ESOMAR Connect Bucharest 2024, 10th Edition

Onsite registrations are closed.

ESOMAR Connect 2024 - MARKET RESEARCH IN ROMANIA: THE 10TH EDITION - "PEOPLE AND RESEARCH: FINDING THE MEANING"

SORMA (The Romanian Society of Marketing and Public Opinion Research) and ESOMAR are pleased to invite you to our market research event in Bucharest, Romania, called “ESOMAR Connect”. ESOMAR Connect Romania will be hosted by Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member & SORMA President and by Alina Dinca, ESOMAR Representative for Romania.

The 2024 theme for the event is “People and Research: Finding The Meaning”. 

The ESOMAR Connect 2024 Programme will include speakers representing both MR agencies/companies (international and local/boutique) and end-clients. For the 10th anniversary of ESOMAR Connect, we have chosen a broad and generous theme which will allow the speakers selected in the programme to present the beauty and usefulness of market research. There is considerable criticism surrounding the idea that research stifles creativity, is not actionable, or is sloppily conducted, leading to inappropriate decisions. On the other hand, not enough emphasis is placed on the essential role that market research plays in making meaningful and strategic decisions, smart choices and improving the bottom line of a business.

The programme hosts a dynamic agenda of most important research agencies, as well as important guest & keynote speakers representing our international market research community: 

Julia Brannigan, Associate Research Director, Bulbshare, UK

Jon Puleston, Chief Methodologist, Ipsos, UK

ESOMAR and SORMA members, market research specialists and marketers representing players across industries as well as professors and future market research specialists (today’s students) will be part of the event this year again! The event is an excellent opportunity for you to network with clients and MR industry experts and to hear from our special guests, important names within the global market research industry.

Date: Thursday, November 7th, 2024
Time: 9:00- 17:30 EET
Venue: Hotel Sheraton, Platinum Room Bucharest, 5-7 Calea Dorobanti

Please note that the lectures will be presented in Romanian, with translation services available for English speakers.The ESOMAR Connect 2024 event is a hybrid one, allowing registration for the participation onsite (subject of an entrance fee) and online (livestreaming available, free of charge).

Registration:
ESOMAR Connect 2024 registration is open to clients/research buyers, market research agencies and academic environment for subscriptions fees tailored for each audience. 

This year, the event organiser provides two (2) 100% discount tickets for market research clients/research buyers (regular entry fee for MR buyers is 100 EUR / equivalent of 500 RON) for onsite participation. MR clients/research buyers can send additional participants beyond the free places offered by the organiser, paying the 100 EUR fee (equivalent of 500 RON).

Sponsors have free spots included in the sponsorship package (without speakers/sessions chairs, if the case): Gold & Silver Sponsors (MR Agencies) have six (6) spots, Bronze Sponsors (MR Agencies) have one (1) spot and Media Partners have two (2) spots included.

SORMA Members have one (1) free spot offered.

All market research companies can send participants for a symbolic fee (100 EUR / equivalent of 500 RON per participant), as well as sponsors, beyond the free places offered by the organiser.

The academic environment (students, professors) is welcome to the event. There are twenty (20) spots offered for free. Universities can send participants for a symbolic fee (50 EUR/ equivalent of 250 RON per professor participant and 25 EUR/ equivalent of 125 RON per student participant) beyond the free places offered by the organiser.

The entrance fee applied to clients/research buyers, market research companies and universities (beyond the free places offered) will be collected in Romania via locally established invoicing process, by ESOMAR Connect Romanian Organiser (additional information will be provided to market research agencies and other participants).

The registration fee for participation in the event applies only to onsite registration and applies regardless of whether the registered person participates or cancels participation to the event after October 15, 2024.

Please note there is limited space onsite, to secure your seat at the venue please register immediately here:

For those wishing to join online, please register here:

For queries, please contact ESOMAR Member Relations at member.relations@esomar.org and/ or SORMA at contact@asociatiasorma.ro. 

