Advertising Research

Nurturing vs. Testing: A Research Approach to Foster Great Creative Ideas

The Concept Nursery - a better - more positive - approach to identifying and nurturing advertising ideas.

Read more

Best of Both Worlds: Qualitative Depth with Quantitative Sample Size

What if you had access to a tool that blended qual and quant? What if there were a way to get that rich understanding qualitative research provides and gain confidence in the representative scale provided by quantitative methods?

Read more

Nurturing vs. Testing: A Research Approach to Foster Great Creative Ideas

The Concept Nursery - a better - more positive - approach to identifying and nurturing advertising ideas.

Read more

Focus Group Cost Calculator

Use our calculator to estimate the cost of your focus group study

Read more

5 Epic Approaches That Are Setting Qualitative Market Research on Fire in 2019

It's 18 months since I came across this article in Greenbook heralding a renaissance in qualitative market research. And, having just returned from the QRCA's (Qualitative Research Consultants Association) annual conference in Pho

Read more

Reflections on Semiofest 2017

Semiotics is a well-established market method in Europe but it is North America’s loss that it is considerably less well known on this side of the pond. As a North American practitioner of this invaluable approach, hosting this co

Read more

Better Creative Development Research: A Conversation with Legendary Planner Adrian Langford

At Athena, we’ve been thinking a lot about what needs to be done to make creative development research more valuable, and more able to reflect the latest thinking about how advertising works and how people process information and

Read more

The Experts Weigh in on Advertising Research at ARF Conference

The Advertising Research Foundation is arguably the world’s leading organization for the study of brand communications effectiveness, and its annual conference in New York is a forum for the biggest players in the world of brandin

Read more

Usability Testing: The 7 Key Research Design Decisions

Usability testing is a critical asset for brands. But a successful usability testing study requires some solid upfront thought. Here are the seven key questions that really demand consideration (and decisions!) at the beginning of

Read more

With Metaphor and Canadiana, Cineplex Pulls Viewers' Heart and Purse Strings

Canadians who attended a movie at a Cineplex theatre over the Christmas holidays almost certainly were exposed to “A Balloon For Ben”, a two-minute animated video telling the story of the relationship between a son and a father to

Read more

To Maximize Market Research Impact, You’ve Got To Win Friends and Influence People

Market research can make a communication strategy or campaign sing. Its potential return on investment is enormous. Corporations know this, and that’s partly why so much has been written about getting it right: how to choose the m

Read more

Market Research Lessons from 2016: 5 Things MRX Buyers Need to Know

Buying Market Research in 2017? Here – based on our annual client and research agency survey – are 5 tips to make your 2017 research more efficient, successful, and insightful.

Read more

Notes from Semiofest: The Best Kept Conference Secret in Marketing

I’ve just returned from my favourite conference in the Whole Wide World – Semiofest, the perfect combination of intellectiual stimulation, camaraderie and News You Can Use. Semiofest is a conference dedicated to the celebration of

Read more

The VW Emissions Scandal: Lessons for Marketers

From its earliest days, Volkswagen used narrative innovation as much as product innovation to enter the global car market. In recent years, as competition and the emphasis on quality have increased, VW’s success continued to be bu

Read more

Doing UX Research? Check These 6 Analytics Measures First.

Sometimes people ask whether web analytics can substitute for User Research, and my answer is always a flat “no”. Web analytics can tell us “what” people are doing on your site, but it’s only through UX Research (direct observatio

Read more

The Medication Adherence Challenge: Insights and Strategies From The Field

This past fall I found myself doing back-to-back research projects investigating how to drive greater medication adherence to two separate and quite different medications. While the conditions, patient populations and medical tre

Read more

Video: Understanding The Thinking Aloud Protocol for Website Usability Testing

Curious about website usability testing with the Thinking Aloud Protocol? Check out this video for an exploration what it is, what it’s all about, and how it works. The Thinking Aloud Protocol was developed at IBM in the 1980s,

Read more

Video: Website Usability Testing: A Critical Brand Asset

Check out this video for an exploration of why website usability testing is a critical asset for brands. We review key website usability testing benefits, and how usability testing contributes to competitive differentiation.

Read more

Video: What Is Website Usability?

