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The need for faster, cheaper and better research is changing the marketing landscape. And, as Canadian and global research agencies try to respond to the need for speed, research automation is emerging as a growing trend in the marketing research industry.
On a global scale, TNS has been exploring the automation of research for almost a decade.
So when Delvinia was looking for a research company to participate in an R&D project on research automation, TNS Canada was an obvious fit.
“TNS has the sophistication of a global research organization and a Canadian division that’s motivated to participate in innovation. It made sense for us to approach them to participate in our R&D,” Delvinia CEO Adam Froman said about the development of his company’s new Methodify platform, which provides marketers with the ability to gain customer insights in as little as 48 hours. “We wanted to find a way to involve the research community so we could help marketers obtain faster, cheaper insights, and understand how researchers would embrace this platform to make their businesses more efficient.”
Now that Methodify has launched, Froman said his team is looking forward to building out the platform to include methodologies from companies across the industry.
According to Michael Ennamorato, Managing Director at TNS Canada, the opportunity to participate in the Methodify project was a welcome one.
“When we talk about the place of marketing research in business decision-making, it is clear that the role is evolving and needs to do so quickly,” Ennamorato said. “For us, this means expanding the range of advisory support we provide at both ends of the spectrum, from quick-turn automated projects through to in-depth strategic research that builds upon multiple data sources. Quality quick-turn projects are an important part of this dynamic and a growing part of the business.”
Ennamorato added that marketers need insights faster than ever before for many business decisions, which means researchers are striving to deliver faster, more affordable research – without compromising the integrity of the methodologies.
While the organization’s priority investment has been in the development of quick-turn express solutions of their own, such as eValuate Express– having the opportunity to support the development of platforms like Methodify is important as well, Ennamorato said, noting that TNS views platforms like Methodify as an opportunity for researchers.
“We are all trying to understand where the market research industry is heading and to ensure the standards and value of market research are not diminished because of technology,” he said, adding he believes automation will be an important part of the mix as the industry broadens its offer in terms of redefining itself with regard to the value it offers clients and businesses in this economy.
Based upon Delvinia’s analysis, it is estimated that the market for automated research tools will reach $2 billion in North America over the next five years.
And, both Froman and Ennamorato believe that the potential for the industry is significant.
“Automation takes out the tedious tasks involved in doing research, the things that are repetitive,” Ennamorato said. “It takes away the mundane, probably lower skill aspects of what we do and allows us to reinvest in the higher skilled, more intellectual, and commercial orientations of our business in order to service our clients well.”
To date, Ennamorato says automation is being embraced by clients.
“It’s an expectation. But it is a disaster if it’s not done well,” he said. “Automation is only as good as all the work that goes behind it in terms of developing those algorithms, developing those checks, and developing the software that is intended to support it.”
As the industry continues to evolve, Ennamorato recognizes that one supplier can’t do it all, and he believes there is an increasing demand on the part of clients that suppliers collaborate and bring their different skill sets to the table.
“The marketing research industry we see today is not at all what it was ten years ago, and what it is ten years from now is not at all going to be what it is today. We’re in the midst of a very fundamental systemic change,” he said. “More and more of what we do is going to be enabled by technology and that means more and more of what we are able to contribute in terms of thinking, in terms of providing real direction for our clients, is going to come from our intellectual power rather than research execution and that changes the nature of our business.”
Susan O’Neill is Public Relations Manager at Delvinia
