MESH Planning, the London based real-time experience research and strategy agency, has appointed Jo Rigby and Nicki Boswell as managing director, EMEA and Senior Experience Director respectively.

Rigby joins after thirteen years working in Omnicom Media Group, where she most recently held the role of global head of insight. During this time she worked with clients including Unilever, Vodafone, Sony and PepsiCo. She led an insight community of 250 people across the network and was responsible for a number of research initiatives for OMD and PHD.

As MD at MESH she will be responsible for developing global new business, boosting the analytics function of the agency and building on the existing relationship with Cranfield School of Management.

Boswell joins from Astellas Pharmaceutical, where she had been the UK team leader and behaviour insight manager since last year. On the agency side, she most recently worked as worldwide head of research for Initiative/Mediabrands. Prior to this, Boswell worked within marketing and insight client side with Unilever UK for seven years. Her remit will be to develop global clients in conjunction with regional managers and their teams.

Fiona Blades, CEO of MESH Planning, said: “Both bring a depth of market research skills allied to first class client management and strong media planning expertise that complement the MESH offering perfectly, and will enable us to continue to deliver exceptional results for our clients, as we look ahead to 2013.”

Other luminaries from ESOMAR, DVL Smith, YouGov, GfK and Brainjuicer are part of the programme, which aims to attract graduates and foster talent into the research industry at an early age.

13/09/12

Today at ESOMAR Congress in Atlanta, Fiona Blades, CEO of MESH Planning and PepsiCo Consumer Strategy and Insights Director, PepsiCo Latam, Brazil will present to the delegates their paper called From Rio to the Rest of the World. In it, they will show how innovative research, such as that conducted by MESH earlier this year for the Gatorade brand in Latin America, is impacting worldwide and what it means for research opportunities in the region.

The paper will be available to download from our website shortly.

11/09/12

New York office opens to service growing demand in US and Latin American regions

6th September 2012, London: MESH Planning the London based real time experience research agency, has bolstered its international presence with the launch of a US office in Manhattan, New York.

The US agency, spearheaded by Nathan Evans, Experience Director, will be supporting the work of the London division, undertaking real-time experience tracking for brands to evaluate marketing and trade investment

The dual-operation will be instrumental in enabling the agency to further expand its client base, while more fully supporting existing clients in the United States, such as Land Rover and LG Electronics USA at a pivotal time for growth opportunities in both North American and LatAm regions. The international expansion follows projects which have been successfully undertaken for global clients across Europe, Asia, LatAm and the US, and will ensure the agency’s business proposition continues to meet the growing demands of clients

Their Real-time Experience Tracker is a pioneering tracking methodology which captures consumer experiences and interactions with brands, wherever and whenever they occur, enabling a comprehensive analysis into the effectiveness of a brand across the entire communications mix

Fiona Blades, CEO of MESH Planning, comments on the expansion: “We’ve always had the intention of operating on a global scale, so I’m thrilled to see the launch of our US offering. With marketing budgets stretched, brands increasingly concerned about return on investment, and the customer journey becoming more complex, Real-time Experience Tracking is really considered as the ultimate method in understanding how people are interacting with a brand. Companies can no longer afford to take anything less than a 360° approach to customer touchpoints if they really want to optimise their marketing activity. At this exciting time of opportunity, particularly in Latin America, we look forward to working with brands and marketers to help them make better business decisions, driving further revenue on both a local and global scale.

The MESH Planning US office officially opens on Monday 17^th September 2012.

06/09/12

Market research is facing a time of change, not because of the failures of the past, but because of the possibilities of the future. “Big Data” is both a blessing and a curse to the research industry, as it gives us the opportunity to gather new and immensely powerful insights, but it also drowns us in a sea of confusion. It is estimated that 90% of current data was created in the last 2 years, and that figure is only going to accelerate. The problem is that there is simply too much data, how do we find the nuggets of insight that we crave?

However, this is a challenge worth fighting. Analysing a person’s data trail can generate new and invaluable insights, without falling foul of any “research effect” from directly asking the participant’s opinion. However, with human interaction removed, it is easy to look at the results of passively captured data, and assume they are the gospel truth. In this paper we see how Cookie Tracking, a popular and well-established method of passive data capture, was shown to not only provide just a small portion of the whole story, but in fact led researchers down the wrong path.

Download the paper here: The Cookie is Still Crumbling…

16/08/12

Do you have 1-2 years experience in market research operations? We will have a role soon which will require a proactive, confident and diligent Ops person to work with our account and operations teams at our Camden Town office. You’ll be needed to help design and build questionnaires and online surveys, manage international projects, advise and consult with our internal and external teams and help us build exciting new products/systems.

If this sounds exciting, please email: meshrecruitment1@meshplanning.com.

Sorry, no agencies. Thanks!

01/08/12

We will be in Philadelphia on 31st May to present our paper on Measuring Advertising Effectiveness at the Wharton Future of Advertising Conference. Shane Baxendale, Experience Analyst from MESH and Dr Emma Macdonald of Cranfield School of Management will be sharing key findings in three sectors collected using our real-time experience tracking approach.

