Blog

Thoughts on everything that matters right now in marketing, communications, and insights.

Category: Strategy

Why great marketing starts with strategy, not tactics (As seen on Greenbook) Posted on October 28, 2025 by Vanessa Chirayus

Without a clear strategy, marketing efforts can become scattered and ineffective, so how can you fight this? In this third instalment of Marketing Applied series on Greenbook’s Grow your insights business expert channel, Iosetta Santini emphasises the importance of diagnosing challenges, setting objectives, understanding the market, and targeting the right audience before jumping into the implementation phase. Strategic marketing requires intentional choices: deciding what to do and not do, anchored by a well-thought-out objective. By kicking off with diagnosing your

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Brand awareness gets you seen. Mental availability gets you chosen. (As seen on Greenbook) Posted on September 11, 2025 by Vanessa Chirayus

Do your prospects know who you are, but forget you when it matters most? In the insights industry, awareness alone isn’t enough. What really counts is being remembered at the right time: when buying decisions are made. In part two of her Marketing Applied series on Greenbook’s Grow your insights business channel, Iosetta Santini unpacks the concept of mental availability: why pairing it with brand awareness is like the ketchup to your mustard, and how you can build it into

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Don’t just join the conversation. Say something that matters. Posted on May 28, 2025 by Vanessa Chirayus

Research conferences are full of buzz – but sometimes it’s more noise than clarity. Amidst the AI talk and similar shiny promises at Quirk’s London, it was easy to lose sight of what really makes this industry tick. That is why one session stood out for all the right reasons: Vodafone Business’ ‘Creating Authentic B2B Thought Leadership’. It was a timely reminder for strong thought leadership doesn’t just inform – it builds trust, proves value, and challenges decision-makers to look at

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Add to the network, not to the noise Posted on May 6, 2025 by Simon Dunn

Creating a gold standard of LinkedIn networking LinkedIn has transformed itself into a community building tool that is both, a blessing and curse. It has become a place where reputations are built, conversations begin, and new opportunities emerge. However, it is also a new language to be learnt and best enjoyed with a solid understanding of its full potentials. LinkedIn has over a billion users worldwide, but only 1% actively creating content… This offers a real opportunity for any company

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Salience and Staying Power: hear from De Beers, Haleon and Pearson at ESOMAR Posted on August 10, 2023 by Simon Dunn

Researchers face an uphill battle. Decades of data has proven that companies which listen to customers and markets have the greatest chance of success. Yet, for years, debates have focused primarily on how data and insight can ‘get a seat at the executive table’. Indeed, that’s a position of influence and input, but it is not demonstrative of a culture that is truly customer-centric and which thrives on making decisions informed by insight. To achieve this, researchers have to be

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Someone spilt Mustard on the red carpet! Posted on February 23, 2023 by Iosetta Santini

Back in December, we challenged you to find out your communication style with our Hollywood-themed quiz. Well, the results are in of the world’s first and only survey of insights professionals about communication. 260 of you completed our quiz and now we  are opening the envelope to reveal what we learnt about the insights profession. First of all, although the quiz was a bit of fun the issue is no joke: 63% of you stated that communicating data and insights

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Get on the case Posted on January 25, 2023 by Lucy Davison

How to make case studies work for you in insights An insights company without case studies is like Batman without Robin. Demonstrating your value through a case study is fundamental to thought leadership and growth. Plus, there’s the added advantage that most clients are burning with curiosity and FOMO; the number one thing that they want to know is what you are doing or have done for other companies like them. But producing case studies is often a big challenge

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The very long and the really short of it Posted on August 10, 2022 by Iosetta Santini

In the world of insights and research, marketing (if done at all) is frequently focused on short-term, tactical, lead generation. Agencies and suppliers come to us because they want more leads and see marketing as a support for sales and new business. In a digital environment, this seems to be an easy win. Create content to drive traffic and give you leads for your website, encourage clicks, capture data, measure, and target – and Bob’s your uncle. The problem is

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What can insights learn from Hollywood? Posted on June 9, 2022 by Iosetta Santini

When it comes to communicating insights, most people still rely on that dull event, the debrief. All our efforts are squeezed into one hour of bar chart hell. When we should be scintillating and exciting, we are studious and exhaustive. What can we do to change this? Where better to look for inspiration than Hollywood?! The glitz, the glamour, the lights, the camera, the action. The FAME. Here are my thoughts on what we can learn from Hollywood to ensure

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GRIT Report: How to be famous Posted on March 31, 2022 by Lucy Davison

The challenge to stand out is as important in MRX as it is for washing powder or breakfast cereal. But yet again, in this GRIT Report, we see that researchers don’t make good marketers. The point of positioning is knowing what you do – and what you don’t do. In past reports, we have seen inconsistency from respondents within supply-side companies as to what their company does. And in this report again, “the employees of many supplier companies aren’t really

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