Check out this video for an exploration of the different ways that website usability has been defined. We conclude with a list of things that constitute usability issues in the context of these definitions. Some of the definitions

Read more

What Spock Would Say About The 2014 QRCA (Qualitative Research) Conference

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Qualitative Research Consultants’ Association’s 2014 conference in New Orleans, which from my perspective was hugely enriching. But, in the spirit of presenting a variety of perspecti

Read more

Must Reads for Marketers: What Brands Need to Know About “The New Domesticity”

In “Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity”, journalist Emily Matchar explores the North American phenomenon of a sort of Nouveau Hippie meets Hipster Fifties Housewife: women (and some men) who are opting out

Read more

Is lack of knowledge castrating advertising research?

Just got back from APG Canada’s provocatively-titled event: “Is research castrating great work?” And, in fact, the event actually provoked us to write our own polemic on advertising research, a subject we feel we have a unique pe

Read more

Focus Group Research Costs Explained

We get a lot of questions about how focus group costs are derived. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be much on the Internet on this subject. So here below is our guide to focus group costs. If you want to get a ballpark sense f

Read more

Brand Communication Diaries - Neutrogena commercial uses humour to sell “Guys’ Guys” on a “Metrosexual” product.

OK, first of all this ad – by Toronto’s DDB – is just pretty darn funny, and deserves to be seen. So that would be reason enough to share it. But the reason it’s so funny is because it cunningly uses a great insight about men’s

Read more

5 Reasons Why Website Usability Testing Can Be Your Brand's Secret Weapon

So few brands are truly committed to supporting the experience their customers and potential customer have on their websites that website usability – and the testing that supports it – is a huge opportunity for many brands. If yo

Read more

Notes from the AQR-QRCA Conference

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the AQR-QRCA’s Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research in one of Europe’s great cities —Budapest, with its fabulous bridges, river views and equally fabulous coffee houses and c

Read more

The Evolving World of Marketing Research: What CMOs Need To Know

If you’ve seen the deluge of articles about how market research is evolving, you know these are exciting times. There is plenty of new thinking and lots of new methodologies, but for research buyers it can feel like they are navig

Read more

Notes from the 2014 Qual360 Conference

I’ve just returned from the Merlien Institute’s Qual360 conference – the first one ever held in North America. As the name suggests, it’s a conference focused exclusively on qualitative research, which, despite advancing technolog

Read more

Are Qualitative Market Researchers Cutting Edge? Actually, Yes.

So, it’s been a little over a week since we got back from a most inspiring trip to the Annual QRCA conference, a week which has allowed some of the most thought-provoking ideas to sink in. We heard MANY great presentations at this

Read more

Better Creative Development Research: A Conversation with Legendary Planner Adrian Langford

At Athena, we’ve been thinking a lot about what needs to be done to make creative development research more valuable, and more able to reflect the latest thinking about how advertising works and how people process information and

Read more

With Metaphor and Canadiana, Cineplex Pulls Viewers' Heart and Purse Strings

Canadians who attended a movie at a Cineplex theatre over the Christmas holidays almost certainly were exposed to “A Balloon For Ben”, a two-minute animated video telling the story of the relationship between a son and a father to

Read more

Is lack of knowledge castrating advertising research?

Just got back from APG Canada’s provocatively-titled event: “Is research castrating great work?” And, in fact, the event actually provoked us to write our own polemic on advertising research, a subject we feel we have a unique pe

Read more

Brand Communication Diaries - Neutrogena commercial uses humour to sell “Guys’ Guys” on a “Metrosexual” product.

OK, first of all this ad – by Toronto’s DDB – is just pretty darn funny, and deserves to be seen. So that would be reason enough to share it. But the reason it’s so funny is because it cunningly uses a great insight about men’s

Read more

Nurturing vs. Testing: A Research Approach to Foster Great Creative Ideas

The Concept Nursery - a better - more positive - approach to identifying and nurturing advertising ideas.

Read more

Better Creative Development Research: A Conversation with Legendary Planner Adrian Langford

At Athena, we’ve been thinking a lot about what needs to be done to make creative development research more valuable, and more able to reflect the latest thinking about how advertising works and how people process information and

Read more

The Experts Weigh in on Advertising Research at ARF Conference

The Advertising Research Foundation is arguably the world’s leading organization for the study of brand communications effectiveness, and its annual conference in New York is a forum for the biggest players in the world of brandin

Read more

To Maximize Market Research Impact, You’ve Got To Win Friends and Influence People

Market research can make a communication strategy or campaign sing. Its potential return on investment is enormous. Corporations know this, and that’s partly why so much has been written about getting it right: how to choose the m

Read more

The Medication Adherence Challenge: Insights and Strategies From The Field

This past fall I found myself doing back-to-back research projects investigating how to drive greater medication adherence to two separate and quite different medications. While the conditions, patient populations and medical tre

Read more

Best of Both Worlds: Qualitative Depth with Quantitative Sample Size

What if you had access to a tool that blended qual and quant? What if there were a way to get that rich understanding qualitative research provides and gain confidence in the representative scale provided by quantitative methods?

