ARF Industry Leader Forum

The ARF is pleased to present a special Industry Leader Forum designed to finally unravel the complexity inhibiting the use of our fastest growing business asset: Data.

To show "what's possible" we are bringing to the podium leading scientists

The ARF is pleased to present a special Industry Leader Forum designed to finally unravel the complexity inhibiting the use of our fastest growing business asset: Data.

To show "what's possible" we are bringing to the podium leading scientists from inside and outside our industry to share the state of the art in analytical methods and data sources. To parse "what's needed" we are bringing marketing and communications leaders. Our goal is for you to take away useful systematic approaches to innovation to apply in your own shop, and ideas for how to exploit analytic and data opportunities for competitive advantage. You will hear real-world examples from world class minds about how they approached "wicked problems."

Innovation happens when "what's needed" meets "what's possible". Take part in this process at the ARF's Industry Leader Forum.

Industry Leader Forum Key Takeaways

Todd Powers, Chief Research Officer of the ARF, shares some nuggets from the day:

• Our industry is at a “strategic inflection point.”
• Technology drives possibilities.
• It’s all about the delivery of information and entertainment.
• We need to infuse insights with passion.
• We have to balance the two perspectives: objectivity vs. advocacy.
• It’s not about which gumball is best; it is whether we should be selling gumballs.
• The margin for error is gone.
• We need more synthesis … and we need to show that with storytelling.
• There are builders and evaluators. Researchers should build.
• Having a strong voice is the #1 thing.
• That nugget is the understanding behind the behavior – the “why.”
• Integrating the information – that makes it actionable.
• We should present for 10 minutes, and discuss for 2 hours.
• Bring an analogy.
• We need to move away from pure ROI.
• Historically, our journey is: hindsight à insight à foresight.
• RFPs need to focus on business needs, not research objectives.
• We are FAST: Fast, actionable, strategic, technological.
• Real-time tools are a thing of beauty.
• Bring the “good enough” solution.
• Projects are, by their very nature, reactive.
• We should talk extensively about what success looks like.
• If you can measure it, it’s too late.
• Don’t try to reduce risk, try to enhance opportunity.
• If you are being asked for the ROI of research, you are already in trouble.
• If my research staff complains that, “They didn’t listen to me,” then that just means they didn’t do their job.
• You have to fail faster.
• We need to instill courage.
• We don’t need more insights, we need more insightful people.
• We know what gets people to engage with an ad; why can’t we apply that to our presentations?
• We are hiring trained consultants.
• We try to hire researchers who can walk and chew gum at the same time.
• We segment our customers – some are ready for insights, some are not.
• Your job is to solve the problem.
• There are two tribes – qualitative & quantitative – you need to figure out which one you are, and
  spend your career trying to be the other one.
• We ask recruits to give us three typical uses for a brick … and five non-obvious ones.
• We can’t use the past to predict the future any more.
• Ability vs. Desire = Skill vs. Will.
• Culture eats strategy for lunch.
• Transformation is a metamorphosis – the caterpillar into the butterfly.
• You can’t just change processes – you have to change people.
• Gossip trumps information.
• People don’t connect with high-potential others, they connect with trouble-makers.
• The journey is: Insights, Consulting, Transforming.
• If research has no effective communication, does it make a sound when it falls in the forest?
• Can you tell me what brand of laundry detergent comes to your mind?

A One-Day Workshop

This one-day industry leader forum will have those shaping the future of our profession share their visions, successes and plans to address:

• The transformation of our profession; a past, present, and future perspective
• How do we get insights to affect the marketing organization? How do we go from the “what” to the “now what”?
• What does an insights-led organization look like? What are the new metrics of success?
• What are the new tools that insights-led organizations need to succeed?
• What are the future skills that research and insights professionals need to make a difference?
• How will research agencies be chosen in the future? What new skills, tools, and account management approaches will buyers be looking for?

Leading buyers and service providers will change your thinking about the wonderful opportunity before us to have an impact and how you can become a leader in this insights-led marketing future.

THURSDAY JANUARY 28, 2010
Bently Reserve – San Francisco

It’s one thing to be excited about listening, yet quite another to apply listening in ways that impact brand performance, marketing and advertising. The willingness of brands and companies to organize around listening is critical to maximizing its potential. The ARF Industry Leader Forum was developed to showcase how to put listening to work.

