GMIFY

In a recent publication of Arianna Huffington’s On My Mind, she talked about the famous folktale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes in terms of leadership noting that everyone turned a blind eye until a child blurted out, ‘he hasn’t got anything on.’ In many ways, I’ve had these same thoughts about the panel industry and its main ingredients, panelists. A survey’s success, meaning quality data coming from engaged participants with quotas being met comes from a great respondent experience but it doesn’t exist today and isn’t spoken about like it should be. Instead, we just keep churning out projects, surveys and data and it’s the same old, same old. GMIFY is about to have a voice and its first words will be, ‘he hasn’t got anything on.’ The industry is about to starting getting dressed! #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

Aram Sinnreich, author & professor at American University, on the phrase ‘you can’t argue with the data,’ reacted in the following manner: ‘There’s no such thing as a data system that doesn’t contain biases or flaws, especially for people left out of the design and executing phases of the data systems themselves.’ GMIFY, as a system that collects data, was designed and built by career market researchers who always designed surveys with the respondents in mind and as panelists themselves, put great thought into what can be done for panelists to create a more enjoyable experience for them. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist and cofounder and executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, has been very vocal about tech’s dangers and sees three paths that have been taken: pre-tragic, when someone doesn’t want to look at the tragedy, whether it’s AI issues or social media, staring, someone who looks directly at the issue but gets stuck and a third path that I believe market research needs to pay attention to, post-tragic, where you accept & grieve through the realities that are being faced. The key is you have to go through the darkness so that you understand the actual dimensions of the problem and then you’re honest about what it would take to do something about it. I’m not sure our industry is there yet when it comes to the respondent experience, the fact that it’s lousy and produces disinterested panelists churning out data of not the highest quality. Market Research needs to get there because only then can we turn bored, disinterested respondents into engaged players. We’ve already walked down that third path and that journey produced GMIFY. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

In a recent issue of ResearchLive, the following thought-provoking question was posed to various industry leaders: What if we could reinvent the future? And, here are all the responses: (1) What if policy-makers and the media truly understood people? (2) What if research samples could be more representative? (3) What if we could learn from the past? (4) What if researchers could take on a new role in society? (5) What if research could help solve the climate crisis? (5) What if research could attract more school leavers? (6) What if research could better draw on its collective knowledge? (7) What if data could reshape society responsibly? (8) What if people treated their data like their DNA? (8) What if the industry could be truly flexible? (9) What if brands could truly understand people? (10) What if market researchers treat AI as a useful assistant, not a threat? (11) What if research & society could be fully inclusive of neurodiversity? (12) What if all procurement teams and budget holders could understand how priceless research is? They’re all great questions but it’s like starting your meal with dessert? What if we could reinvert the future with respect to market research? My response is...What if respondents, those people who serve as panelists for panel companies and are asked to complete online surveys every minute of the day, what if they actually ENJOYED being a panelist because they felt about panel companies & surveys the same way that players feel about their favorite apps? If we can even sniff that one, many of the things above can get closer to being reached. Friends, GMIFY has a large nose! #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

In a recent issue of ResearchLive, Emily Dickinson, head of Amsterdam, Opinium, posed the fascinating question: ‘What if people treated their data like their DNA?’ She then followed things up with commentary that makes perfect sense but feels like it’s insightful and if it is, what an indictment on our industry. She said...’As an industry, we need to ensure that people recognise the power of their data – what it can achieve, how it is used, and why it matters. This won’t be easy to achieve, but ensuring participants have a greater awareness of the value of their contribution can only lead to greater engagement and, therefore, greater insight. Isn’t it time we started to value and reward the contribution of those on whom the market research industry is based?’ Emily, it was time to do that the moment market research became market research. The fact that it’s appropriately being asked today is very, very sad. But here’s the issue – in order for people to think more about the data they’re producing, in order for them to be more aware of the contributions they’re making and in order for our industry to do a better job of rewarding the contribution of respondents, THINGS MUST CHANGE! Continuing to behave the same way but saying let’s do a better job will accomplish absolutely nothing. That’s why we conceived of something like GMIFY in order to improve the respondent experience because if you reach that goal, all of Emily’s points can be accomplished. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