Read more

Focus Group Cost Calculator

Use our calculator to estimate the cost of your focus group study

Read more

5 Epic Approaches That Are Setting Qualitative Market Research on Fire in 2019

It's 18 months since I came across this article in Greenbook heralding a renaissance in qualitative market research. And, having just returned from the QRCA's (Qualitative Research Consultants Association) annual conference in Pho

Read more

The Experts Weigh in on Advertising Research at ARF Conference

The Advertising Research Foundation is arguably the world’s leading organization for the study of brand communications effectiveness, and its annual conference in New York is a forum for the biggest players in the world of brandin

Read more

Market Research Lessons from 2016: 5 Things MRX Buyers Need to Know

Buying Market Research in 2017? Here – based on our annual client and research agency survey – are 5 tips to make your 2017 research more efficient, successful, and insightful.

Read more

Doing UX Research? Check These 6 Analytics Measures First.

Sometimes people ask whether web analytics can substitute for User Research, and my answer is always a flat “no”. Web analytics can tell us “what” people are doing on your site, but it’s only through UX Research (direct observatio

Read more

What Spock Would Say About The 2014 QRCA (Qualitative Research) Conference

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Qualitative Research Consultants’ Association’s 2014 conference in New Orleans, which from my perspective was hugely enriching. But, in the spirit of presenting a variety of perspecti

Read more

Is lack of knowledge castrating advertising research?

Just got back from APG Canada’s provocatively-titled event: “Is research castrating great work?” And, in fact, the event actually provoked us to write our own polemic on advertising research, a subject we feel we have a unique pe

Read more

Focus Group Research Costs Explained

We get a lot of questions about how focus group costs are derived. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be much on the Internet on this subject. So here below is our guide to focus group costs. If you want to get a ballpark sense f

Read more

Are Qualitative Market Researchers Cutting Edge? Actually, Yes.

So, it’s been a little over a week since we got back from a most inspiring trip to the Annual QRCA conference, a week which has allowed some of the most thought-provoking ideas to sink in. We heard MANY great presentations at this

Read more

Notes from the 2014 Qual360 Conference

I’ve just returned from the Merlien Institute’s Qual360 conference – the first one ever held in North America. As the name suggests, it’s a conference focused exclusively on qualitative research, which, despite advancing technolog

Read more

The Evolving World of Marketing Research: What CMOs Need To Know

If you’ve seen the deluge of articles about how market research is evolving, you know these are exciting times. There is plenty of new thinking and lots of new methodologies, but for research buyers it can feel like they are navig

Read more

Notes from the AQR-QRCA Conference

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the AQR-QRCA’s Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research in one of Europe’s great cities —Budapest, with its fabulous bridges, river views and equally fabulous coffee houses and c

Read more

Focus Group Research Costs Explained

We get a lot of questions about how focus group costs are derived. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be much on the Internet on this subject. So here below is our guide to focus group costs. If you want to get a ballpark sense f

Read more

Reflections on Semiofest 2017

Semiotics is a well-established market method in Europe but it is North America’s loss that it is considerably less well known on this side of the pond. As a North American practitioner of this invaluable approach, hosting this co

Read more

With Metaphor and Canadiana, Cineplex Pulls Viewers' Heart and Purse Strings

Canadians who attended a movie at a Cineplex theatre over the Christmas holidays almost certainly were exposed to “A Balloon For Ben”, a two-minute animated video telling the story of the relationship between a son and a father to

Read more

Market Research Lessons from 2016: 5 Things MRX Buyers Need to Know

Buying Market Research in 2017? Here – based on our annual client and research agency survey – are 5 tips to make your 2017 research more efficient, successful, and insightful.

