29 Sep

Posted at 11:05h in Innovation, Technology
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Most ads are invisible in the wild. People see thousands of ads a day and forget almost all of them, which is why a large share of ad spend has little real impact. In this environment, guessing is expensive. Testing is how you protect your budget and improve creative quality. This guide explains Insightrix ad testing solutions, why they work, and when to use them: OnTopic (tailored omnibus survey checks), AdCheck (quantitative pre-testing with quick turnaround), and Neurolytrix (predictive AI ad testing). Why test creative before launch? Independent meta-analyses have found that creative quality is a top driver of in-market results, as influential as all other media levers combined in some analyses.2 Insightrix echoes this, highlighting creativity as the #1 driver of ROI. In short, improving creativity is the highest leverage move a marketer can make. Corner 1: OnTopic — Tailored, Local Quantitative Checks (Omnibus Survey) What it is OnTopic lets you add a set of questions to a shared, ongoing survey (“omnibus”). It’s a fast and cost-efficient way to validate creative direction with local audiences—ideal when you need a read on headlines, visuals, CTAs, or value propositions without commissioning a comprehensive study. Why it’s effective (beyond “just a survey”) Decision speed: Early decisions (keep/kill/iterate) have outsized budget impact. Omnibus feedback preserves momentum while preventing costly dead ends. In-market, human-based feedback: Because respondents live where you market, results reflect regional language, norms, and purchase contexts that national studies can blur. Frictionless iteration: Quick cycles encourage test → tweak → retest, which compounds creative gains over a few rounds. When to use it When you’re choosing between concepts or copy and need a fast signal. When you want to confirm a product's fit for market before investing in production. When budget is a concern, but you need human-based feedback to make data-driven decisions about your creative. What you’ll leave with Data from a pre-determined set of questions presented in a set of Excel detailed tables. Results include crosstabulations with key demographic variables and a brief written summary of results. Corner 2: AdCheck — Quantitative Monadic Pre-Testing (with Norms) What it is AdCheck is a pre-test methodology developed by Insightrix to facilitate swift turnaround times (3–5 working days). Respondents evaluate ads on key diagnostics related to engagement, relevance, enjoyability, differentiation, and call-to-action effectiveness. Leveraging a monadic approach, respondents evaluate one advertisement at a time (not multiple side by side). This design eliminates order effects and cross-contamination, resulting in cleaner reads on your creative. AdCheck can be used for pretesting TV, digital, print, outdoor, radio, and pre-roll. Why it’s effective (beyond “just a survey”) Decision speed: Early decisions (keep/kill/iterate) have outsized budget impact. Omnibus feedback preserves momentum while preventing costly dead ends. In-market, human-based feedback: Because respondents live where you market, results reflect regional language, norms, and purchase contexts that national studies can blur. Frictionless iteration: Quick cycles encourage test → tweak → retest, which compounds creative gains over a few rounds. When to use it You’re choosing between concepts or copy and need a fast signal. You want to confirm fit-to-market before investing in production. Budget is a concern, but you need human-based feedback to make data-driven decisions about your creative. What you’ll leave with Data from a pre-determined set of questions presented in a set of Excel detailed tables. Results include crosstabulations with key demographic variables and a brief written summary of results. Corner 3: Neurolytrix — Predictive AI Ad Testing (Neuroscience-Backed) What it is Neurolytrix is predictive AI built on the world’s largest combined neuroscience and eye-tracking database, comprising over 200,000 human brains and more than 100 billion datapoints, to forecast how people will perceive, feel about, understand, and remember your ad.1 It returns: Attention heatmaps (what will be looked at) AOI analysis for logos, headlines, pack shots, CTAs Frame-by-frame video curves (start/end attention, peaks, dips) Behavioural scores with explanations of how each is calculated. Impact scores enable you to determine when an ad is ready for production. Reports are typically ready within one business day, and the tool supports all major formats—from billboards and print to social feeds and TV.1 Neurolytrix follows this paradigm: learn from massive human neuroscience/eye-tracking datasets, then apply those learnings to new creative projects, predicting likely attention, emotion, focus, and memory before spending on production or media. Why predictive AI works (the science in brief) Attention predicts outcomes. Large meta-analyses show strong correlations between measured attention and brand outcomes (awareness, consideration, action intent). 