Programme:
8:30-9:00: PARTICIPANTS REGISTRATION & WELCOME COFFEE

9:00-9:55: INTRODUCTION

09:00-09:10: OPENING AND SETTING UP THE SCENE
Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member | SORMA President

09:10-09:15: About ESOMAR In Romania
Alina Dinca, ESOMAR Representative in Romania

09:15-09:20: Introducing Guest Speaker
Alina Dinca, ESOMAR Representative in Romania

09:20-09:40: Guest Speaker
Using AI to unlock consumer connections
Julia Brannigan, Associate Research Director, Bulbshare, UK

09:40-09:55: 1st Q&A
Guest Speaker answering to questions addressed by audience

09:55-10:40: SESSION A
Researching What Makes Businesses Meaningful in The Long Run: Sustainability

09:55-10:00: Session Chair
Liliana Tincu, Research Excellence Director, iSense Solutions

10:00-10:20: The curious case of metric sustainability becoming more human-centric | PPC bold approach on Sustainability reporting
Lacramioara Loghin, Founder & Managing Director, EXACT Business Solutions
Iustina Neagu, Head of Sustainability, PPC Romania
Adriana Muscalu, Senior Research and Business Consultant, EXACT Business Solutions

10:20-10:40: ESG – What's in a Name?
Cosmin Constantin, Senior Research Consultant, Mercury Research Valentina Vesler, Head of PR & Communication, Valvis Holding

10:40-11:30: COFFEE BREAK

11:30-12:15: SESSION B
Categories: Understanding Relation Between People and Products

11:30-11:35: Session Chair
Catalina Ifrim, Senior Consultant, Kantar Insights

11:35-11:55: FMCG and Tech&Durables Markets in a New Dawn Era: Getting The Full View Was Never Easier
Raluca Manarcescu, Commercial Lead Tech&Durables, NielsenIQ GfK

11:55-12:15: Category Vision Programme, All Under Danone's Healthier Romania Platform
Corina Nache, Strategy and Insight Dairy Lead CEE, Danone
Manuela Mancas, Founder & Managing Director, AHA Moments

12:15-13:30: SESSION C
The ABC of Meaningful Research: Activation, Branding, Communication

12:15-12:20: Session Chair
Adina Iancu, Head of Qual Research, ISRA

12:20-12:40: Beyond the Stage: Cutting-Edge Brand Activations and Touchpoints
Laura Rosca, Qualitative Research Director, iSense Solutions

12:40-13:00: From "So What?" to "So Good!"
Andra Constantinescu, Senior Account Director, Kantar, Insights Division

13:00-13:20: A Short Guide to Taming Humour
Daniel Enescu, Partner, Daedalus Online

13:20-13:30: 10 Years Anniversary: ESOMAR-SORMA events in Romania
1st Prize draw – 5 (five) Awardees
Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member | SORMA President

13:30-14:30: LUNCH BREAK

14:30-15:15: SESSION D
Looking at People Through a Different Lens: a Helpful Perspective

14:30-14:35: Session Chair
Ramona Zamfir-Danciulescu, Marketing Director, Müller Dairy Romania & Bulgaria

14:35-14:55: Romanians and The Rules: That's How We Do It
Liviu Micu, Senior Researcher, DataDiggers

14:55-15:15: The Dreams and Aspirations of Romanian Consumers
Ioana Davitoiu, Head of Quantitative Research, ISRA

15:15-15:45: COFFEE BREAK

15:45-16:25: Introducing ESOMAR-SORMA 180" – Fresh Ideas, New Research Products
Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member | SORMA President
Alina Dinca, ESOMAR Representative in Romania

16:25-16:30: Introducing Keynote Speaker
Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member | SORMA President

16:30 -17:00: Keynote Speaker
Bad data: what can cause it and how to avoid it
Jon Puleston, Chief Methodologist, Ipsos, UK

17:00-17:15: 2nd Q&A
Keynote Speaker, answering to questions addressed by audience

17:15-17:25: 10 Years Anniversary: ESOMAR-SORMA events in Romania- 2nd Prize draw – 5 (five) Awardees
Alina Dinca, ESOMAR Representative in Romania

17:25-17:30: OFFICIAL CLOSING
Alina Serbanica, ESOMAR Council Member | SORMA President

PRESENTATIONS’ ABSTRACTS

Using AI to unlock consumer connections
Julia Brannigan, Associate Research Director, Bulbshare, UK

In an era of unprecedented technological advancement, AI is transforming how brands and researchers connect with consumers.  This presentation will explore the power of AI to uncover deep consumer insights and personalise experiences at scale.  From dynamic data analysis to natural language processing, AI offers market researchers the tools to engage audiences more effectively and adapt strategies in real time.