Read more

Notes from Semiofest: The Best Kept Conference Secret in Marketing

I’ve just returned from my favourite conference in the Whole Wide World – Semiofest, the perfect combination of intellectiual stimulation, camaraderie and News You Can Use. Semiofest is a conference dedicated to the celebration of

Read more

The VW Emissions Scandal: Lessons for Marketers

From its earliest days, Volkswagen used narrative innovation as much as product innovation to enter the global car market. In recent years, as competition and the emphasis on quality have increased, VW’s success continued to be bu

Read more

The VW Emissions Scandal: Lessons for Marketers

From its earliest days, Volkswagen used narrative innovation as much as product innovation to enter the global car market. In recent years, as competition and the emphasis on quality have increased, VW’s success continued to be bu

Read more

Must Reads for Marketers: What Brands Need to Know About “The New Domesticity”

In “Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity”, journalist Emily Matchar explores the North American phenomenon of a sort of Nouveau Hippie meets Hipster Fifties Housewife: women (and some men) who are opting out

Read more

5 Epic Approaches That Are Setting Qualitative Market Research on Fire in 2019

It's 18 months since I came across this article in Greenbook heralding a renaissance in qualitative market research. And, having just returned from the QRCA's (Qualitative Research Consultants Association) annual conference in Pho

Read more

Market Research Lessons from 2016: 5 Things MRX Buyers Need to Know

Buying Market Research in 2017? Here – based on our annual client and research agency survey – are 5 tips to make your 2017 research more efficient, successful, and insightful.

Read more

Is lack of knowledge castrating advertising research?

Just got back from APG Canada’s provocatively-titled event: “Is research castrating great work?” And, in fact, the event actually provoked us to write our own polemic on advertising research, a subject we feel we have a unique pe

Read more

Are Qualitative Market Researchers Cutting Edge? Actually, Yes.

So, it’s been a little over a week since we got back from a most inspiring trip to the Annual QRCA conference, a week which has allowed some of the most thought-provoking ideas to sink in. We heard MANY great presentations at this

Read more

Notes from the 2014 Qual360 Conference

I’ve just returned from the Merlien Institute’s Qual360 conference – the first one ever held in North America. As the name suggests, it’s a conference focused exclusively on qualitative research, which, despite advancing technolog

Read more

The Evolving World of Marketing Research: What CMOs Need To Know

If you’ve seen the deluge of articles about how market research is evolving, you know these are exciting times. There is plenty of new thinking and lots of new methodologies, but for research buyers it can feel like they are navig

Read more

Notes from the AQR-QRCA Conference

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the AQR-QRCA’s Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research in one of Europe’s great cities —Budapest, with its fabulous bridges, river views and equally fabulous coffee houses and c

Read more

Doing UX Research? Check These 6 Analytics Measures First.

Sometimes people ask whether web analytics can substitute for User Research, and my answer is always a flat “no”. Web analytics can tell us “what” people are doing on your site, but it’s only through UX Research (direct observatio

Read more

Video: Understanding The Thinking Aloud Protocol for Website Usability Testing

Curious about website usability testing with the Thinking Aloud Protocol? Check out this video for an exploration what it is, what it’s all about, and how it works. The Thinking Aloud Protocol was developed at IBM in the 1980s,

Read more

Video: Website Usability Testing: A Critical Brand Asset

Check out this video for an exploration of why website usability testing is a critical asset for brands. We review key website usability testing benefits, and how usability testing contributes to competitive differentiation.

Read more

Video: What Is Website Usability?

Check out this video for an exploration of the different ways that website usability has been defined. We conclude with a list of things that constitute usability issues in the context of these definitions. Some of the definitions

Read more

5 Reasons Why Website Usability Testing Can Be Your Brand's Secret Weapon

So few brands are truly committed to supporting the experience their customers and potential customer have on their websites that website usability – and the testing that supports it – is a huge opportunity for many brands. If yo

Read more

Usability Testing: The 7 Key Research Design Decisions

Usability testing is a critical asset for brands. But a successful usability testing study requires some solid upfront thought. Here are the seven key questions that really demand consideration (and decisions!) at the beginning of

Read more

Market Research Lessons from 2016: 5 Things MRX Buyers Need to Know

Buying Market Research in 2017? Here – based on our annual client and research agency survey – are 5 tips to make your 2017 research more efficient, successful, and insightful.

Read more

Doing UX Research? Check These 6 Analytics Measures First.

Sometimes people ask whether web analytics can substitute for User Research, and my answer is always a flat “no”. Web analytics can tell us “what” people are doing on your site, but it’s only through UX Research (direct observatio

Read more