5 Eye-tracking & recall are linked. Peer-reviewed studies and recent articles demonstrate that the duration and focus of attention are related to memory and brand recall, validating the attention/memory predictors used by AI systems. 6 Model strength comes from human ground truth. Best-in-class AI testing (e.g., Neurolytrix) is trained on hundreds of thousands of human-rated ads and validated to predict in-market performance within minutes, reliably illustrating how survey-based truth can powerfully train survey-free prediction for speed and scale.6 What the metrics tell you → Indicate whether attention concentrates on one or two elements that matter (e.g., product + CTA). Diffuse attention = diluted message. Estimate mental effort; high demand can overwhelm viewers and suppress recall (useful for simplifying layouts or pacing). Understand that engagement approximates a positive emotional pull, derived from fast-response paradigms that correlate with felt emotions. Learn how memorable post-exposure recall is - critical in fast-scroll environments where only what “sticks” can drive later behaviour. What this unlocks (beyond “a score”) Edit guidance: concrete design and copy edits, video pacing tips, and benchmarking vs. category norms to close performance gaps. Scale without prohibitive cost: test many versions, formats, and placements; reserve surveys for the few finalists that need deeper human interpretation. Evidence of impact: case studies show 18% increases in engagement and 20–73% improvements in CTR after AI-guided optimization. Connect the cornerstones of ad testing (without waste) A simple playbook: Start broad with OnTopic Use omnibus pulses to pressure-test messaging, headlines, and visuals with local audiences. Kill the weak, keep 2–3 promising routes. Model and refine with Neurolytrix Run predictive AI on the survivors. Utilize heatmaps, attention curves, and cognitive demand to refine the hierarchy, simplify, and enhance clarity. (Reports are typically ready in a day, so iteration is fast.) Validate with AdCheck Put the refined creative into a monadic, normed test to quantify memorability, engagement, brand association, and motivation across media. Use industry norms to confirm it’s strong enough to scale (portal turnaround 3–5 days). Launch, learn, loop Compare early brand-lift/behavioural results to the predicted attention and memory patterns. Feed what you learn into the next cycle. Why the sequence works: OnTopic prevents over-investing in a weak idea. Neurolytrix pinpoints how to make a good idea work harder. AdCheck verifies that the final cut meets category benchmarks and moves brand & action KPIs. Choosing the right tool for the job Insightrix Blends Context and Realism Where it Matters Most All testing has trade-offs. Surveys risk context loss; AI risks model bias if trained on unrepresentative data; live tests risk time and budget. The way forward is method blending, using quick pulses for direction, predictive AI for design precision, and surveys for human-validated certainty. That combination mirrors what large, validated programs now show: attention, memory, and clarity are reliable leading indicators of brand outcomes. The Trifecta of Effective Ad Intelligence Ad clutter is a genuine concern, and budgets are finite. The surest path to impact is systematic testing: fast when speed matters, deep when risk is high, and predictive when scale is needed. With OnTopic, AdCheck, and Neurolytrix, you can cover all three. If you’re planning a new campaign, start by deciding what decision you need to make next: directional, developmental, or go/no-go, and pick the corner that gets you there with the least waste. Ready to make your ads work harder? Don’t leave creative effectiveness to chance. Discover which Insightrix ad testing solution fits your next campaign - connect with our team today and start testing smarter. 1Insightrix – Neurolytrix Ad Intelligence Platform 2Insightrix Research AdCheck – Advertising Testing for Business 3Neurolytrix Explaining Metrics Whitepaper 4Nielsen/NCS Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness; creative’s outsized contribution. 5Monadic testing reliability and order effects. 6Attention ↔ brand outcomes meta-analyses. 7Eye-tracking, attention and recall links.  ...
 

