New on DRNO: Zooming In on MR Newsmakers

From this week, Daily Research News will feature video interviews of around 20-25 minutes with leading figures in the insights and analytics world, giving you more depth on some of the stories in the news, and talking about themselves, their companies and their views.

Clearly, over the past eleven months the way business is conducted in our profession and most others has changed dramatically. Video calls are a big part of this: they quickly became commonplace from last March as a substitute for face-to-face meetings, but it seems to us they have also replaced most voice calls. This latter is partly because once you're used to video calling, you might as well use it instead of the telephone; but much of it, we suspect, is to do with people not being in their offices (at least in the Anglo-Saxon world, sorry Didier). If you can't call an office number and have any real chance of getting to speak to your contact, it's better to contact them via the 'Net - email, social media or whatever - and arrange a video chat.

In some ways, all this is infuriating and a backward step, in that you can't have a conversation without booking it first - personally I long for the days when it was normal just to pick up a 'phone and call someone instead of being sent their electronic diary. So much for faster decisions and agile business! But in other ways it's great. We really enjoyed interviewing people using Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype for our two recent supplements, and happily shifted from audio to video podcasts in the last one, after a fascinating 45 minutes talking to Carl Wong from LivingLens (pictured). From there it's a short step to integrating video on a more regular basis as part of DRNO.

So here you are: we'll be 'Zooming In' on a research innovator / leader on a regular basis, for a lot more depth than we provide *even* in a DRNO article. Two of the questions will be standard, to start and finish the interviews:

• What did you want to be when you grew up - and how and why did you get into market research instead?; and
• Pick a company or product with which you have no business connection but which you admire or think is one to watch, and tell us why.

The first one's a shade tongue-in-cheek - we've always liked self-effacing humour - and should provide an opening for a bit of personal background. The second we hope will also provoke some thought and give some really interesting answers.

The rest of the agenda will be set by the person we're talking to. Note that this is a commercial venture and we are charging for appearances: the slot is an opportunity to give prominent exposure to yourself, your ideas and your company, while helping to inform our audience. Each interview will be promoted by a banner at the top of a DRNO email, and a mugshot and soundbite lower down on the right, and will be available on our features home page at www.mrweb.com/mrt , archived after a week and findable through keywords or a listing. We'll promote the interviews on the DRNO headlines page and in tweets. Participants can share links to the video around their own network, on social media etc.. and can feature it on their own site or LinkedIn feed.

We hope and believe that the format will help you not only to feel more informed, but more connected. We all need to get out more, but we can't: at least have some time face-to-face with someone who's making waves in the insights world.

If you're interested in appearing, the standalone fee for the slot is GBP 750 + VAT / USD 1,050, or they can be booked as part of a larger package, either of several interviews over the course of a year, or combined with other ads on MrWeb / DRNO. Note that we can agree the topics well in advance; and you'll have a chance to review the final version before it goes out. Interviews will be conducted by myself or News Editor Mel Crowther.

Please email ads@mrweb.com for more details, and please look out for them and watch when you can - we've had some fantastic feedback lately about the News and we hope this new feature will enhance what you get from it. Your comments on the idea, and on the reality once it's moving, are always very welcome of course.


Nick Thomas, MrWeb

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

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