the activities they couldn’t partake in during the crisis. On the other hand, it is easier to do something for the second time than the first time – so this crisis might have just removed the last obstacles to online education in the future – and online learning might follow a curve as displayed in scenario 3.
What does this mean for research?
The scenarios we discussed today are simplified, but they are helping make clear that conducting research in these fast-changing times is more important than ever. It is quite challenging to predict trend outcomes (i.e., how significant is the addressable market for a specific new product) even in regular times – let alone during a period of rapid change. Research should serve brands to feel the pulse of the consumer along every step of the way.
This crisis can bring about a lot of different effects – so this is not an easy question to answer. However, there was much talk about agile testing in the insights industry in the last few years, but honestly, we have not seen many examples of real agile testing. This crisis requires faster testing and more of it for a lower budget. Despite this, internal clients will ask for the highest possible predictivity as they gauge consumer needs in order to be able to hit the sweet spot. We don’t advocate substituting quant with qual for validation testing, nor we say drop behavioral research and only conduct explicit research – the truth is somewhere in the middle, where high-quality insights meet fast research.
Wonder how to run reliable research during the COVID-19 crisis? Here are two approaches you can use.
When it comes to e-commerce, the current pandemic fortified the already booming position of online shopping in the daily life of an average consumer. The past few weeks have seen a big change in behavior, with 48% of consumers increasing their online shopping. But how lasting will these new habits be? What is different now, in comparison to how adopters of online shopping used to behave and experience it before the crisis?
Check out the full webinar below to learn more about our study and get all the insights!
This study included 500 respondents split into 2 cells, with each cell exposed to one retailer (Amazon or Walmart) and 4 categories, both food ones (coffee, chocolate and cereals) and one non-food category (cleaning products). They completed 2 eye-tracking & click tasks, which served to determine which products the participants considered and what elements of product pages they found useful.
The first wave of the study was conducted in June 2019, and the replication study in April 2020.
Here’s what we found is different, and that could help brands gain a competitive advantage:
Shoppers saw 36% more products on the PLP than before COVID-19
Both prior and during the COVID-19 crisis, positioning is crucial for product noticeability, as our study showed that items placed in one of the top 10 positions on a PLP have a 34% higher chance to be noticed. Also, as a rule of thumb, the middle columns of the PLP perform better in terms of visibility than the lateral ones in a grid layout. Overall, a simpler PLP layout that is showcasing fewer products per page, with clear organization, ensures that a greater portion of content will be seen and explored.
The most significant change in the way respondents behaved was in the time shoppers spend on the retailer’s product list. It is substantially longer – from half a minute on average to almost 50 seconds! Not only is the exploration of product lists prolonged, but the average time spent per product is also higher – 0.17s more, or 11% longer.An extended browsing time brings a higher visibility of PLPs – there’s a significant increase in the number of noticed products.
Purchase interest stays on a more or less same level – with a slight decrease in some categories (chocolate, cereals), but with leading brands remaining the same among the tested categories.
Consumers are scrolling further and noticing more on a PDP
The difference in product detail pages exploration is notable – they were explored for almost 20 seconds longer during the COVID-19 crisis. Respondents also scroll through the page much deeper, ensuring that a more significant portion of the page is seen – nearly 60% of shoppers reach the page end compared to usual ~5% who did in our other tests. This results in twice as many areas seen on a PDP, compared to the usual, pre-COVID browsing.
The areasabove the fold – product image, product name, price, short description & add to cart – remain the most visible and among most useful in reaching a purchase decision. However, some otherareas are gaining inimportance for shoppers, primarily – suggested products and customer reviews.
Basket size is the same, but its contents have changed
Pages for the four categories included in the study were all browsed longer, with coffee and cleaning products keeping the same purchase intent, and chocolates and cereals having a somewhat decreased number of considered products. Lesser-known brands that provide value at a lower price were taken into consideration for both cereal and coffee categories, while the interest for healthy cereal products and ‘greener’ packaging options for coffee increased.
In contrast, sanitizing properties and convenience of use rule our choices when it comes to cleaning products, while value packs, family, and variety packs that offer a bigger assortment of products at a competitive price in the chocolate category are two tendencies clearly influenced by the ongoing crisis.