22 Sep

Posted at 13:27h in Innovation
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Let me be honest, AI in market research feels a bit like when we first got dial-up internet in the '90s. We knew it was going to change everything, but we also spent way too much time debating whether it was safe to buy things online. Spoiler alert: it was, and now we order groceries from our phones while wearing pyjamas. After watching our industry grapple with AI for the past few years, I have learned that most of our anxiety stems from not understanding the basics. So, here is what I have observed, without the corporate fluff. The "Is It Safe?" Question (Spoiler: It Depends) Remember when your parents told you not to get in cars with strangers, then Uber became a thing? AI security follows similar logic. The question is not whether AI is safe; it is about knowing which version you are using and what you are sharing. Here is the reality: free ChatGPT is like shouting your ideas across a crowded mall. Great for brainstorming your next campaign theme, terrible for discussing proprietary client data. Paid, enterprise versions are more like having a private conversation in a soundproof booth, still not perfect, but significantly more secure. The rule that should be adopted (and honestly, I wish more people would embrace it): if it is not yours, do not share it. Client data belongs to clients. Your company's strategic insights belong to your company. Pretty straightforward, yet with the ease of AI, like ordering fast food or going through the drive-through, then shopping at the grocery store and making your own meal…the trend of convenience is a real thing. The 'Test Kitchen' Approach One of the best pieces of advice I have heard is to treat AI like a test kitchen. Experiment with innovative ideas in open environments, refine them in secure spaces, then validate by going back to the open world with sanitized versions. It's similar to how we used to burn CDs; you would evaluate the mix, perfect it, and then share the final cut (while keeping the original safe). This prevents the echo chamber effect, where your internal AI becomes as isolated as that friend who only watches Netflix recommendations and wonders why everything feels the same. Beyond the Administrative Stuff Yes, AI can transcribe meetings and set agendas. That is like using a smartphone to make calls…technically correct but missing the point entirely. The real value comes from treating AI as a colleague who never gets tired, does not take things personally, and always has time to brainstorm. But here is the catch: not all AI colleagues are created equal. Using the wrong AI for the wrong task is like asking your artsy friend to fix your computer, you might get creative solutions, but probably not the ones you need. I have started thinking about it this way: Excel manages the counting, AI oversees the "what if" scenarios. Different tools, different strengths. The Power of the Prompt (And Why Your Experience Matters More Than Ever) Here is something that took me a while to realize: the quality of AI output is not really about the AI; it is about the person asking the questions. Your years of experience, industry knowledge, and understanding of context are what make AI useful. Think of it like this: AI is incredibly good at providing answers, but it has no idea whether those answers make sense in your specific situation. That is where your expertise becomes invaluable. You need to know enough about your industry, your clients, and your data to craft questions that will generate meaningful responses. More importantly, you need the experience to recognize when AI is giving you solid insights versus when it is essentially playing truth or dare with your business decisions. Truth responses are grounded in logic, backed by recognizable patterns, and align with industry knowledge you can verify. Dare responses sound impressive, but push you toward conclusions that could be risky if you do not validate them first. The difference is not always noticeable, which is why your professional judgment becomes more critical, not less. This evolution of our work is fascinating. We can now move faster than ever before, generating multiple analysis scenarios and exploring ideas at speeds that would have taken weeks in the past. But this speed comes with a responsibility to think more critically about what we are getting. The human experience is not being replaced; it is becoming more sophisticated. We are evolving from information gatherers to information validators and strategic interpreters. Understanding What We're Actually Working With Current AI is essentially a very sophisticated autocomplete. It is like that friend who finishes your sentences but sometimes gets it completely wrong because they are guessing based on what usually comes next, not what you meant to say. The newer reasoning models are different; they walk through their thinking process, kind of like showing their work on a math test. These are the ones worth paying attention to because they are starting to think more like humans and less like very clever parrots. The Transparency Thing (It is Not Going Away) Clients are getting smarter about AI, which means we need to get better at explaining how we use it. This is not about legal coverage; it is about maintaining trust in an industry built on credibility. I have started including a simple "How We Work" section in proposals that explains our AI usage the same way we would define any other methodology. Turns out, most clients appreciate the honesty and want to understand how these tools enhance our work. And here is something I did not expect: sustainability concerns are becoming real. Running AI for everything is like leaving all your electronics plugged in; it adds up. If you are not going to use those meeting transcripts, maybe skip the AI note-taker. The Speed of Change (Buckle Up) Remember how quickly we went from Blockbuster to Netflix to "Netflix and chill" becoming a cultural phenomenon? AI development is moving faster than that. New capabilities appear monthly, not yearly. This creates a dilemma: move too fast and risk security issues, move too slow and risk irrelevance. The market researchers I respect most are taking a "learn while doing" approach, implementing thoughtfully but consistently, rather than waiting for the perfect solution. What Actually Works After watching various approaches succeed and fail, here is what I have noticed works: Start with tedious tasks. Let AI manage the administrative work while you figure out its quirks. Once you trust it with scheduling, you will feel more comfortable asking it to analyze data patterns. Treat it like training a new team member. Be patient, provide context, and do not expect perfection immediately. The AI assistants that work best are the ones that have been "taught" a company's style and preferences over time. Keep humans in the loop. AI can suggest, analyze, and generate ideas, but humans still need to interpret, strategize, and maintain client relationships. We are not being replaced, we are being augmented. The Bottom Line AI in market research is not about replacing human insight—it is about amplifying it. The researchers who will thrive are those who learn to work with these tools thoughtfully, not those who either embrace them blindly or avoid them entirely. We are still in the preliminary stages of figuring this out, and that is okay. The key is staying curious, being transparent with clients, and remembering that our value has always been in connecting data to human understanding. AI gives us better tools to make those connections. The future belongs to researchers who can leverage AI's capabilities while maintaining the critical thinking, ethical standards, and genuine human connection that define outstanding market research. And honestly? That sounds like an exciting future to me. From the desk of Shonna Caldwell. ...
 

