Review: Jubilee Conference has its Golden Moments

The MRS returned to its old haunt, the Metropole in Brighton – for its 50th Annual Conference last week. By its own admission – or that of a speaker charged with analysing the content of other papers – it was thin on clients and on international content, but DRNO's special correspondent Phyllis Vangelder came away suitably inspired nonetheless. Part 1 of 3.

Phyllis writes:

The rationale of the Conference, co-chaired by Kevin McLean and Neil Swan, is that the best way to look forward is to know where we've come from – to understand what's in our inheritance, picking up what's valuable about the past and what we cherish, knowing what to relinquish and what to enhance, in order for market research to play its part effectively in the future. The Conference aimed to meld these perspectives.

The first session was appropriately entitled 'Celebration and challenge: where do our achievements take us?' It acclaimed our rigour, creativity and contribution to better decisions, but also questioned whether we are better researchers than in 1957. Will new technologies truly drive greater insight and will we be the same industry, with the same founding principles in 2057?

Mike Imms' paper was a useful assessment of the underlying themes and topics that had been chosen for the Conference. Based on analysis of the synopses of all 39 papers, he reviewed some of the key issues, concerns and interests of the industry today.

The paper highlighted the related perspectives of who spoke and who did not, plus some comment on topics which were not discussed but perhaps should have been. The main questions were, 'Where are the big boys and where are the clients? The big five agency groupings (TNS, WPP, Ipsos-MORI, GfK-NOP and Synovate) account for about 40% of the UK research business – but not quite 15% of Conference speakers.

Whilst there was much about the consumer world there was little about the client world – especially trends in managing their business. Just three sessions were from clients alone, (with a further three involving joint agency/client contributions).

The other gap was global papers. All but two of the speakers were UK-based: there was one paper about Bhutan and one about rural China. “Are we too parochial?” asked Mike Imms.

The range of papers embraced both 'looking in' – self-analysis and introspection on what we do and the way we do it – and 'looking out'. Research is a bridge linking respondents to clients. The socio-cultural papers highlighted the respondents' world, for example, Web 2.0, ageing baby boomers, fundamental shifts in media consumption patterns, various changes in social structures; extremism; 'culture-jamming' and how people deal with superfluity. Another theme was about being human: how people think and feel: how they process information and make decisions – especially the importance of emotions and the unconscious. These types of papers did in fact demonstrate a healthy desire to seize the opportunity to apply external and sometimes seemingly tangential thinking to develop what we do as researchers.

Mike Imms asked what was now our USP. In what ways are our insights 'better' than those of other social commentators, gurus and pundits? The fulcrum used to be qual and/or quant data-collection. He suggested that the new central point was analysis and interpretation – assessing the quality and robustness of the data and creating meaning and understanding from them.

Following a paper from David Bowden, Chief Executive of TNS, which looked at the future of the global MR Business, David Smith, DVL Smith Group, examined the defining moments and key players of the last 50 years, highlighting the belief that our future depends on finding a path between the continuation of our orthodox roots and the development of fresh new approaches that will make a strategic difference to the success of business and communities. We are an industry of people with a penchant for multi-disciplinary thinking, a confidence in adapting big ideas from academia, and the ability to understand the structured changes taking place within society. David's framework for presenting the key contributions was based on the idea that our industry is built on seven pillars of good practice: integrity, entrepreneurialism, rigour, enlightenment, creativity, influence and holistic research. He paid tribute to many of the key players who have helped shape each pillar and selected an exceptional representative. The paper was a penetrating account of the outstanding thinking and practice which have characterised our industry and also a frank appraisal of how we should go forward. One of the most important of our functions is as 'knowledge contextualisers. – synthesising and setting the evidence in context and integrating marketing intelligence into the strategic planning process. David Smith himself is the great representative of this approach and his paper should be read for a view of connecting the best of what has worked for us in the past with opportunities that present themselves for the future.


Phyllis' review continues and concludes (ie parts 2 and 3) tomorrow.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.