Previous research has shown that, when unaffected by a crisis, consumers notice only a fraction of the products during normal browsing. So what are the ways you can optimize your website to gain a competitive advantage? From an online shopping strategy, or testing shopper behavior on specific websites, to tactical impact studies, know how to choose the right type of study to up your e-commerce game!
Here are the key takeaways – listen to the full webinar for more insights:
Longer browsing time in search for new info and best value during the crisis
This might be the right time to optimize your e-commerce strategy and assets
Consumer behavior is changing, so change with it!
Interested in learning more about e-commerce testing? Reach out to us at [email protected]
As the world found itself in a challenging circumstance with a truly global impact and scope, brands are looking for ways to navigate and stay atop the pandemic-shaken markets. Now, market research can help build an understanding of the consumer, their changing sentiment and transformed daily habits. This is why EyeSee is running tracker and replication studies and presenting the findings in a webinar series on the consumer in a global health crisis. Next up, a webinar with Quirk’s on moving behavioral online and the upcoming 6 months in research!
Join EyeSee’s expert insights professionals and select clients for a discussion on conducting market research in a fast-changing environment and tips on shopper and e-commerce testing solutions.
To get a taste of the upcoming webinar, take a look at the recordings of our previous short sessions:
Webinar 1
Consumers in a global health crisis: the US and EU
Our first webinar session presents the results of a large-scale ongoing tracker study on shopping behavior and media consumption in the US, France, and Germany using a combination of survey and RTM to get both the explicit and implicit insight on the changing behavior amidst the pandemic.
Covering findings such as:
How many people have already changed their online shopping behavior
What features matter the most to the consumer when it comes to choosing an online retailer
How to leverage sentiment-based splits and repeating studies to obtain reliable insights
Webinar 2
Replicating research results in a global health crisis: Explicit and implicit data
In this session, we put the reliability of explicit and implicit methods to the test – we ran 2 replication studies to compare the data from last year to data during the crisis. The studies show that both advertising and shopper results are stable after several months – and the winning ads and leading brands still retain their positions. Plus, an update from the tracker study on consumer behavior.
Take a look at the session below and learn:
Which advertising KPI experienced consistent uplift across industries?
How visible are social media ads during a time of crisis?
Is Virtual shopping affected by the change in sentiment?
Want to learn more? Sign up for the upcoming webinar!
Women’s participation in sports competitions has been on a steady rise throughout history, albeit lined with many hurdles to overcome. Inspired by the historic high in female participation at the now postponed Tokyo Olympic games, where 48.8% of participants would be women, Twitter decided to take a deep dive into the way advertising portrayal of gender roles in sports influences brand perception and their consumers.
Check out the full session recording of the thought-provoking conversation!
Michelle Grushko, (Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics, Twitter) and Mila Milosavljevic (Senior Insights Manager, UX and Digital team) presented the pioneering study in a session at Quirk’s Virtual event. The conversations on redefining gender roles are becoming a fast-evolving trend on Twitter – people are starting to explore the meaning of femininity and masculinity more and more and challenge traditional gender roles.
Even though female athletes deliver outstanding athletic performances, there’s still a gender disparity – not only in earnings – but in the way they are presented in the media. Despite their athletic achievements, sportswomen are rarely praised just for that: the media tends to focus on their physical appearance, femininity (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, etc.
Twitter’s research has found that cultural relevance is incredibly important to a consumer’s purchase decision, and correlates with performance on brand effect metrics. We found that it’s important to consumers that brands are involved in culture (such as events and trends) and social issues. Consumers are increasingly talking about gender recognition in campaigns, with a 93% increase in volume over the last few years. A brand’s cultural involvement accounts for a quarter of a consumer’s purchase decision. This research specifically might help brands connect with what’s happening around the growing conversation of gender equality and gender roles, especially in sports.
The study included a total of 2400 respondents, out of which 1800 were exposed to with embedded tested advertisements. The study entailed a combination of implicit and explicit methods, measuring ad visibility and emotional engagement with two behavioral methods – eye-tracking and facial coding. Furthermore, virtual shopping provided insight into whether the advertised brand will be bought in a highly competitive environment, and which tested ads stimulate the purchase. Lastly, respondents completed a survey that also included a Reaction Time measurement test – adding another layer of implicit insight into the respondent’s biases.