29 Sep

Posted at 09:56h in Innovation, News Release, Saskatchewan
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For Immediate Release: September 29, 2023, 10:00 AM (-6GMT) A new independent poll conducted by Insightrix Research highlights one half (53%) of Saskatchewan residents say the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is important to them personally. This is consistent with a similar poll we conducted in October 2022. Those of indigenous ancestry, females, younger and middle-aged residents and those living in Regina and Saskatoon are more likely to hold the Day in high importance.   Participation in The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Four in ten residents say they plan to wear orange in recognition of The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation this week, up from 36% who said they wore orange last year. Few (16%) plan to participate in or attend an event related to the Day. Planned employer participation in the Day is modest. Support for making The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation a Statutory Holiday Residents are largely supportive (71%) of making The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday, consistent with our 2022 poll (70%). Support largely aligns demographically with the importance residents place on the Day. For complete basic disclosure details, download the full report Insightrix Info Release - Truth & Reconciliation 2023 About SaskWatch Research® Insightrix began developing its SaskWatch Research online market research panel in 2007, using high quality techniques, including telephone recruitment and referrals from existing panel members. Presently, over 20,000 active panel members represent all regions of the province and distributions of the general population. For more information, please visit http://saskwatch.ca. About Insightrix Insightrix is a dynamic, Saskatchewan-based, full-service market research company. It serves businesses and government entities with insights-driven research solutions and interpretive analysis through leading-edge tools and senior-level expertise across a broad range of industries. Insightrix is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. For complete details, visit https://insightrix.com/market-research-industry-blog/. For more information, please contact: Lang McGilpResearch DirectorInsightrix Research Inc.Tel: 306-657-5640 ext. 229Email: lang.mcgilp@insightrix.comWeb: www.insightrix.com ...
 