For details of the conference, click here and come back soon to download the paper.

30/05/12

MESH were glad to attend the recent Best of ESOMAR events in Boston and New York. We presented our paper on how our real-time research delivered genuine ROI for BSkyB, who made the bold move to adopt our Experience Tracking methodology for their brand and content  tracking, originally presented in 2011 at ESOMAR Congress in Amsterdam.

MESH will be returning to the next ESOMAR Congress event in Atlanta later in 2012.

24/05/2012

MESH Planning and LG Electronics recently presented at the MRS Shopper Conference in London. Making best use of over 2 years’ worth of Experience data, Doug Loretucci of LG and Nathan Evans of MESH Planning revealed actual changing shopper trends, demonstrating a real shift in the channels shoppers use to engage with retailers. The team explained the nuances amongst different age groups and positions along the path to purchase and played the audience out with a hard hitting video from the LG archives.

We’re really proud of the responses we saw on twitter, with our US client particularly proud of the entertainment factor provided!

@relishresearch LG’s incredible developments in I store commas and tech tools offers interactive consistent engaging education and information. #shoppermrx

@TakeNote2010 #shoppermrx #LG video awesome real insight

@winifredatwell Excellent cheesy American video LG and Mesh #shoppermrx biggest laughs so far

Back in 2010, LG Electronics USA became MESH’s first continuous client at MESH so we were delighted to get the chance to present the work we do alongside them and hope to continue to generate great insight into the shopper experience.

03/05/12

Want to join a small, innovative & rapidly-growing research agency? Here at MESH we are interested in researchers that we can call upon on a freelance basis to service our growth.

We are looking for all levels of experience from 1 year in research up to Research Manager level who would like to join our team on a freelance basis and work with us across a wide variety of clients.

We are always looking for new talent, so if you are interested, we’d love to hear from you. Please send your CV to: recruitment@meshplanning.com

19/04/12

At ESOMAR’s first US Congress in September this year, MESH’s own Fiona Blades, alongside Ana Alvarez of PepsiCo, will present a paper on the challenges and opportunities facing market research companies in Latin America. It’s an exciting time for the Latin American market and we’ve been seeing for ourselves the opportunities there. We hope to see you there!

04/04/12

In this spring’s GRIT report MESH were listed as one of the 50 most innovative companies in market research.  With the list compiled using only spontaneous responses, it is well-deserved recognition for the success of our Experience Tracker, and the string of new products emerging from our Innovation’s department.

A link to the report can be found here.

15/03/12

MESH CEO Fiona Blades features in Research Magazine alongside other industry thoughtleaders to provide their Words To Live By In 2012. See why Fiona chose “System” below…

2012 will be the year when researchers question the focus on the individual in isolation and start considering the system. Co-creation, collaboration, communities and context have all become watchwords in the research world recently. This indicates a trend towards thinking about systems and how they work.

Systems have always been at play, of course, but haven’t had the attention that research will bring to them in 2012. For example, a shopper buying for a household is part of a family system with other influencers affecting decision-making. While ethnographic research would pick this up, most quantitative surveying doesn’t. By focusing purely on the individual we miss important dynamics.

The world wide web, a system in its own right, is transforming the way we can gather information. We can see new connections – people who bought this book also liked these. More dramatically it is bringing people together through social networking. If someone is unhappy with their bank or soft drink, it won’t be long before their expanding network knows about this. Only 10 years ago, this might be shared with four or five close friends and family. Now people’s networks extend into the hundreds or thousands.

From a business perspective clients need agencies (creative, media and research) working together. A research agency advising a client is part of a system that involves other stakeholders. We need to consider this system to ensure our findings are delivered at the right time in the right way to the right people.

Mark Earls, John Kearon of BrainJuicer and more recently Beverly Clarke of System B are three people taking a more system-oriented perspective on the way to find truth from research. In 2012 we’ll see others do the same.

For the full article, click here.

02/01/12

MESH recently took part in a Marketing Week seminar as part of our collaboration with Cranfield School of Management and SAS. Findings from the Pleased To Meet You segmentation were presented to a theatre of senior marketing professionals, with Experience Tracking showcased as the unique research methodology that captured a rich and varied data that formed this breakthrough study.

Read the write up of the event here or download the PDF here.

02/12/11

Alan Mitchell’s piece in Marketing (Oct 5th) on the hype surrounding Word of Mouth was a refreshing read for MESH CEO, Fiona Blades. See her letter in support of his view in the latest edition of Marketing (Oct 19th) explaining how marketers need to remember that ‘context is king when it comes to conversations’.

21/10/11

MESH are proud to be among the contenders for Best Agency at the Research Awards 2011. It joins our shortlisting for Small-Medium Sized Business of the Year at  the National Business Awards 2011.

