London is the coolest European city (36%) according to Belgian youngsters; Paris (24%) is in second place just before Barcelona (21%). Only 8% of Belgian youngsters considered Brussels to be “cool”. Compared with other countries, the Belgian youth appears to be much less proud of their own capital. Amsterdam for example was considered cool by one out of five Dutch youngsters. For Paris and London, this was three out of five youngsters. These are the results of a recent global Gen Y study. Continue reading
The consumer as researcher
Consumers have claimed a lot of power and marketers take that into account. Paul Polman, CEO at Unilever, recently stated: ‘If they can bring the Egypt government down in six weeks, they can bring us down in nanoseconds’. It is not merely a question of ‘being able to’ but also of ‘wanting to’. 44% of consumers wish to be actively involved in the development of new products or advertising campaigns for ‘their’ brands (InSites Consulting, Social Media around the world, 2011). This evolution is an opportunity rather than a threat. But what does it mean for market research? Should the research world adapt (check out this blogpost by Annelies Verhaeghe)? And what are the opportunities that originate from it? Continue reading
From Grazy Parrots, via speed dating to Dr.Trombino
How a business-like networking meeting in pharma turned out to be a social media adventure exploring the digital unkowns…. As a marketing veteran, one who frequently attended, spoke at and set up marketing conferences, last week’s DigiPharm Conference at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London was expected to be one like many. But it wasn’t. It turned out to be a rich experience with many many learnings and examples. Who says the pharmaceutical industry is boring, non experimental and suffocated by regulation? The many social media experiments and cool presentations proved the critic wrong. Here’s what I learned:
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