09 Jan

Posted at 14:19h in Innovation, Technology
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The market research industry is no stranger to the constant pressures from emerging research technology trends. The advancement, in many ways, has catapulted our field of work into a new era of data collection for insights professionals.  For example… Remember when canvassers walked neighbourhoods with a pen and paper in hand? Well, that quickly evolved into calling centres calling extensive telephone lists. Then came the y2k era of administering surveys both multimode (telephone and online) and online by email. And by 2010, interactive digital surveys became more prevalent, like SMS, QR codes, and pop-up website windows. Skip ahead where DIY survey platforms, social media, and gamification (such as pausing in the middle of a game or YouTube video to conduct a survey question) are becoming quick, agile ways to support your survey data. As insights professionals, we've experienced the unfolding of ways to collect data and achieve an accurate read on a desired target audience. But, in our most authentic nature, we love a good trend! Quickly enters 'ResTech' - otherwise known as research technology. A term that has transformed the MRX industry by combining technologies and tools to create more agile and innovative solutions to advance research evolution. ResTech can be everything from simple task automation to SAAS, social media, video and remote collaboration, DIY solutions, interactive dashboards and even AI. Stories of Market Research Powerhouse Guests Within the last year, we have interviewed many great ResTech leaders in market research on Stories of Market Research: the Insightrix Podcast: CloudResearch on their industry-changing data quality solutions that combine behavioural and technological vetting. Listen to the episode here. Attest on their incredible consumer research survey tool that offers creative SAAS technology. Listen to the episode here. And RealityMine on their passive metering, automatic content recognition, and geolocation tools. Listen to the episode here. These are only a handful of the many ResTech firms that are doing outstanding work supporting the insights industry by empowering the many stages of market research using technology. There are so many ways that technology is fuelling methods of traditional survey data collection. How does ResTech support market research suppliers? Real-time Data ResTech can support researchers and end-users with a flexible solution to access real-time data and prune specific insights to understand target audiences. For example, automated feedback surveys triggered after an online purchase ask how satisfied you are with the recent experience. The maturation of contacting individuals in real-time as they experience an interaction has forever transformed our end clients' ability to access survey data when and how they want. As a respondent fills out a short questionnaire in a feedback form, the data in the backend is automatically stored and sent to a live dashboard where one can access the data and begin to understand their customer without waiting for a deliverable or project milestone. Automation ResTech takes care of unnecessary manual work in survey data collection by generating a connection between technologies to automate data collection, cleaning and analyzing the data, meaning much of the redundancy in traditional MRX processes is removed using automation. As researchers, we are more efficient, less biased, more comprehensive, and more inclusive because of our ability to access respondents online. Now one big (and we mean BIG!) caveat to this type ResTech is it does not replace the value of market research but provides a more excellent value by reducing mundane, day-to-day tasks. Technology enhances what market research can accomplish – making traditional research processes much faster and more efficient, allowing insights professionals to supplement methods to help clients understand their consumers. With ResTech accomplishing its task in the background, insights professionals can focus on those golden nuggets for better business planning. This gives you and your client back one valuable resource we all need more of – TIME! Time to dissect the insight and learn about your business. Time to connect the dots between what the data is saying and how to make it work for you. That is the true power of the human element within our industry. Sample Quality As insights professionals, we must prevent insufficient data from impacting our studies, starting with fraud detection and prevention when managing online samples. Greenbook states that 15 to 30% of market research data across the industry is considered fraudulent. And while fraud is quickly becoming rampant in a digital-first society, staying ahead requires vigilance. So how do we avoid the embarrassment of insufficient data? According to our friends at CloudResearch, leading experts in data quality market research technology, there are many steps you can take to be proactive in vetting the quality of the sample. Besides dedicated internal processes, CloudResearch suggests considering a market research tool (such as their data quality tool Sentry) to help improve data quality before it enters your survey. Sentry is a pre-vetting system to screen respondents using technical and behavioural measures. Sentry gives clients data they can trust and increases the confidence in insights quality with less time returning to fill in hard-to-reach groups due to removing bad respondents pre-survey. Want to learn how Sentry works? Jump into a recent Stories of Market Research podcast, where we interview some folks at CloudResearch who helped bring Sentry to life! Collaboration As consumers change and evolve rapidly, especially in the digital environment, insights will play an essential role in understanding customers and their needs. Technology will only increase the demand for more competitive research, allowing research suppliers to collaborate with others to provide mutual clients with high-quality research faster than ever before. As end-client demands become more configured to agility and speed, research suppliers must protect the value of market research by using technology WHEN it counts. ResTech is a tool in our toolbox – it changes how we do business so we can understand why we do business. Want to learn more? At Insightrix, we will help you harness the powers of research technology to help conduct market research with speed and cost in mind to help you gain more valuable insights into your target audience. For more information, email info@insightrix.com. Episode 24: Passive Metering? Data Collection Ethics + Tools for Success: we talk with Billy Grant, Head of Product at RealityMine. Billy gives us a look into the world of passive metering through the lens of RealityMine – a state-of-the-art software buzzing in the market research industry. Billy gives us an in-depth look at how passive metering works and what types of businesses have successfully employed passive metering. Episode 25: Consumer Research – A Post-Pandemic Lens: We talk with Jeremy King, CEO at Attest. Jeremy and Sharday discuss consumer profiling, creative testing, and how SAAS technology is leading the pandemic digital transformation. Episode 34: The Significance of Data Quality in Market Research: Sharday connects with Leib Litman (Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer) and Cheskie Rosenzweig (Senior Researcher and Product Scientist) of CloudResearch to chat about the state of data quality in market research. Too Important to Get it Wrong: The Consequences and Embarrassment of Bad Data Quality: https://www.cloudresearch.com/resources/blog/the-consequences-of-bad-data-quality/ Market Research Fraud is on the Rise — Let's Conquer It Together: https://www.greenbook.org/mr/insights/market-research-fraud-is-on-the-rise-lets-conquer-it-together/. ...
 

