Based in London and New York we operate all over the connected world. Our team consists of researchers, planners and creative technologists as well as thousands of networked consumers and experts within our co-creation communities.
The value of data is only fully leveraged when multiple data sets are connected. Connecting the data allows us to understand the context of the dataset and turn figures into stories and insights. MROCs will evolve to become Hubs for consumer understanding by enabling clients to overlay other data streams, such as sales
2. Co-creation
The more experience clients have with MROC, the more they will understand that the power of these communities goes beyond gamification of online research tasks. By segmenting consumers by their ability and skill to co-create we will see more consumers being invited to work closely with brands to crack strategic brand challenges.
3. Real-time
MROCs will increasingly be connecting to the social media profiles of their members, thereby giving clients access to selected areas of their real-time social data. Such data might include their status updates, their musical preferences, their Likes, the people they follow on Twitter. This will mean as researchers we will use MROC to ask fewer questions and concentrate more on actual behaviours.
4. Mobile
As smart phone penetration increases, MROC members will be able to use apps to post pictures, videos, soundbytes, status updates, respond to polls, engage in discussions and generally participate in tasks on the go. This mobile interface will enable a richer contribution from members and a deeper and more seamless connection between what they do in their daily life and what they do in MROC.
5. Smarter
Automated analytics tools will enable researchers to gain faster and deeper understanding of MROC data. This will include natural language processing software to run semantic analysis of the contents and cluster consumer feedback by topics. Machine learning will also start to be overlaid to enable more effective categorization of textual, visual and audio content. Real-time interactive visualizations via dashboard will also be adopted to spot patterns quickly and guide in-depth analysis of content.
Face research director Francesco D’Orazio worked with Ben & Jerry’s Europe brand director Jochanan Senf on a co-creative approach to planning. This case study looks at the challenges and key opportunities of using a co-creative approach and explores the idea of creating planning playgrounds.
For more information on our methods, check out our Processes section or get in touch.
The consumers’ increasing desire to be listened to and involved more directly in what the brand does and says means This means it is no longer about what your brand does to the consumer but what consumers are doing to and with your brand. In a post digital and global ecosystem the continued success of brands hinge on the relationships and interactions consumers have with each other around the brand as well as with the brand itself, across multiple markets and through a dramatically increased set of touch points. Brand activity is re-mixed, re-appropriated, re-shaped and in the course of this process, brand meanings, perceptions and messages are re-thought and re-made. The fact is: consumers now control brands. In the next decade, we will see a shift away from the traditional branding model of agencies and clients starting with the brand to starting with the consumer. In this context co-creation is playing an increasingly important role in brand and communications planning.
We recently applied co-creation to help the Reckitts global brand team plan the launch of two existing household care brands into China. Our approach was designed to immerse the stakeholder teams deeply in specific cultural nuances, aspirations and needs of these new consumers. The combination of community research, crowd-sourcing and co-creation workshops helped to produce local “translations” of the global brand blueprint (conceptually, semantically, linguistically and visually). The blueprints are now the cornerstone for innovation and equity communications development.
The Co-Creation Process
This example along with many others is informed by our co-creation process which unites the consumer and their needs, the brand and its aspirations plus the expert and their knowledge of technology, trends and industrial capabilities.
Rather than simply look to the crowd for the answer, we look to the crowd for the inspiration, to give cause to re-assess. Experts working with consumers help shape these new thoughts, to prioritise, and to make things possible.
This triangular relationship is just as important when it comes to co-creating ideas as part of a well thought through innovation process. This helps to avoid Arthur C. Clarke’s two dangers when trying to see into the future – the “Failure of Nerve and Failure of Imagination”.
“The Failure of Imagination occurs by failing to discover vital facts or not even admitting to the possibility of their existence and the Failure of Nerve happens when with all the relevant facts at our disposal we fail to see their inescapable conclusion because they were not marshaled correctly.” So when it comes to using co-creation for innovation purposes there are some important principles that need to be followed. Here are just three of them.
“Bottom up is not enough. Bottom-up processes are great but in order to be effective they need to be complemented by solid strategic direction and expertise. Successful innovations emerge at the intersection of three, sometimes very different, agendas: the consumer and his needs, the brand and its strategy (vision, strategy, commercial viability), the expert and his vision (market knowledge and expertise, market trends).
Allow group thinking as well as individual thinking. Group thinking is generative and provides elements of validation, but it is also skewed towards social conformity. On the other hand, individual thinking provides a more independent idea generation process but it’s not generative. The best ideas often come from building on each other’s contribution rather than coming up with the final solution in one go. A balanced innovation process needs to ensure both the dynamics are well represented.
Open up. Allow ideas to come from anywhere and allow consumers to take you to places you wouldn’t expect to be taken to. Opening up helps keep the Failure of Imagination at bay by enabling contributions by non-experts or non-professional users. This has been made much easier by consumers’ increasing desire to be listened to and involved more directly in what a brand does and says.”
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