The last session of the first day focused on social media. Edward Malthouse presented on the link between social media and purchase behavior. He presented some cool stuff on attempts by brands to create competitions as a way to engage (How does Superman shave? Design a new McDonald's sandwich, etc.) His data is from the Air Canada frequent flyer program. The program wanted to learn more about how to get members to redeem their miles. So they asked members to go to the site and suggest rewards that would encourage them to redeem their miles. His approach is based in System 1 and System 2 thinking. Promotions that use incentives typically rely on System 1 (habitual responding). Promotions that try to engage are directed at System 2 (effortful processing). His hypothesis is that the more a promotion engages System 2 the more likely someone will purchase. He measured engagement by the number of words and the degree of elaboration in the suggestions that they made at the site. He offered a whole bunch of hypotheses but the key one is that engaging System 2 increases the odds of purchase. His data generally supported that view.
We ended with an interactive session designed to have the audience answer three questions about the MR industry in 2023. Tables in the room were divided into three groups with each group asked to answer one question. So the unit of analysis below is the table.
- Sixty six percent said that the basic source data for insight will be 50% digital and 50% non-digital. The remainder opted for 80% digital and 20% non-digital. This was a 3D conference after a day of hearing presentations on Big Data.
- Sixty percent said that 30% of insights will come from clients and 70% from agencies. The remainder said 70% from clients and 30% from agencies. Blogging comrade Jeffrey Henning sees this as sample bias.
- Seventy percent said that 80% of decisions will be made by people and 20% by machines.
A good day. Now for some drinks!