07 Mar

Posted at 15:19h in Innovation, Research
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Here we are again—2022, but perhaps with a little less optimism and a lot more hope? Another fresh start in front of us, as marketers, as brands, as customers and citizens, we are given an opportunity— Yes, it's exciting, but what now? Many of us are ready to put that strategy together but are still dealing with uncertainty every day. In some cases, we look to the recent past for guidance, as things have changed dramatically, and they continue to change— rapidly! For example, how do we know who to target if we want to launch a new product in 2022? Since 2020 it's hard to fully depend on our existing market segmentation reports because it feels as if so much has changed. This includes the way people shop, live, eat, travel, and who they spend money with. As brands, we must refine our segments, or at the very least, seek confirmation of the old segments to help us understand how these behaviours hold up. Here are some common segmentation questions we hear: How will my market segmentation hold up? Will my current breakdown of my customers still be relevant? Without question, the pandemic has a significant impact on people's lifestyles and their mindsets and also their priorities. But, as we continue to cope with changing government mandates, lessening of restrictions, and returning to a "normal," it's anyone's guess what we'll have to adapt next as consumers. Meaning the way we used to act or think could have shifted, and what was previously necessary to us may have become less so. Getting a Pulse On Your Current Segmentation Getting a pulse on your current segmentation is critical to regaining trust in your strategy and focusing on the key indicators that define how it may have changed. It's better to know now if your segments are no longer relevant than to find out after spending thousands on a new product launch that it missed the mark, or worse, missed the opportunity to target the ideal customer. The key is not to disregard your existing segmentation as ineffective but rather to view it as a baseline. In other words, a peek into where we've been and where we might want to go. Perhaps existing segments may still be relevant. Still, your consumer outlook on how they want to be reached has shifted drastically, such as the rise in the use of TikTok during the pandemic. Our Syndicated Research Study, The Insightrix Media Usage Report: Answering Your Advertising Questions shows that in 2021, TikTok became one of the fastest-rising social media platforms in Saskatchewan. In this case, it might be helpful to re-run the same segmentation with the same methodology to see what's changed and validate that where we are focusing our strategy and spending is where we should be. Assurance in our data and decisions Since the size of each segment has shifted, our priority customer group may be less relevant when it comes to the dollars we want to spend on marketing, or perhaps this group is more prominent now. Suppose we already anticipate changes or the re-run of our existing segmentation highlights considerable new information. In that case, it may be time to reevaluate our methodology, develop a new set of statements, and ultimately redefine our customer base. Here are some key questions to ask when deciding if your market segmentation is relevant: Does my framework suddenly not "fit" with how society is being asked to live its lives? For example, is your primary segment based on how many hours one spent commuting to work or attending outdoor concerts/events? Is there a decrease or increase in a particular segment over time? For example, does your traditional tracking study indicate that more males aged 34-45 are interested in your brand, and were these demographics previously in a secondary or tertiary segment where you did not spend key market dollars? This may indicate that your primary segment has shifted. If you need help in looking at your tracking data to identify some of these key changes, we are happy to help! 😄 *Has there been a significant change to the marketplace you used to 'play' in? For example, were your goods/products primarily purchased face-to-face before Covid-19? Are your customers now seeking alternative ways to buy the same product, expanding the competitive landscape in which you used to play? *Note* This may not mean your segmentation is irrelevant, and certain things like purchasing behaviour can easily be verified using other methods by running a quick pulse study with a primary segment. If you answered yes to any of the first three questions, it might be time to dig a little deeper into your existing segmentation and evaluate its relevance. Reviewing segmentation typing tools to help answer the following two key questions: Do any of the current statements in the typing tool represent certain behaviours that your target audience cannot engage in right now but are likely to resume later?Are any of the current statements insensitive to the current environment? Perhaps the segmentation is still relevant, but at the very least, the target segments you have been working with are likely to have shifted. Consider conducting a profiling survey to help redefine the size of these segments. Right now, we're all in a world of flux. Things are changing, and if the last two years have taught us anything, we need to adapt quickly. To discuss segmentation and profiling more, please contact Insightrix Research at info@insightrix.com.    ...
 

03 Feb

Posted at 09:37h in Innovation
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Hybrid work means re-examining how the office space functions as employees flow between home and the office. Hybrid work environments can provide new ways for employees to collaborate productively, but companies must intentionally create these opportunities. At Insightrix, we've designed our new office to do just that, creating spaces to drive collaboration and innovation within this new style of working! This includes “resomercial” design approaches, state-of-the-art video conferencing technology, and flexible hot desking. The minute we received the keys to our new space, we got to work from the ground up. Every small detail of our environment prioritizes a future in hybrid working - from the infrastructure to the furniture to culture and philosophy at Insightrix. We are excited to share with you the fruits of our labour. Thank you to Golden Media House for producing this mini-documentary on the new Insightrix Research Hybrid Workspace.  Special thanks to: (in order as they appear)Corrin Harper, President at Insightrix Sharday Torgerson, Creative and Digital Strategist at InsightrixLevon Fleming, Architectural/Technology Specialist at Business FurnishingsBrandon Gay, Design Associate and Project Director at Metric Design Golden Media House, Insightrix staff, our neighbours at The Monarch, and those who helped bring our hybrid workspace to life.  ...
 

