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In the latest episode of Kantar’s Future Proof podcast, Dr. Nicki Morley, Head of Behavioural Science and Innovation Expertise at Kantar UK, sits down with Barbara Schandl, Head of Insight at Mondelez Snack Futures Ventures, to delve into the dynamic world of venture initiatives. As two self-proclaimed 'Curiosity champions', they dive into the benefits of these programs and what valuable insights Barbara has brought back to Mondelez's core business.   Barbara also shares her top tips for successful innovation based on her Ventures journey. Plus, they explore the power of test and learn processes, one of the fundamental concepts introduced in Kantar's latest Innovator's Advantage guide. Tune in to this engaging conversation to discover how a curious mindset can drive innovation and growth.

Join Dr. Nicki Morley as she sits down with Shafik Saba, Global Lead for Front-End Innovation at Haleon, to discuss the power of innovation in driving growth. Shafik shares his philosophy on innovation through design thinking, brand centricity, and building from strong foundations.  Discover the key to sustainable growth through innovation isn’t all about ideation and learn why loving your job, investing in people and having a clear brief are the first things you must do unlock new thinking.

2023 will be challenging as marketers navigate tough economic conditions, but it also presents a world of new opportunities. In this episode of Future Proof podcast, Jane Ostler, EVP Global Thought Leadership at Kantar, talks to Mastercard’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar about what he’s most excited about in 2023, including his view and prospects for Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Web3, as well as the importance of innovation in creativity.

What does 2023 hold for media adspend? Jane Ostler talks to GroupM’s new guru of market prediction, Kate Scott-Dawkins, to get her views on where the global ad market is going. Together they explore the reality of what a soft-landing for the global economy will mean for overall ad spend as well as individual channels.   Kate explains that while digital may appear to be to be struggling, it is in fact simply decelerating after unprecedented growth during the pandemic and remains one of the fastest-growing channels. More concerning for many brands is the challenge of delivering reach in 2023, which is becoming trickier as linear TV continues to decline in most markets.   Finally, Jane and Kate discuss whether spend on new opportunities such as retail media, user generated content and influencers, gaming and the metaverse is going to scale rapidly.

We all know that great ads win awards but do they drive bottom line for the business that pays for them? In this episode of Future Proof, Jane Ostler talks to Amy Rodgers at WARC and Duncan Southgate from Kantar about new research into the complex relationship between creativity and profit. In particular, with many marketers being pushed to consider greater focus on performance marketing, she asks whether brand marketers can make an economic case for being bigger and bolder with their messaging in 2023. Amy and Duncan explain how WARC case study data on campaign ROI has been combined with Kantar’s Link ad quality scores to identify just how much short and long-term creative quality attributes drive profitability.

Jerry Daykin explains why inclusive marketing is, simply, better marketing. Jerry Daykin, Head of Global Media at Beam Suntory and WFA Diversity Ambassador, has recently written Inclusive Marketing, a practical guide to embedding true representation across the marketing process. In this episode, he talks to Valeria Piaggio, Global Head of DEI at Kantar, about how marketers need to think beyond their comfort zones and find different voices who can deliver competitive advantage and connect their brands with new customers.  Valeria and Jerry discuss how research can help brands create more inclusive campaigns and explore the idea that inclusive marketing is simply better marketing.

Ed Vaizey has been part of the UK’s cultural leadership for more than a decade, as a UK Government Minister, a member of the House of Lords, a director at the Tate, and now with his own show on Times Radio. Today he talks to Jane Ostler, EVP of Thought Leadership at Kantar, about pandemic TV viewing, the future of radio and TV, and how data is used. In particular, he explains how cultural institutions such as the Tate can use technology, data and content to build communities of interest that could provide substantial revenues. Finally, he explains why our hybrid broadcasting system – streamed content plus live broadcasting – on both radio and TV, is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Menopause is an increasingly hot topic as brands, politicians, celebrities, and influencers are driving the conversation to the top of the agenda. We have invited Lesley Salem, Founder of Over The Bloody Moon, a leading menopause support provider, to frankly discuss about our research into symptoms, the menopause in the corporate space and how brands should look at the menopause with insights from our study Redefining the Menopause launched earlier this year. Lesley joins Jane Ostler to discuss the opportunities for brands in this space, how they can better understand the audience through insights and ultimately innovate and communicate sensitively and authentically – avoiding criticisms of “wellness washing”.

With prominent ad agencies advising their clients to pause advertising on Twitter, we talk with Nick Primola, Group EVP of the Association of National Advertisers, about brand risk, credibility and how advertisers perceive the recent decisions taken by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk.  In this new episode Jane Ostler, EVP of Global Thought Leadership at Kantar, asks Nick what the social media platform can do to win back CMOs' trust, what are the big issues concerning advertisers right now, and how CMOs are now choosing the digital platforms where they will be present in the future.

Sander Bosch from Heineken explains the role of attention measurement in planning and evaluating communications effectiveness. There has been a rise in interest around attention in the last few years. Our latest Media Reactions study reveals the majority of marketers believe that attention influences both creative and media effectiveness. Will it soon become a media currency? In this episode of Future Proof, Sander Bosch, Global Head of Brand & Communication Insights at Heineken, joins Kantar’s Duncan Southgate to talk about multimedia planning, attention elasticity and attention metrics. With Sander we discuss how marketers are using attention measurement to drive performance, and explore the latest techniques to both measure and predict attention.

