I always enjoy attending ESOMAR annual Congress! It coincided with the date we launched MESH Experience in 2006, so has a rather special place in my heart. At that London Congress, the first I had attended, I was amazed and impressed by the number of countries represented from all over the world. What a fantastic network of people. It opened up my world.
Fourteen years later, we are operating in a virtual world when it comes to conferences, but the content of the ESOMAR Festival was no less varied and rich. I knew I wouldn’t be able to attend every single session – but the great thing was, that during my working day, there would be a short moment of inspiration, something that would have me starting my next zoom meeting by saying “I have to tell you what I’ve just heard”. And, in this virtual world, through the wonder of technology, I am hoping that even more people, from more countries, will have had access to hearing best in class content.
Let’s start with David Evans, from Microsoft, talking in the Brand Love section on Monday 14th September. He challenged us to question whether we are measuring the right things. And then he went onto demonstrate how measuring Brand Memories had been such a game-changer for Microsoft. The thinking comes from psychology by Daniel Kahneman – the peak/end rule – people remember the peak of an experience and the end of it. What is interesting about this is it challenges some of our current high-tech measurement approaches. Maybe we don’t need to understand every little nuance of someone’s experience, where their eyes moved, which parts of their brains lit up? Perhaps it is enough to rely on a participant’s memory.
In fact, David went onto talk about creating “frictionlessly forgettable” and “delightfully indelible” experiences. The argument was that customer experiences should be so seamless that you don’t remember them – particularly relevant for technology when, so often, it is the glitches that get remembered! On the other hand, you want to create powerful moments – or moments of truth, as we have often described them in the past. It isn’t that the concept is totally new, but the language is fresh and evocative. And the implications are new. Briefing designers to create a memory is different to briefing them to create a good experience. What I loved about this presentation was, not simply the “delightfully indelible” experience it created for me, but the analytical rigour that demonstrated the causal relationship of a peak experience on brand metrics. I rushed into the speakers lounge to continue the conversation.
Onto another impressive presentation. Michelle Gansle from Mars has literally transformed the vision of insights within this $35 Billion company and with an insights team of around 100. She is also a fan of Dad jokes! Straight from the start of her session she drew us in, made us laugh and created an intimate space in the virtual world. It was me and Michelle. I loved it when she challenged the traditional timescales of research projects. When she said that the Mars mantra was now “Progress over perfection” I was there nodding along. People are not just gum and candy consumers, we need to see them as fully rounded human beings – absolutely! I thought that “experiment over pilot” was interesting. It suggests an iterative ongoing stream of learning. And it was brilliant to see the other blue-chip companies that Mars was collaborating with. No surprise that Mars was recognized as #8 Most Innovative Corporate Insight Team!
And finally, a second-hand spontaneous review of a session which had featured the producer of Blackfish, the film that exposed animal welfare issues at Sea World. Not only does this anecdote demonstrate the calibre of the speaker but also the difficulty of judging the audience. We might LOOK the same, business-like marketing and insight professionals that normally attend big conferences, but something has changed in this virtual world to the way we react.
The person recounting her experience couldn’t believe her luck when she found herself in the session by the producer of Blackfish (she was en route to another session). This was a film that had meant so much to her when she first saw it. She texted her husband to let him know how amazing it was that she was hearing first-hand about the story behind the film. She was in awe of what the speaker was saying. The speaker was her heroine. The speaker must obviously share her values… And then the speaker explained that of course, her job was not to push an animal rights story or make it soppy, she needed a compelling marketing angle. “She broke my heart”, the viewer said, clutching her chest. Of course, the speaker was completely right. Of course, she was speaking to a marketing audience. There was nothing that could be faulted on paper. But she was speaking to human beings, some of whom felt passionately about the topic, felt privileged to hear her speak, for whom this was not simply a marketing challenge. In this virtual age, it is so difficult to judge the response of an audience you can’t see, often sitting at home, in touch with their families rather than surrounded by work colleagues and with dogs walking into their workspaces. We don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves in the big auditorium of a professional conference, but we are at home and the speaker is there talking one on one to us. The context has changed.
The ESOMAR Insights Festival was “delightfully indelible”. It brought the highest calibre of speakers to an audience around the world. It brought an intimacy between the viewer and the speaker, which is a different experience to the collective one in an auditorium. And it provided stories that we couldn’t help talking about and sharing. This Festival seemed designed to create memories.
