Rock n' Roll Research Podcast

Before founding COMARKA Research in the US 16 years ago, Isabel Aneyba was a Category Manager and CMO in consumer goods and retail in Mexico. Her multi-country and multi-disciplinary background has laid the foundation for her unique expertise in cultural insights and strategy.At COMARKA, Isabel employs innovative participatory methods for understanding consumers and culture. Stories are important in her professional life but perhaps even more important in her personal life. For the past 15 years, she has volunteered reading bedtime stories to kids in a transitional children’s home.Isabel shares her career journey, her perspective on the future of insights and the music she would want to keep her company on a deserted island.

How does a leader of one of the top master’s programs in market research prepare the next generation of insights professionals? The short answer is start with Mr. Miyagi, Ted Lasso and Sonny from “A Bronx Tale” and sprinkle in some Bruce Lee and Bruce Springsteen. What does that mean? You have to listen to find out!Scott Hanson is Director of the MSMR program at UT Arlington. He is deeply passionate about his responsibility and his commitment to his students. His personal journey, which has included years as a commercial research practitioner, has shaped his approach in powerful ways.Scott discusses his path through research and his viewpoint on leading the MSMR program with healthy doses of storytelling, humor and pop culture references.

Andy Poe is the founder and CEO of TasteMakers Research Group, an insights firm creating innovative ways to test products with consumers. Music was a consistent theme early in Andy’s career. She started out selling advertising for a radio station where she discovered the power of research to deliver relevant audiences. Later, in the heady days of the dot com boom, she was Research Manager for MP3.com when it became the largest tech IPO ever at the time.We discuss Andy’s career journey, how MP3.com contributed to her work at TasteMakers and a whole lot of rock n’ roll along the way.

Jeffrey Henning was a ‘teenage market researcher’ and later introduced several now-ubiquitous technologies to the industry including online surveys, enterprise feedback management and the #mrx hashtag. Today, he is the founder and Chief Research Officer at Researchscape International.But, in parallel, Jeffrey has also been a creator in the board gaming industry. He went from making his own rules for existing games to creating and publishing several of his own.We discuss Jeffrey’s journey through research and gaming, and along the way we cover ‘competitive payphones,’ Duolingo, Twitter and Green Day.

According to Business Wire, the global cannabis market is expected to reach $176 Bn by 2030. New entrants into big markets require expert insight to take advantage of the opportunity.Mike Luce co-founded High Yield Insights in 2018 to help companies make sense of this new market landscape. After a successful career in research with top firms like IRI, Mintel and Market Track (now Numerator), Mike sought to put his expertise to work as an entrepreneur in this new space. Today, he is helping leading brands and research firms make well-grounded strategic decisions through a deep understanding of the contemporary cannabis consumer.Mike discusses his journey in research, what led him to cannabis entrepreneurship and where he sees the industry heading. He also shares the three records he’d want to keep him company if stranded on a desert island.

Donte Perry is currently Director of Client Development at Op4G (Opinions for Good), an insights company with a highly innovative model that uncovers unique, highly engaged research respondents for their clients while simultaneously benefiting the philanthropic community. Donte landed in research after stints in early childhood education and R&D in the semiconductor industry, the consistent thread being his passion to do work that makes a difference. While noble, that is not Donte’s only passion. He has been playing music for over 20 years - various instruments and diverse styles - and he and your host will surely be having a jam session soon in Dallas, TX. Look out world!

Don Simons is CEO, Insights of the advertising, technology and data firm, Big Village, a highly innovative Top 50 insights firm that you may know as Engine prior to their rebranding. With Big Village, Don is helping lead the industry charge toward linking insights to activation to produce meaningful, commercial results.But did you know that, over 30 years ago, Don saw a relatively unknown band at the time, Pearl Jam, open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and he has been a super fan ever since?In this episode, Don shares his vision for where the insights industry is headed and how Big Village is meeting the challenge. He also shares his origin story in research, what companies can learn from Pearl Jam about the customer experience and which media he turns to in his precious spare time.

Jon Giegengack knows entertainment as well as anyone. Ten years ago, he founded Hub Entertainment Research delivering expert consulting and insight on the world of TV, movies, gaming, music, sports and events. By night, he is the frontman for an outstanding, New England-based country rock cover band called Whiskey Horse (whiskeyhorse.com). Jon shares his perspective on how to make sense of the complexities of entertainment’s digital transformation. He also discusses his decision to become an entrepreneur at 40, learning to play guitar from YouTube and why appreciation for the art of TV, movies and gaming is critical to effecting change through insights.

Katie Macdonald is an Enterprise Sales Director for Fuel Cycle, an innovative insights technology company that is part of the GRIT Top 50 Innovators and the Inc 5000. After starting her career in advertising, she found her way to GutCheck and was there through a period of tremendous growth. She has been in the research space ever since.Her story starts in small town Iowa where, as a kid, she helped support her family’s myriad small enterprises from selling handmade art on QVC to a home-based tea room and gift shop to a restaurant downtown. Katie shares her unique story, how it has informed her career in insights and her take on how democratization and generational shifts are impacting how research gets done.

David Yin is unquestionably driven by purpose. Today he leads the consumer business for Labcorp, a company focusing every day on making people healthier including playing a critical role in advancing COVID PCR testing.David didn’t begin or end in insights, but his commitment to making ‘focusing on the customer’ the cornerstone of his expertise has led him to some of the best roles in insights and laid a solid foundation for greater responsibility.As an intern at Merck, David worked on the HIV vaccine program. As a product developer with Clorox, he developed new and better products to make consumers’ lives better. His passion for consumers led him to research roles with Clorox and Avon where he honed his expertise, leading to unique opportunities creating new insights functions for Eventbrite, Fitbit and Ancestry. In this podcast, David shares his thoughts on the problem with the ‘customer journey,’ what constitutes an ‘insight,’ and why credible research relies upon getting back to the fundamentals and rigor of the discipline. He also dishes on which 3 records he would want to keep him company on a desert island.