In October 2022 Memex Poland conference gathered an array of experts to talk about emerging technologies and their influence on everyday lives and businesses. Among different hot topics, there was also a place for advertising. We could already hear Krzysztof Kania talk about the future of advertising in video games. Another of our guests, Florian Passlick – Associate Director in the Brand and Media Experience unit at eye square, took the opportunity to talk about how we can use new technologies in market research. In his speech, he introduced the audience to Spark – the InContext research platform developed by eye square and DAC.digital.
At the end of the post, you can watch the video recording of the entire presentation.
Market research tools and conducting market research in the natural context
Spark is a market research tool that operates around customers’ digital lifestyles. Eye square wanted to develop a tool, a platform that would focus on the creations, campaigns and market trends in the research field and how they affect people.
At eye square, multiple consultants use state-of-the-art software and in-context technology that helps with new approaches to market research.
What’s most important in this work is the human experience, and thus, working in the user’s natural environment. The focus of the market research tools must consider different layers of understanding and perception (including the eye square’s “System 0 1 2” concept, covered by Michael Michael Schießl).
Spark as an advanced market research tool
As Florian highlights in his presentation, Spark, a research platform developed together with DAC.digital, uses the eye square’s model of perception that consists of three stages:
System 0: an initial reaction to the perceived material. It’s the uncontrolled level of response that takes place on the first contact.
System 1: “the gut feeling ” is the implicit reaction to what we see.
System 2: is the direct response to the product. It allows just to develop and express a better understanding and opinion.
Using these three key pillars of reaction and understanding, Spark can help centralise, facilitate and accelerate the research process. Regardless of the form – the introduction of a new study group or the exposition of a website – the platform aimed to standardise the process for reliable and quicker market research data analysis.
Observing the natural environment
The objective of the platform was not only to conduct market research surveys. Spark aims to observe the target audience and their reaction to the ads or campaigns in the natural context. The tool allows us to see how many participants it reached and the costs.
An essential part of the system is online surveys that clients can design and customise via the Tivian platform. The InContext tool allows for a wide range of surveying, researching and reporting options, all amounting to reliable market research software that can help collect valuable insights.
In turn, it can neatly highlight the key performance indicators for the marketing team to see what works the best for their focus groups in the natural context, for example, browsing web pages or social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram on mobile devices. They can later adjust them based on the customer feedback gathered through the customer satisfaction surveys and other testing methods that the platform offers.
Although Spark is still a work in progress, it’s already showing considerable potential for more automated and standardised research that can result in tailored marketing campaigns for the optimal customer experience.
Watch the video recording of the presentation
Watch complete Florian’s presentation of the Spark platform and its key components. See the examples of how marketing researchers can use it in the users’ natural environment for competitive analysis.