20 Jan

Posted at 10:06h in Innovation
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As two world-class organizations, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Insightrix Research have many responsibilities within their communities. This video highlights how Saskatchewan businesses like Insightrix and the Roughriders can support one another, on and off the field. The strong partnership between Insightrix and the Roughriders affirms our commitment to ensure strong economic recovery initiatives as we continue to provide research activities to support local businesses. ...
 

08 Nov

Posted at 10:47h in Innovation, Insights, Research
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Without members, your organization would look fundamentally different altogether. Yet, even when you understand how critical your current members are, sometimes it is easy to focus on the products and services your business provides above your member's interests. Your team may be focused on improving your products to generate more memberships. And the dedication to improvement is admirable if you consider that a satisfying member experience can lead to an ace member loyalty program. Nevertheless, if your member does not like the current experience you offer or thinks you don't care about them as an individual, they can quickly move on to your competitor. The same is true if they feel they share the same values as your association. To truly align your values with your core customer, it's essential to focus on membership growth while learning how every touchpoint affects the overall perception of your brand. Member Research is Intelligent Member research is intelligent and can be hugely actionable. Member research can gather information to align your brand values with your member expectations. When it all boils down, good member research encourages organizations to take the feedback given by their member - or potential member - and reinvest it back into the organization. Businesses that rely on memberships have historically used market research to understand their member motivations and behaviours. For example, perhaps you are a not-for-profit that relies on members for annual funding. Picture your value proposition evolving due to industry pressures coming from new consumer behaviours. Perhaps you are interested in segmenting your member base to ensure the benefits offered are communicated to the right person. In all aspects, there is a case for member research. Membership-building Efforts When Marketing General Inc. (MGI) surveyed associations for its Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report*, it was reported that regardless of the membership type, almost half of the associations described a decline in overall memberships in 2019 (47%). Sadly, but not unexpectedly, many member-centric businesses took a hit to their membership over the pandemic. Yet despite current events, one in four (45%) associations report that they successfully grew membership in 2020. Moreover, compared to associations reporting membership declines, associations that reported increases in membership over the past five years are more likely to have a specific process in place to support innovation (22% vs. 17%) or are working on developing a strategy for innovation and new ideas (28% vs. 25%). To try and build on member growth, developing a strategy for innovation and new ideas can come from many avenues of business, including market research. Personalize Your Member Recruitment Strategy While it goes without saying, a key driver in any membership growth is an effective membership recruitment strategy. There are many ways to intensify your member recruitment efforts. However, while most member-driven organizations have established processes for membership growth, these work plans habitually offer little to no benefit, that is, without understanding your member and their needs. Additionally, even the best marketing strategies require consistent creative modifications to respond to the unanticipated changes in the marketplace – and membership experience (MX) programs are no different. Communicating Membership Value Are you effectively getting the word out to members about their benefits? Or does your membership value proposition need some tuning up? Associations with a focus on membership growth are always trying to innovate membership benefits. These brands understand the importance of using member feedback to learn about the interests and the behaviours directly from the source. As a result, these organizations build MX programs that are often well-targeted by different segments. These programs, in turn, offer their membership the type of products and services specific to them and their needs as a member.   When an organization is genuinely member-centric at its core, its values and business values align with its member base. Potential members can sense marketing fluff from a mile away, and it is not enough to assume who your core member is or what they like. Society is changing, and so is your member profile. Communicating value to your member can no longer fit into bullet-point lists on on-site pamphlets – they must be expressed in a way that your members understand and the way your members can appreciate. Members Come First   Organizations that rely on members for their association to succeed must genuinely believe that the member comes first. Treat your members the way they want to be treated – like valued members. But more than that, they want to know that you value them as real human beings, not just another number. Invest in your members by getting feedback directly from them. Understand their needs instantly from them. It's critical member-centric organizations implement feedback into their communication to show that you've listened and you've heard what they've told you. Members want to belong to your organization, and it is essential to let them feel the emotional engagement, which builds loyalty. Being a member-first organization is not something you fulfill through marketing messaging. It is something you live, breathe, and do.  Market Research for Credit Unions For more information on the work that Insightrix does in this area, please get in touch with us. We would love to discuss the extensive work in this area – with associations, not-for-profits, post-secondary, and financial institutions and banks. While you're at it, check out our new whitepaper on how member-driven institutions like financial credit unions can use research to personalize their member experience program. Get your free whitepaper here.   ...
 