McKinsey senior partner Celia Huber on boards & management working together, stated, ‘Organizations don’t spend enough time getting alignment between the board and management on the facts that really matter.’ This got me to thinking...Do panel companies spend enough time getting alignment between themselves and their panelists? Maybe they do, maybe they don’t or maybe they just don’t know how to achieve this and reach the promised land. This was at the heart of GMIFY’s thinking because it’s the only way to develop engaged panelists that produce high quality data. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

Alistair Brownlee, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, speaking about mental resilience, stated the following: ‘I truly believe that you can’t motivate yourself to do hard things every day to achieve a goal that might happen in two, four, or eight years unless you celebrate small achievements along the way.’ Now wishing to achieve a goal can happen in all walks of life so let’s turn our attention to panel companies & panelists. Panel companies should want their panelists to put forth the utmost effort when completing online surveys so that quality data is produced but just because that’s the goal doesn’t mean it happens. If that goal I just wrote in the previous sentence happens across a period of time, as Alistair mentions, we need those small achievements to also take place but presently they don’t happen because it’s more of an all or nothing situation when it comes to a survey. GMIFY creates those small achievements for panelists and that provides the energy for them to complete surveys to the best of their ability. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

In McKinsey & Company’s Leading Off publication, Becca Coggins, senior partner stated the following interesting quote, ‘Successful strategies are founded on the notion that consumers are in charge.’ It’s not a huge stretch to play with these words a bit and say ‘Successful panel companies are founded on the notion that panelists are in charge.’ The only problem is that this may not represent the typical thinking of panel companies but it is at the heart of GMIFY and the way we think about panelists. After all, these are the people producing the data that companies make critical decisions off of so why not have them at the forefront of your thinking? We do. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

Wes Nichols, a partner at March Capital, on generative AI and solving problems in a recent episode of The Committed Innovator (Critical Need), stated, ‘The way I look at it is that you need to be solving a big problem. If your solution happens to be powered by AI, great. If it happens to be powered by generative AI, wonderful. But the core issue needs to be there—is this solving a business problem that is a critical need? And is it something that can ultimately be scaled to a global platform?’ So let’s do the unthinkable and brush AI aside for a second and focus on these words, IS THIS SOLVING A BUSINESS PROBLEM THAT IS A CRITICAL NEED? And now let’s shift to panelists, the panel industry and the need for high quality data to be produced by respondents being asked to see an invite in their inbox from a panel company, open it up, be interested enough to do something with it once it’s opened and then have enough focus & engagement to produce data that companies can use to make confident decisions. The business problem that persists is that the respondent experience (from seeing the invite to completing the survey) is lackluster at best and superior data can’t result from it on a regular basis. This business problem was at the heart of our thinking as we began to design GMIFY and yes, it’s a big problem. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr

In a recent article that appeared in ResearchLive by Horst Feldhaeuser, ‘Is your brand tracker working its hardest for you?’ (Brand Tracker), he mentioned a comment from Emmanual Probst of Ipsos saying consumers are operating under the influence of two elements: the world at large, specifically all the crappy stuff (global conflicts, climate change, etc.) and their individual context & circumstances with these things potentially playing a number on brand trackers. I’ll add a third element that is an offshoot of one’s individual context & circumstances and that is a panelist’s respondent experience as they go about getting ready to complete your brand tracker. Because if a panelist’s experience leading up to the brand tracker is boring causing disinterest and lack of engagement, well, your brand tracker isn’t worth _ _ _ _ I’m sorry to say. Engagement, interest, excitement and fun, never part of the respondent experience but they can be. #mentalhealth #dataquality #marketresearch #insightsassociation #esomar #newmr