We’ll find out if we’ve won at the MRS Research Awards Dinner on 12 December at the Lancaster London. For a full list of awards, click here: http://www.researchawards2011.com/finalists

05/10/11

MESH’s paper with BSkyB at the ESOMAR Conference 2011 has left a positive impression. The presentation, made by CEO Fiona Blades and BSkyB’s Marketing Strategy Director, Danny Russell, detailed the fast turnaround ROI provided to BSkyB in adopting Experience Tracking has been cited as a conference highlight on Reineke Reitsma’s blog and is the subject of Robert Bain’s write up on Research Live.

22/09/11

The consumption experience is the most effective touchpoint; a universal truth, but one often forgotten. See our short insight piece for the alcohol category at Cream Global’s blog.

05/09/11

Digital behavior is changing everything from the way we treat animated crows to the way we shop for casual clothes.  Today’s digitally savvy consumers play online games, write blogs, join communities, review products, use webcams, tweets, and navigate life on their mobile devices.  And market research is just now leaning how it can use this lifestyle and these devices to deliver more candid consumer insights.

What does that mean for you? And what are leading companies doing about it?

MESH CEO, Fiona Blades, Ari Popper (Brainjuicer), Kevin Lonnie (KL Communications) and John Williamson (QualVu) are eager to talk about how to get inside the heads of today’s digital consumer on a panel called Deprogramming Dull:  Digitally Reinventing Research.

If you’re a brand marketer, ad agency (digital and traditional), brand consultant, brand strategist, brand and account planner, market researcher, social media pro, content strategist or academic researcher, this panel idea was conceived with you in mind.

So if you want to see the market research industry represented at SXSWi, vote HERE.

HOW TO VOTE:

• To get started, create a FREE PanelPicker account (This is a quick process and you will not be spammed, we promise!).
• After that, go to our panel idea, “Deprogramming Dull:  Digitally Reinventing Research”
• Please give our proposal a “thumbs up” if you like it, and feel free to leave a comment telling the world why you think our panel should get through, or if you know us personally, you can just vouch for how awesome we are.

Help us spread the word by inviting your friends to check out our panel idea on Facebook.

Thanks for your support!

19/08/11

MESH Planning have been shortlisted as a finalist in National Business Awards 2011, for The Santander Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year. A list of all finalists is here.

Winners will be honoured at the National Business Awards gala dinner, organised by UBM plc, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, Tuesday 8th November.

Visit the awards website here.

02/08/11

On July 27^th, we’ll be participating in a webinar hosted by Marketing Week, with our partners at Cranfield and SAS.

MESH’s Experience Tracking data forms the backbone of an exciting and ground-breaking project conducted with Professor Hugh Wilson of Cranfield School of Management and Charles Randall from SAS. The research looks at the consumer’s experience of multichannel marketing. Find out what was discovered, and critically, what the findings mean for the future of sales, marketing, and customer-facing departments.

To download the paper click here: http://www.sasknowledgecentre.com/meetyou1

The webinar kicks off at 3pm on Wednesday July 27^th and is free to attend upon registering here: http://knowledgebank.marketingweek.co.uk/upcoming-webinars/

25/07/11

MESH Planning recently attended the Brand Research Conference 2011 in London, presenting our paper ‘Optimising the journey to brand engagement by understanding how your customers interact with your brand‘ alongside our client Energizer Europe. Click here to download the presentation.

13/06/11

MESH Planning, the award-winning international research agency, has been appointed by Sky to undertake campaign evaluation across all content and brand campaigns.

For more details, click here to download the release.

23/05/11

Our partners at Cranfield’s School of Management outline the real-time benefits of the MESH Experience Tracking approach on the Harvard Business Review blog.

See the article and join the discussion going on via the link below:

The Conversation – Using Mobile Phones to Capture Customer Experiences

09/05/11

MESH Planning CEO, Fiona Blades along with other speakers and delegates talk about what they find useful, interesting and inspiring about the Mobile Research Conference.

02/05/11

In this fascinating tale of the benefits of strong collaborative relationships, hear about the 10 days that shook campaign evaluation. In the fast-moving, action-oriented world of BSkyB, where real-time feedback is critical, mobile technology provided the solution. Discover how a new set of benchmarks was developed to create a rapid response process, which was then used to inform the launch of Sky Atlantic. And benefit from a fresh level of insight into campaign evaluation.

http://www.mobileresearchconference.com/

01/11/10

• The T-Mobile challenge: Tracking brand health doesn’t automatically tell us what to do
• Find out how people are responding to communications through every channel using real-time Experience Tracking via mobile phones
• Technical innovations to evaluate multi-execution campaigns
• Advanced analytics to unpick the impact on brand health

http://www.research-live.com/events/past-events/online-research-methods-27-january-2011/4003696.article

01/11/10

Which media companies are set to burst onto your media schedules and shape the future of the industry? Alex Patten presents Media Week’s ten “ones to watch” – if you haven’t already heard of them, you soon will…

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/bulletin/mediaam/article/1015893/