Recognising innovation in market research
21 May 2018

Research Now SSI are the new Principal Sponsor of the MRS Awards. Here they explain why supporting innovation across the sector is important to them.

Technology is one of the biggest disruptors across all industries, including Market Research which has embraced CATI, Online Surveys, Mobile, Social and most recently Automated Research. For an industry perceived as slow and resistant to change, Market Research has definitely adopted its fair share of new technology and innovation, a trend that isn’t going to slow down any time soon.

With the explosion of technology, there are only more opportunities to come with exponential increase in data available to industry and consumers alike. Further, with new techniques to harness insight, from inferred sources, AI, voice recognition and data visualisation, it is an exciting time to be working in Market Research. The advancements in technology and innovation from businesses across the industry allows Market Research to reach beyond our traditional touchpoints, impacting all areas of the marketing eco-system and beyond.

Research Now SSI are pioneers in new technology for Market Research, with the first B2B panel and innovations in Automation and DIY as well as our industry leading products in integrated data and advertising measurement. We recognise the need to continuing pushing the limits of our industry to advance the results we can achieve. The MRS Awards, provide a great opportunity to bring together leading figures from across Market Research, agencies and clients alike, to celebrate what has been achieved and share best practice with each other.

Despite facing challenges from an ever-changing landscape, there is still great opportunity for those who do it right to push our industry forward. GDPR, budget constraints, disruption from new tech and encroachment from other sectors all featured as challenges for 2018 in a survey we ran to our clients; yet despite all of these there are examples of outstanding work and innovation across the industry.

The Awards help us to learn from each other and build on the innovation and success we are recognising. This is why it’s so important to recognise and reward developments in new technology in the research industry: not only are we congratulating the companies who successfully develop and / or harness new developments, but we’re thanking them for making them more accessible to us all.

The MRS Awards 2018 are open for entries until 2 July. Categories and criteria can be found here. The winners will be announced by Shappi Khorsandi at a black-tie gala celebration at Old Billingsgate on 3 December.