Ads with female athletes are the front-runners
The ads in the study made up four different categories. Two focused on female athletes, and two on male athletes, each represented in traditional and non-traditional roles. Ads that showed traditional roles included common stereotypes around gender – women shown as elegant, maternal, graceful, and men as strong, masculine, powerful, etc. Whereas, ads that highlighted non-traditional portrayal emphasized women’s stamina and engagement in sports that are typically considered masculine, and men as paternal, caring, emotional.
Ads that featured female athletes outperformed campaigns that portrayed male athletes as the main protagonist on many KPIs.
All tested ads had absolute visibility, which may be due to the positioning of the ads as they were on the top of the feed. However, the tested ads also featured famous athletes, elements of humor, passion for sport, and some were also emotionally charged – all of which contributed to the high engagement. Moreover, all tested ads pushed purchase behavior in a positive direction. There was an increase in no. of shoppers, no. of bought items and consequently, the amount of money spent – compared to control cells that weren’t exposed to test creatives.
Low credibility of ads with male athletes
Ads featuring females in sports activities contradict stereotypes by default – women athletes are seen as strong, skillful, and persistent, even when the emphasis is on their gracefulness and elegance. These ads are also seen as more empowering and memorable, compared to those with male athletes. Regardless of the protagonists’ gender, however, ads with non-traditional roles yielded better purchase behavior results.
Another finding is that ads with male athletes had a higher effect on the shopping behavior of female viewers, while ads with sportswomen had a more significant impact on the shopping of the male audience. This isn’t anything new though, as our previous research also showed that purchase intent grows when the viewer and the protagonist are of the opposite gender.
Ads with male athletes in both traditional and non-traditional roles fall flat when it came to credibility and a sense of empowerment, which indicates that men are still looking for more relatable role models to feel empowered.
Stay ahead of the game with your sports ads
A study done by Twitter showed that 65% of people expect ads to be creative and culturally relevant for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Here are EyeSee’s tips for advertisers planning their campaigns for the coming year or any other sports event:
Media is highly saturated with typical gender roles – bring an element of surprise and novelty by introducing non-traditional creatives to your brand
While emphasizing gender equality in ads is relevant, it shouldn’t be done for the sake of italone – watchers will see through dishonest campaigns
Make sure that equality naturally fits the plot, creating a context that is believable and in line with the advertised product and target group
Be brave to explore the whole continuum of possible non-traditional roles (for both women and men)
Avoid going into extremes, as these kinds of scenarios are less relatable to viewers
Key takeaways
Ads featuring sportswomen blow the competition away – they out-perform on many KPIs
Representation matters! Not only do ads with women breaking the traditional stereotypes drive engagement – they are incredibly important to see
It’s not just the representation in sports advertising that’s vital, but opening the broader conversation around gender equality and inclusivity
Being a market researcher sometimes entails explaining complex research outputs to first-time clients who then have to retell the insights to internal stakeholders. However, for behavioral researchers, clarifying complex results to puzzled clients who are new to implicit research is a part of the day-to-day work. We compiled useful advice, Do’s, and Don’ts to help corporate researchers make sense of the thrilling world of implicit insights. This is the first part of a two-part conversation between 4 Insights directors and managers at EyeSee.
As we previously wrote, getting contradicting Behavioral and Conventional KPIs is not a bad thing – sometimes complexity helps us better understand the bigger picture and go deeper into analyzing the tested material. But what are some of the ways EyeSee’s experienced Insights professionals simplify communication with clients and help them navigate behavioral results with curiosity, ease, and confidence? We asked, and they delivered.
Key message + framing set the tone for the conversation
Marija Smudja: One of the most important things to keep in mind is that for end-clients, such as CMOs and CEOs, how a particular KPI was measured or obtained (or if those showed contradicting results) is often not a top priority. What matters more is what the results mean for their business. The presentations/reports that make their way to the end-users and decision-makers are not longer than 15 slides / 10-minute presentations. Regardless of whether the ad was not visible enough (implicit insight) or if the ad wasn’t clear enough (a survey insight suggesting they should invest additional funds in modifying the creative solution) – they are interested in WHICH DECISION they should make (e.g., increase the number of touchpoints, or design a new creative solution), and not HOW a KPI was measured. For us, that means we need to be able to translate data into concrete steps they can undertake in business.