A One-Day Workshop – Putting Listening to Work

Learn how to use listening, evaluate listening applications, develop a listening strategy, integrate it into your existing research program, create an action plan and apply its learnings. Get answers to your questions on listening and develop an action plan that specifically addresses your business needs during this interactive day. Attendees will receive The ARF Listening Playbook, featuring 25 case studies and 30+ company reviews how listening is used for consumer insight, customer service, new product development, reputation management, competitive benchmarking, and breaking into new applications like media planning, targeting and predictive modeling.

Speakers include:

• Keynote Speaker: Jeremiah Owyang – digital media strategy superstar and blogger and Partner, Customer Strategy, Altimeter Group
• Steve Patrizi – Vice President, Advertising Sales & Operations, LinkedIn
• Doug Frisbie – National Social Media & Product Integration Manager, Toyota Motor Sales
• Johanna Skilling, EVP – Director of Strategic Planning, Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness
• Vishal Pandya – Market Insights, Client Research Analyst, IBM
• Sahana Jayaraman – Senior Account Executive, Peppercom
• Paul Banas – Senior Category Insights Manager, Kraft Foods
• Stephen Kim – Senior Director, Microsoft Branded Experiences and Entertainment, Microsoft
• Ethan Titelman – Vice President, Penn Schoen and Berland Associates
• Jason Harty – Brand Manager, vitaminwater

Jeremiah Owyang
Jeremiah Owyang is a Partner focused on customer strategy at Altimeter Group and author of the popular blog “Web Strategy”, which focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies. Technorati the Web Strategy blog is in the top 1% of all blogs, and has over 40,000 subscribed readers. And AdAge’s Power 150 top blogs ranks the Web Strategy Blog at #21. He’s active with the Twitter community and has over 52,000 followers and growing. 

Hailing from enterprise web management, a former Industry Analyst, Jeremiah consults and speaks on the topics of emerging technologies for brand related customer strategies. He has appeared on Bloomberg TV and is quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, the Associated Press and other technology and business related publications. He was featured in the 2009 “Who’s Who” in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. As a speaker he has keynoted the Internet Strategy Forum, Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, and dozens of other venues.

Previously, Jeremiah was a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, focused on social computing for the interactive marketer. Prior to that, was the Director of Corporate Media Strategy at PodTech Network, a podcasting and online video startup. Jeremiah has also held positions at Hitachi Data Systems, World Savings (now Wells Fargo) at Exodus Communications. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing from San Francisco State University.

After work, he spends time with family, gets in some exercise, and travels to tropical beaches. Jeremiah was pleasantly surprised to find that his small, white, furry dog “Rumba” is active on Twitter.

Come and Experience Your Own Transformation

A One-Day Workshop

October 29, 2008 • New York Athletic Club • New York City

On July 15, 2008, magic happened at the ARF.  A meeting of industry thought leaders was convened, rather innocently, to discuss a subject growing in importance for marketers. That subject was “listening” to the millions of organic online conversations that go on each day among consumers about brands, companies, products and services.

The 15 industry leaders that participated reflected the importance of the topic. They included leaders from P&G, General Mills, Nielsen, ESPN, Millward Brown, Unilever, Avenue A Razorfish, Digitas and others.

The day was moderated by Joel Rubinson, ARF Chief Research Officer, and began with an exploration of new tools to enable intelligent listening and the application of the insights gleaned.

After about 90 minutes, the group realized that they were onto something much bigger than a new toolkit. In fact, they were onto an organizational transformation built around the concept of listening – a new vision for the research function.

The group heard comments like “research as we know it will be on life support by 2012”…”80% of research is about testing and validation and much of that is wasted”…”research can code the meaning out of a response”…

This Industry Leader Forum will open up the discussion of this topic to another 100 invited industry leaders. The day will include a keynote address from Kim Dedeker of P&G; listening case histories from General Mills and Unilever; and breakout sessions focused on the how to leverage listening to build your brand including topics like:

• How to listen
• How to be sure that what you are hearing can be acted upon with confidence
• How to measure the impact of the action you take based on your listening insights.

Join us on October 29 and undergo the transformation yourself. For you, as for all fifteen leaders participating in the July 15 meeting, the future of research in your company will never be the same.

 “I had a very busy schedule that week and almost decided not to come to the meeting.  But I did attend.  And, after a couple hours, I realized that the future of research at ESPN would never be the same.”
Artie Bulgrin – SVP Research and Sales Development, ESPN

Epilogue – Artie shared the meeting summary with his ESPN research staff and they all agreed to change the way they approach research … shifting more resources to “inspiration” rather than “validation” … for example.