However, this is a new and unnavigated landscape.  While AI presents remarkable opportunities, there are critical challenges and ethical considerations to be addressed.  As well as looking at how AI can transform what we do, this session will also delve into the potential pitfalls, including data privacy concerns, algorithmic biases and the risk of losing the human touch in consumer engagement.

I will discuss how to strike the right balance – harnessing AI’s potential while maintaining transparency, trust and empathy in consumer interactions.  Let’s explore together the future of market research, where technology and human insight converge to build meaningful and lasting relationships.

The curious case of metric sustainability becoming more human-centric | PPC bold approach on Sustainability reporting
Lacramioara Loghin, Founder & Managing Director, EXACT Business Solutions
Iustina Neagu, Head of Sustainability, PPC Romania
Adriana Muscalu, Senior Research and Business Consultant, EXACT Business Solutions

When complex, multi-layered topics like sustainability meet one of the sharpest forms of our metric society: standardised reporting frameworks, odds are high for things to get messy. Together with the PPC Sustainability team we took it as a challenge, and this is how our half-year story begun: How can we leverage the Sustainability report snapshot and convert it into a more resourceful momentum for (re)connecting and giving voice to our stakeholders? How can we improve and make sustainability reporting more human-centric and relevant for our day-to-day business?

With our multi-stage research design we aimed, on the one hand, to map and properly approach all key stakeholders, internal and external, and, on the other hand, to really understand the people behind the numbers, by finding that sweet spot between the quantification-focused reporting frameworks the companies need to align to and a more human-centred and contextualised understanding of their stakeholders’ experiences. With almost 2000 stakeholders involved in our mix-method study (i.e. desk research, in-depth interviews, focus-groups, CAWI and CATI surveys), it all felt like a chess game: easy and hard moves to take, pieces we gave up to (forced by other players on the board or strategically), moves we learned from, reporting deadline-clock ticking, rules of reporting to comply to, and, foremost, continuous adaptation to the input that came from the field.

ESG – What's in a Name
Cosmin Constantin, Senior Research Consultant, Mercury Research
Valentina Vesler, Head of PR & Communication, Valvis Holding

ESG has become one of the most discussed and trendy topics amongst companies. ESG reporting is becoming mandatory in more and more countries1, ESG-related stock market investments are on an upward trend2, and companies are trying to differentiate themselves from the competition by implementing ESG. Company’s reputation and customer loyalty are touted as benefits of ESG implementation3, but what is the customers perspective on the subject?

We try to answer this question by presenting for the first time Mercury Research's study conducted with partners in 16 countries in Europe, Asia, America on consumers’ views on ESG. The study includes data comparing 2023 to 2024 and was conducted online with a representative sample of respondents in each country. We will show what consumers know about ESG, what attitudes they have towards companies that communicate about ESG, how much more they would pay for products or services from an ESG-involved company, what information about ESG they want from companies. This information helps companies in adapting their ESG communications and prioritising ESG implementations that are relevant to consumers. The consumer perspective will be intertwined with Valvis Holding’s perspective on ESG: The client will present what ESG actions they have undertaken for Valvis Holding's brands and how these have been perceived by customers.

1 Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Directive 2013/34/EU, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, as regards corporate sustainability reporting: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021PC0189
2 PwC Asset and Wealth Management Revolution 2022 report: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022/awm-revolution-2022-report.html
3 Ghid privind raportarea ESG, Aprilie 2022, Bursa de Valori București (Guidelines on ESG reporting, April 2022, Bucharest Stock Exchange):
https://media.hotnews.ro/media_server1/document-2022-04-11-25491201-0-ghid-privind-raportareaesg.pd

FMCG and Tech&Durables Markets in a New Dawn Era: Getting The Full View Was Never Easier
Raluca Manarcescu, Commercial Lead Tech&Durables, NielsenIQ GfK

For the first, we explore the dynamic intersection of Tech & Durables and FMCG Markets, two sectors pivotal to modern consumer lifestyle. In the wake of the pandemic, rising inflation in Eastern Europe, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, these industries face unique challenges and opportunities. This presentation will delve into the transformative impacts on supply chains, consumer behaviour, available purchasing power, while providing insights on sustainable growth in an increasingly volatile global landscape. Discover how businesses can adapt and thrive amidst economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions.

