The decade in 10: What were the industry’s biggest trends?

x Sponsored content on Research Live and in Impact magazine is editorially independent.
Find out more about advertising and sponsorship.

Covid-19

The pandemic changed the way we worked, lived and shopped. Some changes were temporary, some were longer-lasting, but what it did was emphasise the importance of staying connected to customers and gauging the mood of the public, reinforcing the role of insight.

“Covid-19 has had such a long-lasting effect on our planet, ” says Neil Mortensen, director of audiences at ITV. “Millions of individual and communal stories delivered every emotion, from hope to despair. In our small corner of the world, ITV spoke to our audiences every day. We listened and gave them an open book to talk about their lives, worries and their TV viewing.

“We fed this back through lockdown with weekly webinars to the whole plc. Something amazing happened: our inboxes were flooded with colleagues expressing thanks for our audience insights and, more importantly, comradeship. We were holding up a mirror to ourselves, connecting to the world and realising we weren’t alone.”

Jane Ostler, executive vice-president, global thought leadership ...