I have just one word to summarize the Festival of Marketing experience: Insight
I was one of the attendees at the Festival of Marketing earlier this month in London, U.K.. The Festival of Marketing is annual Marketing Event in the U.K bringing together over 200 quality speakers in the field of Marketing and creating around 160 hours of content. I have just one word to summarize the experience: Insight
12 different specialized stages (presentation rooms) were available for the attendees to choose from, yet I spent the majority of my time in the Insight Stage.
Was it me assuming my responsibilities & learnings as Head of Research in our agency or was my experience framed by my attendance to Marketing Research Conference ESOMAR last month? Why did Insight feature so predominately?
I pushed myself to attend different presentations in other stages yet they all mention Insight as key factor in their success whatever the specialization was.
Below are a few key features regarding Insight which I was exposed to during the Festival of Marketing:
- Big Data is gradually being replaced with machine learning due to the latter incorporating insight in the process. Dr. Yasmeen Ahmed (Director at Think Big Analytics)
- Lego did research and used insights to encourage parents to register their kids in their new social network (Lego Life) to overcome an initial struggle in kids’ registration.
- Behavioral Economics have been called upon to better understand the people which Insight findings relate to.
Moreover, countless examples and learning can be further mentioned regarding Insight.
& if you think the awaited debate of the conference between Branding Guru Mark Ritson and spear head of Evidence Based Marketing Byron Sharp will miss out on the insight topic well you will be disappointed.
Knowing that qualitative survey play a key role in the generation of Insights ; Byron attempted to distance himself from the claim made by Ritson of him denouncing this research approach. Within the research community this is a big deal because of the crucial role qualitative methods can generate insights.
Whether you prefer the term ‘Targeting’ like most Marketers with Ritson or ‘Sophisticated Mass Marketing’ as with Sharp, Insight is crucial in developing the appropriate marketing strategy and more importantly the strategy of your company since it provides a true understanding of your consumer.
Finally, let me recommend the following read by Jonathon Dalton on
Insight as it will provide a practical approach to the understanding and generating insight.
https://thrivethinking.com/2016/03/28/what-is-insight-definition/
Insight is a much generic term as is brand and strategy and used in the wrong context and meaning, I hope this article helps clarify it for most readers.