The way you frame the results when presenting them to the stakeholders will most certainly set the tone for the conversation that follows. Focus on one key message you want to relay and try to frame everything else accordingly. Also, try to understand that the stakeholders are often in difficult situations and faced with making big decisions that can make a huge impact on the company – for the better or worse.
Making peace between implicit and explicit KPIs
Mila Milosavljevic: Yes, I agree. It often happens that our implicit and explicit measurements don’t line up. In such cases, we tend to place a slightly bigger emphasis on behavioral results. There was a time in market research when declarative data was at the center of researchers’ focus. Today, we are much more aware of the advantages of behavioral info and what’s more – this type of data is more accessible to us thanks to different methodologies we use (such as eye-tracking, facial coding). Behavioral data is immune to the inevitable shortcomings of human memory and biased opinions. It allows us to explore how, when, and what consumers do, very often in real-time. This doesn’t mean that info coming directly from respondents should be disregarded.
On the contrary, our approach is unique precisely because of the combination of these two types of indicators. The next-level quality of any analysis comes from integrating them, in an effort to understand the whole consumer. The results that are apparently contradicting can, in fact, be complementary.
We strive to make our final interpretation a cohesive entity – one that lends itself to storytelling. This is one of our DO’s – always present clients with a complete, actionable story.
One of our DON’Ts is communicating fragmented KPIs (both implicit and explicit) and letting the client make peace between and unify separate points of data.
An additional step is our support for the client while they are getting ready to relay the story further to the stakeholders – we try to clarify precisely why these contradictions are okay and provide useful and easy explanations for such scenarios. We create additional reports that are streamlined and adjusted specifically for the broader audience.
Tackling complexity with key stakeholders
Marija Smudja: Speaking of storytelling, there are several ways you can help it. People are usually aversive to what they are not familiar with. In business, that is even more so, because the consequences of decisions based off on new or different data can be risky. That’s why, when we need to explain the value of methodologies that are not widely used, we try to define everything through familiar concepts. In the case of explicit vs. implicit measurements, I wouldn’t separate ideas and concepts to behavioral vs. traditional, because it doesn’t really matter – in essence, they should both measure the same thing – the performance of a given advertisement/package design/e-commerce page, and are just evaluating it from different angles. I would describe implicit/behavioral measurements as the base – if we were to compare it to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, these would be the basic needs such as safety, food, and water – a set of standard criteria that all material (regardless whether it is an ad/pack design/digital content) should be able to satisfy. That is, any tested content should get noticed in its surroundings and trigger a reaction, i.e., perform well on implicit measurements. Only when we have this foundation, we can build upon it and see if the ad is clear/relevant/fun. Excellent performance on implicit tests is a standard, minimum requirement that must be fulfilled to further develop or evaluate the material. I would tell the stakeholders that if you only rely on surveys and assessing explicit data is like trying to work on your self-actualization while you are hungry and don’t have a shelter. So I would use well-known concepts like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to metaphorically explain the relationship between these methods that don’t exclude each other.
What might create resistance when introducing new, let alone contradictory KPIs, is the fact that most clients already have standard ways of measuring performance. That’s why I would never suggest a 180 change from the current measurements (e.g., survey) to entirely new modes (e.g., behavioral), but instead behavioral in parallel with the traditional, as its complementary method. This way, we ensure clients can keep both the KPIs that are already a part of their business, and still open doors to innovation in research.
Marija Smudja, Advertising Insights Director, EyeSee
Mila Milosavljevic, Senior Insights Manager, Digital, EyeSee
We are proud to announce that EyeSee’s work for Microsoft was recognized as the Global Market Research project of the year at the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards by Quirk’s!
After entering the finals in three categories, EyeSee and Microsoft won the Global MR project award for work on Digital Shopper Experience study. Special congratulations to Microsoft’s Senior Manager of Customer and Market Research, Pinal Mehta, who took the lead on the impactful worldwide research project.
