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teams & talent

Mentoring Meet-up — Three Leaders, Three Stories (Event Summary)

At our first ARF Women in Analytics Mentoring Meet-Up of the year, we heard from three industry trailblazers on the “what”, “why” and “how” of their careers. Colleen Funkey of The Estée Lauder Companies, Gloria Cox of The Cambridge Group and Renata Policicio of WarnerMedia reflected on their unique journeys and shared the steps they took and lessons they learned. From what inspired them to originally go into market research to how they now navigate their careers at a senior level, speakers gave attendees advice on what they can do to ensure their careers are satisfying and successful. Attendees also participated in small breakout groups with the speakers to connect, ask questions and share their own personal reflections.

Strategies for Managing Internal and External Relationships

On April 7, the Women in Analytics Group held a mentoring meet-up about strategies for managing internal and external relationships. Ramla Jarrar, Founder & CEO of Mass Analytics and Therese Glennon, VP at Bristol Myers Squibb, shared best practices for building and maintaining relationships in-person and remotely. After the mini talks, each speaker met with half of the attendees and then switched groups to meet with the other half of the attendees.

How Our Industry Fared During the Great Resignation

As record numbers of people began leaving their jobs in mid-2021, the Analytics Council’s Organizational Working Group wondered how this “Great Resignation” had affected the advertising, media, and research industries. The Working Group partnered with Dynata to conduct a survey to find out.

Best Practices in Thought Leadership

On June 14th, at the ARF’s Women in Analytics event, thought leaders in the research industry shared best practices and inspiration to help attendees gain ground on their thought leadership path.

The Great Resignation in the Advertising/Research Industries Part 2 – Is It Over?

For this event, the Organizational Working Group within the Analytics Council conducted a follow-up survey to its May survey on the Great Resignation.  Once again, the Working Group partnered with Dynata on this survey. For this round, questions were added on job satisfaction, return to office, company culture, and the role of corporate social responsibility. Steve Millman of Dynata, who chairs the Working Group, reported on the results at this event.  Michael Butts, CEO of executive recruiting firm Burtch Works, also reported on surveys of its database of analytics and insights professionals.  The presentations were followed by a discussion on workplace trends and issues in our industries with Millman, Butts, and three other executives on the front lines of recruitment and talent management in advertising and research:

  • Renee Cassard, Chief Research Officer at Omnicom Media Group
  • Liz Osterhus, President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Ipsos, NA
  • Will Poindexter, Senior Partner & Enterprise Technology Practice Leader at Bain & Company.

The discussion was moderated by the ARF’s Chief Research Officer, Paul Donato. Millman’s presentation compared the respondents who said that they worked in advertising, advertising technology, media, or market research (“Our industries”) to those employed in other industries (“Industries”). The answer to the question posed in the title is undeniably “Yes” for both those in our industry and outside, according to just about every measure collected in the survey.  However, substantially more employees in our industries reported being contacted for recruiting efforts than others. They also tended to be more responsive to such efforts.  See below for more details on the survey results and subsequent conversation.

A Peek Behind the Curtain – Preventing a Fumble: The Research POV on Super Bowl Advertising

The ARF Creative Council hosted its seventh Happy Hour event on Super Bowl advertising and what to watch for in the commercial breaks during this year’s big game. Council member Belle Frank of VMLY&R moderated a discussion with four creative experts – three of them from the Creative Council — to discuss Super Bowl ad insights and trends, giving marketers important ideas to consider and advertising fans something to look for on Sunday night.

What Does AI Mean for Advertising Research?

We’ve all heard about the growing use of artificial intelligence in advertising research and doom and gloom predictions that it will knock out jobs, but is this really the case? Agency leaders joined us for an ARF Town Hall to discuss the upsides and possible downsides of generative AI, as well as how they’re utilizing it in their businesses to boost efficiency. Attendees heard predictions on how AI will change the business model of advertising and what it could mean for media agencies.

How Retailers are Connecting the Metaverse to the Real World and Revenue

AJ Dalal of Publicis Sapient defined the metaverse and outlined some pioneering moves certain brands have taken within it. He also shared advice on how to be successful in this burgeoning new phase of the internet. The interoperability of web 3.0 allows consumers to take their avatar and NFTs across platforms, which unlocks highly personalized and unique experiences and the ability to execute instant settlement in real time. To ensure success, a brand should remember its target market, which in this space is 16- to 25-year-olds, concentrate on what value their experience brings to the consumer, be authentic and specific and consider an evolving roadmap, being transparent with users that the experience rests on new technology and might evolve and improve over time.