An Interview with Happy Thinking People on Data Visualisation and Storytelling
Bringing data to life is essential for insights actionability; visualisation and storytelling are proven ways of doing that.
But how does it work in practice – how do creatives working within market research crack the briefs, small and large? Tips, tricks, protocols, procedures, budgets?
Research World talked to the visualising creatives from Happy Thinking People (H/T/P)– Arne Schippmann and Sven Malaschewski – together with project director Janine Katzberg.
They covered a broad range of themes – from the basics of ensuring good raw material, using AI, managing costs, briefing participants for maximum clarity as well as authenticity and more.
Plus, the impact digital has had on the “bring-it-to-life” challenge of course.
Research World: You’re clearly aiming to wow audiences. That sounds like a lot of content crafting, less standardisation. How do you approach the cost side of things?
Arne: It depends on what it’s for. With normal project work, we try to standardise the early stages – Happy Thinking People has built up a large selection of pre-designed basic PowerPoint templates which can then be populated and visualised individually later in the process within pre-defined limits of our CI.
That helps us get to a sort of individualised standardisation if you like.
For bigger moments, for conferences or talks for example, we basically create something new and fresh. It’s more a question of making a lasting impression with a wider audience than being overly concerned about costs or the ROI efficiency.
Janine: Sometimes the cost aspect is a challenge with clients who haven‘t done much visualisation in research. They haven’t seen how powerful it can be, so the value is not yet firmly established in their minds, as it might be with creative agencies for example.
On the upside: once clients have experienced what we can do, they’re genuinely enthused, almost without exception.
We had a case recently where our client, the head of an Insights Department of a multinational food company, was totally sold on the importance of teenagers and young adults. Her CEO wasn’t that convinced though, he’d only seen Management Summaries.
A video did the trick. Our client pulled together a budget and asked us to do a mood film about teenagers, with a pretty open creative brief. We developed something much more than just a talking-heads sequence of „here’s Gen Z”, we did a cool video with real pace, music, it really captured a vibe, and one that we felt was fitting for the cohort.
Our client bagged 15 minutes time with the CEO, and we worked on last minute changes right up until her slot. It worked. He was mega impressed – and touched in a way that no written summary had done so far.
The result: Gen Z now has a much higher priority in the insights department budget allocation.
What software programmes do you use as a rule?
Sven: For icons, visuals and infographics we mainly use Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.
With animations and videos, we work with Premiere and After Effects. We’re not doing advertising for Adobe, honest, it’s just that their programmes work together seamlessly. Plus they’re all great in their own right, with loads of cool creative functionalities.
Any advice for researchers who would like to work more with videos or visualisations?
Arne: Get inspired. Look around you in daily life for inspiration – and don’t get put off by the technical stuff. Imagine you are a film director, and then look at presentations, films, whatever with a fresh eye.
Set up your own inspiration pool, that’s a good idea when you have something concrete to work on.
Try things out of course. Most smartphones have pretty good built-in video cameras, and there are loads of Apps that help with video editing and cutting.
And if all else fails, then drop us a line! 😉
This article was first published in German on the online portal marktforschung.de in May 2021: “Den ‘Make-it-look-great’-Knopf gibt’s auf unserer Tastatur leider immer noch nicht…”
