Ipsos OTX: 100 Stories….Big Changes Come From Small Steps - Shelley Zalis - MediaBizBloggers

Welcome Shelley Zalis our newest MediaBizBlogger.

Last week the 4A's asked us to transform our industry. Good suggestion but let's be real…it's getting a little cliché. One thing in the research industry we all know won't change is how often we'll be lectured about change. I would have liked to hear more about "transforming" the way we conduct and use research: a part of our business that seems immune to evolution.

David Ogilvy's famous criticism about the communication industry's use of research, "The way a drunk uses a lamppost—for support rather than illumination," should serve as a prophetic warning about inert processes that won't cut it in a dynamic, 21st Century ecosystem. Yes, there are more tools and data, but data detached from insight is just a collection of numbers. The only way we transform research into more than a well-presented data dump is if we, "the research specialists," turn the data into insights that make it meaningful. As Thoreau so memorably noted, "Things do not change. We change." Research will not transform itself. Each of us, the minds behind the numbers, must work towards a common goal.

The way I like to visualize this challenge is with an analogous 100-story building. You can do what research does today: take the easy way out, get on the elevator, and push the button marked "100," i.e., here are the tables; here's the methodology; here's the executive summary—thanks. Or, consider an alternative route - take the stairs, even if they are steep and winding and it takes an extra effort to climb. What if you climb every floor? You'll be up on the roof, out of breath, but filled with insight. You'll know the building, literally, from the inside, bottom to top. You'll have the same data—but you'll also have something far, far more valuable: context.

Context puts the data in perspective. How do you do that? Not by erecting a numbers temple but by sharing actual nuggets of knowledge, by marrying all of the qualitative and quantitative data inputs with consumer immersion and active listening. You do it by listening to the story the numbers tell and breathing life into them, not just with executive summaries, but with passion, fun, conviction, and, yes—context.

This is a simple fix, most solutions are; they just need a little creativity and determination. Let's demand the same top-to-bottom overhaul in the way we conduct, use, and evaluate research that we have demanded in every other aspect of our business. Change is scary! The steps might seem too steep so we tend to avoid them, but what if we think of it as a transformation? It's a process and it's achievable if we embrace it. Let's each take responsibility (if we don't, who will?) to transform and ascend the building floor-by-floor, creating a story with research that brings our consumers to life. Imagine how transformative that would be. "Research" could even become a sexy word….now that's a change that makes sense.

Shelley Zalis has over 25 years of experience working in traditional marketing and advertising research companies. In early 2000, Shelley Zalis founded OTX, which in nine years has grown to become a top 18 global research agency, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Miami, and London. In January 2010, OTX was acquired by Ipsos. Shelley now leads the Ipsos Global Innovation Center. Shelley can be reached at szalis@otxresearch.com.