Olivier Tilleuil, EyeSee’s CEO and Founder, was delighted about this particular project winning the award: “We are honored that our dedication, agility, and global scope yielded insights of significance for the Microsoft ecosystem worldwide. This recognition is a true fulfillment of our mission: Making behavioral data accessible to unlock next-level insights for our clients. We couldn’t have done it with our great digital team lead by Mirna and Maja.”
From left to right: Pinal Mehta (Microsoft), Olivier Tilleuil (EyeSee), Lubov Ruchinskaya (Colgate-Palmolive), and Jovana Sikanja (EyeSee)
A quick reminder: EyeSee was the finalist in two categories of the Quirk’s awards: the MR Supplier category and the Global MR Project category with Microsoft. Aside from that, the Client-side research department at Colgate-Palmolive was one of the finalists in the Client-side team category, following our nomination.
EyeSee started off by pioneering a proprietary webcam-based eye tracking and facial coding platform. Over the last 7 years, we have developed new methods, expanded our impressive client list to different industries, and refined how we test in order to provide fast, cost-effective, and globally scalable consumer research.
Our formula for actionable and predictive insights is:
A combination of behavioral and conventional methods
State-of-the-art visualizations for in-context testing
90+ experts conducting research in over 40 countries
This approach has earned us both client and industry recognition. For the third year in the row, we ranked in Deloitte’s top 500 fastest-growing tech companies and won the Global MR project award for our work with Microsoft at Quirk’s Marketing research and insights Excellence Awards.
Do it smart(er): Re-inventing market research to move beyond surveys
Our first major breakthrough was made in the early days of EyeSee when we figured out a way to test consumer behavior remotely by using respondents’ own devices (mobile and laptop cams). This has effectively cut down the hassle and costs of traditional research on a central location. Furthermore, the conventional, long survey-based approach only scratched the surface by focusing on the rational and conscious mind. This way of researching is in sharp contrast with how consumers actually behave during shopping – most purchase decisions are made subconsciously in a split second.
To tap into the real insights behind consumer behavior and decisions, we firmly believe in applying a combination of methods. Many studies show that combining behavioral and conventional measurements increases predictive power by at least 40%. Not measuring the behavioral side is the same as ignoring essential data. Behavioral and conscious research evaluate different variables that complement each other and provide a big picture of your ad or product, thus enabling you to predict its effectiveness much better.
To understand behavior, testing in context is key
The context in which you conduct market research has a massive impact on the quality of data. Lifelike mobile, desktop, and cross-platform testing environments make your respondents feel less like they are part of a trial, and more like they are on a regular shopping trip. This setting produces insights that correlate higher with real consumer behavior; virtual shopping scores over 0.8 on correlation with real shopper behavior, while surveys go only as far as 0.2-0.3.
Depending on our client’s needs and budget, we can create any environment simulation: (2D, 2.5D, or full 3D) brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce platform, or social media feed.
90+ top experts doing research worldwide
Combining methods means more datapoints to interpret; making sense of real consumer decisions is way more complicated than, e.g. understanding eye tracking or facial coding results alone. In EyeSee, a team of over 90 insights, data, business, and marketing experts help conduct research in over 40 countries globally.
Annually, we test:
Moreover, in the last two years, we conducted a record of 400k eye tracking tests!
Pivotal experience is gained from working with the best of the best: 1/2 of the top 30 CPG companies, 4/5 of leading media companies, and brands in industries such as telecommunications, banking, and services. We are tremendously proud that among them, over 90% rank EyeSee in their top 25% of market research suppliers, while more than 40% putting us in their top 10%.
Going further: Fast, cost-effective and global
The fast pace of the digital world is driving the need for businesses to become agile and adapt to rapid changes in the marketplace. Therefore, accessing insights faster has become a prerogative. This is best illustrated by the dramatic changes in the ranking of the top 10 US companies during the past decade. Being competitive is no longer defined only by how much you can invest, but rather by how smart andeffective/disruptive your investment is.
Other trends, such as globalization, render country or regional differences irrelevant. Know-how and insights about products and ads in one market need to be quickly scaled globally.
Mastering speed, effectiveness, and the ability to scale globally is EyeSee’s strong suit. What’s our next step? Implementing a behavioral framework to tackle innovation-oriented, long-term, and strategic insights.
What to know more? Get in touch for our full general capabilities presentation.