10 Aug

Posted at 14:39h in Innovation
1 Like

"The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else." – Eric Ries There's a rite of passage book for business courses called "The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses" by Eric Ries. And one of the critical components to Ries's strategy was to understand the Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop. The feedback loop serves as a scientific model for businesses to realize that creating value by testing ideas is essential. By using the Build-Measure-Learn approach, businesses can focus on eliminating uncertainty, so they can fail fast, and most importantly, fail cheaply. The Lean Startup approach shows brands how to find ways to continuously approve on their business aproach by creating a cycle of testing and building, measuring to learn from the results. By using testing to support your R&D can allow for further experiment or iteration, and eventually, offer detailed specifications on how to build, use, or enhance it. Honestly, advertising research is no different. Like the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop, ad testing can let businesses act fast, agile and efficient when it comes to product or creative testing.  Let's dive into how marketers can look at advertising research through the same lens as Eric Ries' Feedback Loop. Advertising and the Feedback Loop Applying the Lean Startup Approach to ad research is quite simple. Use the feedback loop to build your advertisements (build), ensure they are engaging with the right audience (measure), validate assumptions and apply the insights to your entire campaign or marketing mix (learn). When building an advertisement campaign, is it not essential to clearly define the strategic objective? What is the motivation for developing the ad campaign? This stage is where testing ideas are important. In addition, this may be where you employ several market research techniques to further your insights exploration to help inspire new ways of understanding how your brand, product, or service may appeal to the masses. One goal of ad testing is to ensure it provides insights that help move your ads from creative to production. Often, the first stage of advertising research is the broadest.  And compared to other methods of advertising research, this stage is often exploratory. When undertaking advertisement development market research, conduct an audit of existing research could help reduce costs. It will also increase your campaign's engagement and help you identify need areas without breaking the bank. Building advertisement creative from a gut check is rarely a good idea. And a common mistake by creative teams is to ignore existing research in hopes that fresh eyes will find new ways to validate the content. To combat personal biases, brands will often hire a market research firm to summarize mounds of secondary research that already exists or perform other advertisement pre-testing methods, such as concept research or product market research. Pre-testing can give your creative team the feedback required to understand how to improve the execution of your campaign. When testing a more drafted version of your advertisement, such as the copy, creative or storyboard, the pre-testing can flag what is required to improve the final campaign's execution. This type of feedback is key to measuring the effectiveness of the overall ad design and other budget needs like where the advertisement should be, how the media buy should be spent, and if the testing is just for one variation or the entire campaign. While there are many turnkey frameworks available for pre-testing, businesses will often work with market research firms to structure their concept research around ad effectiveness, recall, engagement, and predictive buying behaviour among their target audiences. Market research firms can even support your pre-testing by helping identify your target personas and showing how to target them based on various segmentation methods.   "If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality is." – Eric Ries, The Lean Startup Learn When to Pivot Advertising research is not meant to hold up your campaign launch. But, even more importantly, it should not end when you launch your campaign. Marketing strategy often requires continuous evaluation and feedback, and advertising research is no different. Thus the research should be viewed as a large part of the overall strategy, and it should continue to provide actionable results after launch. Think about it this way: when you think about campaign evaluation, you think about all aspects of the ad campaign – your media buy, channels used, materials developed, and even societal factors that can affect your results. When you are learning to pivot, you need to plan for post-testing or continuous benchmarking. Advertisement research lets you set those benchmarks and test against them for recall throughout the entire campaign. Of course, shorter initiatives may not require testing after launch. But long-term campaigns with various channels, messages, and stakeholders may require a more continuous approach – like a feedback loop, perhaps? Advertising market research is essential to successful advertising. Research can help you reduce the risk and the cost associated with developing new research – should it ever have to come to that. Although there are many stages of advertising research, ad testing allows marketers to create their continuous feedback loop. It can simplify the creative process in a way that helps marketers determine where they need to focus their ideas (build), what benchmarks they should track (measure), and when they should adjust the creative or move on (learn, and repeat!). Advertising Research should do more than test your creative - it should help define the future success of the message you are trying to get in front of your customers.  If you would like to know more about how Insightrix can help you create more effective advertising using advertisement market research, contact us at info@insightrix.com. If you're interested in more information about the types of ad testing services Insightrix provides, download the whitepaper here.   Advertising Research - How Important is it?  Catch EP07 of SoMR where we explore why organizations test their ads, and how the practice has changed over the years.  ...