Instant Research Communities driving media buzz during launch

If you haven’t heard about Instant Research Communities yet, you should find out what everyone else is talking about! GutCheck launched our newest product line at the end of March and the initial release has generated over 200 mentions to date. Here are a few of the articles published:

• Brand Channel “GutCheck Launches Instant Research Communities” 
• MediaPost “Social Media Powers Instant Research Communities” 
• AllThingsD “Want to Know What Consumers Think? Check Their Gut.”

GutCheck to kick-off Advertising Research Foundation conference next month!

GutCheck is excited to announce that we will be a featured speaker to start this year’s Re:think 2012 conference sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). Our session on Monday March 26th will focus on trends and innovation driving online qualitative research and will feature three keynote speakers:

Matt Warta – CEO, GutCheck

Steve Rappaport – Knowledge Solutions Director, ARF

R.G. Logan – Manager Insights and Planning, 360i

The conference is expected to draw over 2,000 insights and research leaders from advertising and media and will be held at the Marriott Marquis in the Times Square area of Manhattan. We hope to see many of our customers – especially those in the New York area at the Re:think 2012 conference. If you haven’t yet registered for this event, or want to learn more information, visit http://www.thearf.org/rethink-2012-program.

2012 Advertising Spend Increase: Will More Ads Make An Impact Or Fall Flat?

Last week, eMarketer published a report that showcased how US Online Advertising sales are projected to increase over 23% this year to nearly $40 billion in revenue.  The other noteworthy element about Online Advertising is that for the first time, it will surpass the dollars spent on print magazine and newspaper advertising combined.  Total advertising spend for print, magazines, TV and online combined will total nearly $140 billion in the US.

Two things struck me about this piece:

1.  The fact that despite shifts in the mix, overall advertising (including print, magazines, online and TV) is projected to increase by over $10 billion in 2012 vs. 2011.  That is a whole slew of new commercials, videos, banners and design work that needs to be produced.  And how many of these new elements will have time for any traditional research or formal testing prior to launch?  With limited time and lean staffs, we are anticipating more pressure for insights and research teams.

2.  With more and more advertising messages hitting the marketplace each year, how will agencies and brands make theirs stand out from the crowd?  GutCheck is seeing customers coming to us each week with their campaigns before creative is finalized to see how audience will react to it before it is too late.  

We argue that if you can squeeze in 48 hours while creating your next campaign, you can make sure that it won’t miss the mark with your target market.

Is 2012 the year for online qualitative market research?

Wired: Social media, locusts, and groupthink

A friend recently forwarded me this short blip from Wired about how scientists applied an adaptive network model to examine the links between mutually aware insects, creating a better predictor of when locusts will swarm. Whoa.

Basically, the study revealed that “The more time locusts spend moving together in the same direction, the harder it is for the group to reverse course, which leads to swarming. Sound familiar? People get stuck in groups that turn into frenzied action, but for us, these clusters are built around common interests, politics, and background.”

I found this really fascinating in relation to market research, in that the adaptive network model can show how people start to think like their social networks. Why do brands want so many “likes,” for instance? At the heart of it, it’s so that networks can start to swarm. After doing some super serious Googling of “adaptive network model,” I found an article written by a couple of Stanford researchers which gave a nice lit review/ overview of the theory. They wrote that in an adaptive network model:

“Presentation of a stimulus pattern to the system corresponds to activating a set of sensory units. These units pass their weighted activation along their connections either directly to the output units or to intermediate units that relay them onward, eventually terminating on output units… By repeatedly cycling through a set of desired input-output pairings, the system “learns” just those weights that will achieve the closest match (of which it is capable) to the input-output pairings.”

This is obviously ridiculous and I had to read it like five times to get it, so let’s put that in terms of “liking” on Facebook. When a person “likes” GutCheck on Facebook, it appears in his or her newsfeed. If enough of his or her friends get curious and “like” GutCheck, too, the page goes viral until eventually it’s run its course. As we start to see the this enough, we can see what kinds of grouped interests and shared “likes” people have — showing you when and why people will swarm on certain pages, brands, or videos of cats yelling at printers. Pretty cool application of theory, right? [ETA: Check out this "anatomy of a Facebook Fan" infographic -- cool stuff.]

*Incidentally, if you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet, you probably should. Updates on product, interesting reads, and some important questions. Like “who’s your favorite Muppet?“