Ad pre-testing plays a central role in campaign effectiveness, making sure the ad creates an emotional connection, builds the brand, and meets sales objectives. But with media budgets shifting to digital, should brands simply rely on in-flight campaign optimisation to drive performance? In this episode, Duncan Southgate, Creative & Media Solutions Director at Kantar, talks with Robin Langford, Editor at Performance Marketing World and Leonie Gates-Sumner, Head of Creative, Kantar UK about ad testing, in-flight optimisation, the role of Artificial Intelligence, and how the performance marketing landscape will evolve into 2023 and beyond.

What happens when marketing academics disagree? How do marketing academics look at brand theories and how does that resonate between marketing practitioners? In this episode, Jane Ostler, EVP of Global Thought Leadership at Kantar talks with Felipe Thomaz, associate professor of marketing at Saïd Business School, about trust, lies and evidence in marketing. Together with Graham Staplehurst, Thought Leadership director at Kantar BrandZ, they dig into the concepts of complexity, dynamism and differentiation and how they are seen by the world of academia and between marketing practitioners who must deal with decisions on a day-to-day basis.  

In 2022 Aldi bounced back into the Global Top 100 Brands, having increased its value by 20% to $21bn. Aldi had the most effective UK Christmas ad last year and in is one of six brands to be nominated for Marketing Week’s UK brand of the year. Aldi is on the verge of taking over from Morrisons as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket, it’s growth being far ahead of everyone else in a category that saw all but Tesco lose their share of wallet in the 12 weeks to July 10. Effective communications is one of the key pillars underpinning Aldi’s growth in the UK. In this podcast Jamie Peate, McCann’s UK head of Effectiveness and MWGs Global Head of Retail Strategy, talks about how McCann Manchester and Aldi have a shared effectiveness culture and ways of working that leads to the creation of entertaining and distinctive brand centric communications that solve business challenges and play a key role in propelling Aldi’s growth.

Staying profitable is more important in inflationary times. We discuss how to achieve this with Marketing professor, Mark Ritson Since he was a junior professor, Mark Ritson had one goal: to break through the narrow readership circles of academia and be read by everyone in the marketing industry. A goal he’s doubtlessly surpassed having won multiple awards for his column in Marketing Week. With every piece he strikes a chord with marketers, makes them think, but equally, he polarises the industry.  

Stephan Gans joins us to talk about Insights Transformation and how Consumer Insights can best organize to drive business value. Stephan Gans is the SVP, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer at PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest and best-known FMCG companies. He’s been in the business of understanding and predicting consumer behaviour for some time and leads the ongoing transformation of his function at PepsiCo. Stephan join’s Kantar’s Mark Visser and Professor Andrew Stephen to discuss the future of Insights organisations and the need for re-imagining the Insights function in these disruptive times.

Graham Page is a Global Managing Director at Affectiva and leads Affectiva’s Media Analytics business, which is focused on the application of Emotion AI technology to content, media testing, and customer experiences. Together with Kantar’s Vera Sidlova, Global Director, Creative at Kantar - join Jane Ostler to discuss the issues with sustainability in advertising and why brands often get it wrong. What is the context of sustainability advertising today? What do people expect from brands in the space? And why do advertiser get this wrong and in turn get banned in the process?

Belinda J Smith is CEO of Americas at m/SIX, as well as the Global Diversity Ambassador for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Belinda is also a diversity activist and has led media and advertising in various organisations throughout her career. She joins Valeria Piaggio to discuss the issue of diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry, following the publication of the first Global DEI Census from the WFA. Why was a survey like this needed, and why does it matter? What are the key themes from the results? What can agencies do differently, both internally and in the content they produce? And what are the barriers to true inclusion?

Patrick Collister is non-exec Creative Director at Ad-Lib, and Editor of Directory Magazine. He is also one of the few people to have had serious Creative Director roles in adland (Ogilvy) as well as in digital organisations (Google). So what has changed over the course of his career? Why do people keep harking back to the good old days – and what has happened to the funny ad? Jane and Patrick talk about the importance of format, the definition of advertising ‘craft’, the emergence of new platforms, and the demise of the ‘big idea’. They discuss how creative and effective advertising (and the role of CMO) may look in the future… and whether any of the big UK Christmas ads this year hit the mark.

Shell’s purpose is to "power progress together with more and cleaner energy solutions." But how did that come about? What were the challenges for global VP of the Shell brand, Dean Aragón? How is the purpose embedded in the organisation? Dean shares his advice for establishing a purpose that doesn’t just become a side project, and how you can ensure success through people, partnerships and the personal touch. Learn how UN Sustainable Development Goals feed into the purpose and strategy at Shell, and the specific actions they are taking to bring their purpose to life.

In Kantar’s recent Media Reactions study, it was revealed that ecommerce giant Mercado Libre is one of the most effective places to advertise in Latin America: it was seen as delivering the most ‘relevant and useful’ ads of all media brands in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. What is the marketplace doing to help advertisers, and still satisfy consumers? Juan tells Jane Ostler and Alex Connock about smart targeting, the Direct Integration with Kantar for more effective measurement, the results of Brand Lift studies, and the opportunities they have in the Latin American market. They also discuss how ecommerce ads work with other channels, the importance of being present through the entire customer journey, the ad formats that work best, and the application of new technology – such as AI and machine learning – to help scale and optimise advertising.