Conference Season Preview: Take Marketing’s Pulse

It’s Conference Season! Over the next few months there are several top-quality insights and marketing events coming up. Here are six of the most interesting – and what to expect from each.

P&A INSIGHTS 2018, 22-23August, Frankfurt

WEBSITE: https://www.horizont.net/planung-analyse/Insights2018

WHAT IT IS: The highly respected German marketing mag Planung & Analyse’s annual insights conference.

KEYNOTES: Our own John Kearon is giving a keynote on how behavioural science can stop marketers burning money. Fellow research firestarters Zappi are talking on the first day, about AI.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO: See above!

THEMES: Fake news, blockchain, AI, as well as the usual pursuits of actionable insights for businesses. And a couple of intriguing presentations on psychographics in a post-Cambridge Analytica scandal world.

WATCH OUT FOR: A presentation on “Football Fun or World Cup desert” on in-store promotions. Given Germany’s catastrophic performance in Russia, the results could be brutal.

ARF SHOPPERxSCIENCE, 6^th September, Chicago, IL

WEBSITE: https://thearf.org/event/shopperxscience-2018/

WHAT IT IS: One of the ARF’s sector vertical days, focusing on applying marketing science to insights and business excellence. In this case, shopper marketing.

KEYNOTES: P&G Head of Analytics Jeff Admiral crunches the numbers to drive improved conversion in the grocery aisle.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO: Our shopper guru Jeff McDonald will be setting out the case for fully 1mmersive shopper simulations. Headsets ready!

THEMES: Data, data, data. And a bit of AI too, of course.

WATCH OUT FOR: Google are playing host, and their Head of Analytics for the consumer sector, Kevin Hartman, is introducing the day-long event. When Google speaks, it pays to listen.

ESOMAR CONGRESS 2018, 23-26 September, Berlin

WEBSITE: https://www.esomar.org/events/2018/congress-2018/congress-2018-highlights

WHAT IT IS: The biggest international trade body hosting the biggest international conference. ESOMAR have worked hard in recent years to catch up with newer rivals and last year’s event had attendees buzzing.

KEYNOTES: Still under wraps, but ESOMAR tends to favour big marketing names and powerfully inspiring achievers.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO: We’re delighted that System1’s Emily Ozer is a finalist in the YES (Young Esomar Society) Award, talking about innovation and privacy. Get in early on day 1 and lend her your support! A motley crew of S1 staffers will be in attendance too, and there might even be a surprise appearance on stage…

THEMES: Digital transformation, and more digital transformation. Transformed enough? There’s also plenty on privacy and some great showcases of international work and non-profit action from the ESOMAR Foundation.

WATCH OUT FOR: Jon Puleston – one of the best research presenters – promises “Research Disaster Movies” on the final day. Bring popcorn.

IPA EFFECTIVENESS WEEK, 9^th October, London (satellite events on other days)

WEBSITE: http://www.ipa.co.uk/events/effectiveness-week

WHAT IT IS: The 1-day conference kicking off IPA Effectiveness Week, a week of London events crowned by the hugely prestigious IPA Effectiveness Awards.

KEYNOTES: A huge draw is the promise of new findings from Les Binet and Peter Field, probably the most influential advertising analysts in the world.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO: We’re sponsoring it but Chief Innovation Officer Orlando Wood will be onstage presenting the results of our expanded work into Fluent Devices. Last year we showed how they used to work on TV. This year we reveal how they build brands today, in a digital world.

THEMES: The theme is effectiveness – and that means world-exclusive new experiments and studies into how advertising works in the digital era. This is where the stuff you’ll be sharing LinkedIn posts about in two years’ time gets revealed.

WATCH OUT FOR: The IPA Effectiveness Awards themselves – the eyes of the advertising world will be watching (and the fingers of the advertising world will be crossing.)

TMRE, 16-18 October, Scottsdale, AZ

WEBSITE: https://marketing.knect365.com/tmre/

WHAT IT IS: The Market Research Event is one of the biggest US conferences, and a terrific barometer of where the industry is and what’s keeping marketers up at night.

KEYNOTES: Famous names from business and beyond. Beth Comstock, former GE CMO. Peyton Manning, Quarterback. And sociologist Zeynep Tufecki, who sounded the alarm on online extremism well before most of her peers.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO: We have a brand new booth in the exhibit hall (you’ll find it hard to miss), and Brent Snider will be onstage talking about the disruptive power of testing at scale.

THEMES: One reason we like TMRE so much is its focus on business outcomes, and the hard job of getting marketing’s voice heard at the top of organisations. There’s plenty of technology and innovation on show, but that’s at the heart of the conference.

WATCH OUT FOR: With 150+ presentations it’s impossible to pick one standout but a special shout to the Women In Research (WIRe) organisation who will be presenting a Diversity Champion award. Who rocks? WIRe rock.

IIEX Behavior 2018, November 7-8, Chicago, IL

WEBSITE: https://iiexbehavior.insightinnovation.org/

WHAT IT IS: IIeX continue to be a disruptive force in the research event world, and continue their commitment to behavioural science, with another Behaviour-focused event.

KEYNOTES / THEMES / WHAT WE’RE UP TO / WATCH OUT FOR: OK, OK, this one is a bit of a special case because the call for speakers is STILL OPEN, at least until the end of this week (3^rdAugust). So it could be you up on stage talking behavioural science and insight. System1 is the Spotlight Sponsor for the event and we’d love to see you there. If you don’t want to speak, put it in your diaries anyway.

We hope you found this Conference Season Guide useful. Got an event you’d like us to preview – or want us to speak at? Get in touch!