Dig In

Clodagh Forde, Senior Manager of Human Insights at Coca-Cola was a delight to have on the podcast. Meagan chats to Clodagh about:How she ended up in research, and then innovation, and then research againWhy she's a better researcher because of her time spent working in creativity and innovationHow she brought design thinking to her research practicesThe impact of a few key mentors on her career trajectoryThe rationale behind Coca-Cola's consolidation of 450 global brands to 180How she and her cross-functional team are assessing research tools for the business's innovation practiceThe distinction between human and consumer insights within Coca-Cola

Mike Stevens joins our CEO Paul to chat about the trends their seeing across the research, analytics, and data industries (or is it 'industry'?). They'll discuss key acquisitions and what they signal, how buyers are becoming suppliers (and why that might be), and the importance of behavioural research right now.Ipsos acquires InfoTools and elects a new CEO (congrats Ben Page!). Pepsi launches PepViz, a brand new revenue stream for the consumer brand. Behavioural research is fast-expanding in definition and practice. Lots is going on, and Mike and Paul give their candid opinions on this and more.

In today's episode you'll learn:How Walid is planning for success in 2022The importance of integrating observational data into research strategyWhy Coca-Cola rebranded their research function to 'human insights'why Walid believes we're seeing a resurrection of retail, and what other industries can learn from itHis predictions for the future of in-store shopping

In this week's episode, you'll learn:why Ron believes brands need to operate like media propertiesthe challenge of futureproofing the name of your agencywhen it makes sense to fire a client, and how to share that news with your teamhow perspective on governance can shift when you're responsible for the bottom linewhy agencies should operate like teams, not families

Joe chats to our Marketing Director, Meagan, about how he's leveraged his 2-decades of experience in CPG research to build his own coaching business. You'll learn how he's approaching coaching in a unique way, the social enterprise that sits at the backbone of his company, and the trends impacting CPG.

This week we've brought Liza Amlani in, Founder at Retail Strategy Group, to chat all things sustainability in retail fashion. Liza has two decades of experience in retail, bringing experience from Ralph Lauren and Accenture to her practice. Amongst her impressive roster of accomplishments is the fact that she's a regular contributor to RetailWire and an industry contributor for Forbes. Needless to say, she's the perfect person to join us to chat about how apparel brands can and should make changes to their supply chain and technology to become more sustainable.

We've got another industry news episode this week. Our CEO Paul chats to Tom, EVP & Managing Director Americas @ Dynata. The two cover all things high quality research, how Dynata is working with their partners and clients to consistently deliver high quality insights, and what other research companies need to do to keep pace in an industry who’s addressable market seems ever-expanding.

This week we're joined by Ed, Category & Business Insights Manager @ Olipop, about what it's like to work at a fast-growing brand that's pioneering a brand new category. We discuss how Olipop is approaching distribution strategically, the way they select the next great flavour innovation, who they're stealing market share from and how, along with much more.

A truly relevant throwback from 2020. Hilton Barbour, Vice President of Marketing @ Kognitiv, chats to Ian about how to keep employees happy and motivated during a time of crisis. They touch on what transparency means in this context, which brands business leaders should draw inspiration from, the real reason that tone deaf communications arise, and more.

In this week's episode of Dig In, we go deep with Justin Pray, Senior Consumer Insights Manager @ Aurora Cannabis. Justin chats all things cannabis, walking us through his approach to consumer insights in a category with limited 'sources of truth', the challenges of building brand affinity and equity within the space, building the right research tech stack, and more. Enjoy!