Practical ideals: representation at a crossroads

ClearView Research co-founder and MD Kenny Imafidon will be joining the Insight Alchemy 2023 panel on representation in the insight profession. And he’s got a hugely positive message for the industry.

“There are challenges ahead, clearly,” he says. “Budgets do look like they’re getting tighter this year. What gives us optimism is that there are still lots of puzzles to be solved – and the problems are always shifting.”

Like some agencies, ClearView grew rapidly in Covid. It looked bleak in those first weeks, even months of lockdown, with cancelled projects. “But then organisations started to discover a number of really sticky problems during Covid – often things they had only uncovered as a result of the pandemic, or fresh new problems they had never had to think about before this,” Kenny explains. “And once it became clear they needed answers to those problems, we were able to step up and start offering ideas and solutions.”

And that’s giving him hope that while many clients are nervous right now, the need for insight will be as acute as ever.

“There are still plenty of cases where long-standing problems – often ones we’ve been working on as an agency for some time – become bigger issues for clients,” Kenny says. “The cost of living is a good example: it’s becoming a bigger challenge for a lot more people at the moment, but there have always been people struggling to get by, for a number of reasons. It is just that now that we have coined a term to explain this ‘narrative’ that has long existed, and so we’re seeing more eagerness to understand it. But we’ve been working with people living within this kind of crisis for years.”

ClearView has a long track record of helping organisations understand consumers and the parts of society often overlooked by the mainstream – and attendees to Insight Alchemy 2023 are sure to get some great ideas on ensuring their own projects are truly representative from Kenny and his fellow panellists. “The past two years have been intense, and we’ve seen the emergence into the mainstream of a lot of the things that we’ve been doing for a long time,” he explains.  

Frankness helps

There’s a practical edge to Kenny’s resilience. Less well-off consumers and a greater need to understand the pressures affecting communities will inevitably be countered by tighter public spending and shrinking budgets in the private sector. 

“If you have positioned yourself well, with capabilities you know will be needed, you will have an edge over other people who wait until they see which way clients are heading before they gear up,” Kenny says. “For us, that meant knowing how important proper representation in research is, for example. That’s at the core of our mission, and when clients embraced that need, we were ready.”

Authenticity is key: you have to genuinely believe what you’re offering is right. And, he says, the research sector still has a lot of work to do – especially on representation and promoting the value of our work, despite our own sector and organisational challenges. “We need to take more personal accountability, too,” Kenny adds. “But we should be positive – we should also be showing people the value of the work we’re doing, at the same time as we’re dealing with the skeletons in the closet, putting things right.”

The best way to deal with budget pressures, he says, is to be honest. “We need to be clear with clients about the implications of cutting back on project resources – explain where the gaps will be, where the quality will fall a little short. In some cases, it might be worth pointing out that if you buy cheap, you often buy twice.”

As a sector, then, the aim is to feel comfortable being honest with clients – and even challenging them: there are consequences to failing to be truly inclusive. “We need to accept financial realities, this isn’t about having a fight,” Kenny concludes. “It’s about being clear on the implications of a more ‘pragmatic’ approach.

“As an industry, we’re meant to be a resource for organisations to understand people and communities. The way we work, who we work with – that needs to reflect society. It’s not about tokenism, about filling quotas. It’s about an inclusive mindset. It’s about avoiding groupthink. It’s about being clear in pressurised times about the implications of cutting corners. So yes, we need to be realistic – we need to be creative, and design projects that help solve real problems and business challenges. But always in ways that provide a true picture, not something that doesn’t reflect society.”

Kenny Imafidon will be joining debate chair Sabrina Trinquetel and panel to explore what all of us can be doing to drive representation in research – now, next and later. Join them on 14 March at Insight Alchemy 2023.