Are we right to be worried? – IA23, the producer’s blog

The programme for Insight Alchemy 2023 is designed to be practical, useful and thought-provoking. The chairs and their panellists will be reflecting the reality on the ground for research agencies, clients, and their teams. 

Here are my own reflections on how this week’s news will impact next month’s conference.

1. Are we right to be worried?

Insight Alchemy 2023 is, in part, predicated on the idea that the next couple of years are going to be hard going. (We want to help you get through the rough patch, but also turn survival into future success…)

But are we right to be battening down the hatches? Inflation is falling, the Eurozone might escape recession altogether, and many companies have been able to sustain and even grow profits. Unfortunately, we’re not out of the woods yet. News about the risk of bankruptcies, particularly among ‘squeezed middle’ business, won’t go away. Consumer spending is febrile. And with companies having to pay back Covid loans on top of higher energy bills, the risk of cuts in spending on all marketing services remains high.

But good researchers look for both long and short-term trends, and according to Tim Harford (in this paywalled FT article) the UK is in a slow-burn depression that’s seen real incomes stagnate for more than a decade. It’s this weakened foundation to the economy that worried many in the insight profession. (It’s also an opportunity: how are consumers reacting to this long-term malaise?)

 In the opening debate at Insight Alchemy 2023, Tim’s FT colleague, Consumer Editor Claer Barrett, will be fleshing out some of these consumer conundrums and offering a broader context on how the broader economy feeds into their sentiments.

2. The Oscar nominations were another sign that the media landscape has changed.

True, 2023 saw fewer nominations for steaming-native flicks than last year  ( 19 versus 27 ), but the fact that pretty much all the movies in contention are already available for home viewing is a reminder that the digital media landscape is competitive, fragmented and constantly evolving.

That’s a great recipe for market research, of course: understand who is watching what, where and why are fundamental questions for media owners, producers and advertisers alike.

Insight Alchemy 2023 will see a debate on these key issues, featuring contributions from ITV and marketing agency giant PHD. If you’re interested in audience research, advertising effectiveness, media accountability or how insight can shape the creative process – don’t miss it.

3. It turns out that Alchemy is real afterall.

At MRS, we’re mostly concerned about the alchemy of turning base data into golden nuggets of insight that can shape business, politics and society. But according to Physics-Astronomy.com, the original concept of alchemy – transmuting base metal into gold – turns out to work. But it’s not some wizard using a philosopher’s stone to make a king rich. It’s a bacterium turning toxic compounds into pure gold.

The process was discovered five years ago, and now Kazem Kashefi, professor of mycobiology and molecular genetics, and Adam Brown, professor of electronic art, have turned the discovery into an art installation called The Great Work of the Metal Lover, a portable laboratory that produces gold as a statement about “greed, economics and the impact on the environment, focusing on the ethics related to the science and engineering of nature.”

It’s a project that feels right at home in the research world – an artistic counter-point to much of the work market researchers do every day. Another reminder of the value of the alchemy metaphor…

See the full programme for Insight Alchemy 2023 – MRS Annual Conference.