Doug Schorr

Surveys & Custom Research = Thought Leadership. One of the strongest ways to build trust and authority? Original research. When companies commission or publish their own surveys, whitepapers, or technical studies, they’re not just selling a product but shaping a narrative. Data-driven insights signal real expertise, making journalists, analysts, and even AI systems more likely to CITE and amplify your findings. And yes that word “CITE”? That’s exactly where our name came from. 😉 #MarketResearch #Cybersecurity #CITEResearch #PR

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Circana's 2025 New Product Pacesetter report of 2024’s top new products dives deep into key insights that shape consumer behavior. Discover the trends, data, and strategies that can help your brand build lasting trust and drive sales: https://bit.ly/4jRAR6x

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My review of Thomas Zo��ga Ramsøy's 2024 book, How to Make People Buy, appears in the latest issue of QRCA Views. Ramsøy discusses extensively the importance of attention in advertising. Attention is critical, but he argues that it must be channeled properly for an ad to work. He illustrates several examples of ads that were visually stunning, won bookshelves full of awards, and generated all kinds of media attention but ultimately had little market impact because the brand played no clear role in the ad's story. He also offers a number of very practical tips that creatives and clients should attend to when developing and assessing potential ads. I did disagree with his critique of metaphor in advertising. My perspective is that most successful ads use metaphor in some way. Don't avoid using metaphors; avoid using confusing metaphors. (But the differing opinions are part of the fun of reading a book like this!) TL;DR: Excellent book. If you work in marketing or market research, you should add it to your reading list. https://lnkd.in/gnPbY4R5 #marketresearch #mrx #bookreviews #marketing

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Survey open ends can be an extremely useful tool for researchers looking to gain a deeper understanding behind consumer motivations. To improve the quality of open-end responses, the experts in survey design best practices at Profiles by Kantar found that employing a word limit resulted in a more thoughtful response compared to the unrestricted group. Read more about how an empathetic survey method results in higher quality data in our latest report: https://lnkd.in/euf3UA2V #marketresearch #surveydesign #empatheticsurvey #researchdesign #openend

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2025 UGA MMR INSIGHTS NIGHT: What I Learned & You Need to Know Just wrapped up UGA MMR Insights Night—and Simon Chadwick delivered 🔥 The Big Takeaway? The Maturity Model for Insights is shifting. Here’s what’s changing: (1) Insights isn’t a silo anymore Standalone research teams? Disappearing. The future is integration—marketing research, forecasting, business analytics, experience and design all under one roof. Reporting to the CFO? That’s the dream. (2) Research skills alone won’t cut it Today’s insights pros need to know the business, think strategically, and deliver consultative value. No more data dumps—your audience expects actionable intelligence. (3) Relationships = Influence Want impact? You can’t just deliver insights—you need a seat at the table. That means managing up, down, and across the org to become part of the decision-making process. (4) Why do insights teams fail? Because the business doesn’t see the value. If decision-makers don’t recognize ROI, your work gets ignored. Measuring and communicating impact isn’t optional—it’s survival. BONUS: Want to know if an insights org is thriving? Check the CEO’s stance. If they value and use insights, the team has power. If not… well, you already know the answer. And here’s a brain-stretcher: EMPATHY➡️PROVOCATION➡️ACTIVATION—Is this the path to the future of insights? Lots to unpack here… but trust me, it’s worth thinking about. Again, a big thanks to Simon Chadwick for an insight-packed night 🚀

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Kantar is proud to have co-hosted the recent discussion on the evolving relationship between #AI and marketing at ADWEEK House Austin during #SXSW. Our Chief Knowledge Officer J. Walker Smith revealed our research which shows that marketers rate their AI readiness at just 4.9/10—a clear industry gap. Walker highlighted a crucial shift: "We're marketing to AI." As consumers delegate decisions to AI assistants, brands must appeal to both humans and algorithms while maintaining authenticity. Yet despite this shift, the panel consensus was clear: AI should enhance rather than replace human creativity. While it's reshaping how creative teams operate, successful brands will use AI to complement emotional intelligence and strengthen their distinctive brand voice. Learn more about navigating marketing’s biggest transformation yet: https://lnkd.in/efPBZu8Z

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This perfectly illustrates why I shudder when I see companies pitching research that focuses on age cohorts, such as “the latest Gen Z research suggests you can reach them by doing A, B, and C”. Brands need to recognize that people of the same generation often do not think or act alike. There is a better way that facilitates targeting without defaulting to demographic profiles. #needsbasedsegmentation, #jobstobedone, #targetablesegmentation

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Circana's 2025 New Product Pacesetter report of 2024’s top new products dives deep into key insights that shape consumer behavior. Discover the trends, data, and strategies that can help your brand build lasting trust and drive sales: https://bit.ly/4jRAR6x

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The Trade Desk Opens Up Sincera Data The Trade Desk today announced the launch of OpenSincera. It is a forward-thinking move toward industry-wide transparency. By opening access to Sincera’s metadata—including insights like ads-to-content ratios and ad refresh rates—The Trade Desk is handing the entire ecosystem a powerful diagnostic tool for evaluating digital media quality. For publishers, it offers a chance to benchmark and optimize ad experiences. For advertisers, it means smarter buying decisions. And for rival AdTech vendors, the accompanying API unlocks opportunities to build value-added tools atop a shared standard. The Trade Desk's intention of this move is not just to launch a product, but to put the company at the heart of the open Internet, make it a preferred partner and strengthen the independent ecosystem. By putting transparency front and center and sharing data with competitors, The Trade Desk is positioning itself as the high ground of the open internet. Expect ripple effects across programmatic, especially among those still relying on opaque supply paths. OpenSincera could become the common language for evaluating supply quality—an open-sourced upgrade to how digital advertising works.

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