 Following the journey of the consumers from both perspectives, NIQ GfK are now combining firstly how the income of consumers is divided between the two industries: FMCG and Electro-IT (Tech & Durables), secondly with what people SAY and what they DO into a Full View. Consumers are complex and so are their purchase decisions, clicks and orders and now we can see it all: FMCG measurement and Technology and Durables measurement, in a total store package. Combining the two industries, we will understand how budgets have been allocated by consumers in 2024 and what are the correlations between sectors, like Food preparation products and the trends in Food packaged products. By delving into the multifaced impact of recent challenges of these markets, the speaker will provide insights but also chart a course for a resilient and innovative future, addressing both current challenges and emerging trends.

This presentation theme explores also latest insights into the current shopper mindset, focusing this time on consumers from Rural areas, that capture the perspective of 48% of the total Romanian residents living in rural areas, on both industries.

The aim of the presentation is to offer a clear understanding of the impact of current consumers’ preferences and spotlight missing elements of the puzzles in the planning of 2025.

KEY STUDIES included:
✔    Tech & Durables retail audit data analysis, Romanian data
✔    “Rural Romania 2024”, Consumer study
✔    FMCG retail audit data analysis, Romanian data
✔    2024 Purchasing Power Data, GeoMarketing Annual Analysis

Category Vision Programme, All Under Danone's Healthier Romania Platform
Corina Nache, Strategy and Insight Dairy Lead CEE, Danone
Manuela Mancas, Founder & Managing Director, AHA Moments

Danone Romania has put on its strategic agenda a long-term Category Vision Programme aimed to sustain, leverage and develop all its categories, under Healthier Romania mission. The dynamic context of past years (pandemic, war, inflation etc.) has shifted habits across any category and such an ample programme could not have started any other way but with a close view on shoppers’ mindset and practices.

Leveraging a leading position in Romania and a good relationship with retailers, Danone envisaged a research project of a high amplitude, with 8 categories under the magnifier, across 5 channels and 10 different retailers. And AHA Moments was the trusted research partner to design and run the study, opening a close partnership for a project that required 10 months for actual running it.

The study was complex from several perspectives:
✔    The theoretical framework, with the necessity to well link business objectives to shopper thinking and reality; the success here laid in a full view of shoppers’ spectrum, having as core what happens int the store, but going beyond this and investigate the pre-store mindset and the post-store usage.
✔    The logistics amplitude of fieldwork, generated by the high number of categories x retailers, which led to a research programme organised perfectly, as a “Swiss watch”, as retailers were run sequentially and there was no time of redoing and going backward. We summed up 6k hours of work of our fieldwork agents, +8k sample of respondents and over 60k shoppers observed.
✔    The applicability of results, raised to high levels due to close relationship with client’s team, building a storyline for each channel, for each retailer and for each category (with rich insights reports, easy to navigate and ready for top-to-top discussions with retailers).

The study was and still is a success on both Danone and AHA Moments sides. AHA Moments is proud of undertaking such a wide research project, while Danone is confirming that: a) results were very well embraced by all retailers b) many actions were taken and will be taken upon results of this study and 3) that is become a best practice in the region, planned to be replicated in other CEE markets.

Beyond the Stage: Cutting-Edge Brand Activations and Touchpoints
Laura Rosca, Qualitative Research Director, iSense Solutions

The expansion of modern marketing channels offered brands new opportunities to invite consumers to a dialogue tapping on their deepest interests and values. The study will showcase the impact of brand activations across festivals, in elevating consumers experiences enabling them to create an authentic and genuine interaction with the brands.

Furthermore, the research will unveil the core strategies in building a strong relationship between the consumers and the brands, by monitoring and analysing the post- event behaviours across different media channels and touchpoints. The outputs of the study will provide actionable insights, enabling brands to optimise their touchpoints and creative approaches in accordance to the marketing and business KPIs.

Methodological approach: integrated qualitative and quantitative research
Qualitative approach:
✔    Ethnographic research during the entire event.
✔    Co-creation hub comprised of 20 respondents, participants to the event.
✔    Longitudinal analyses of participants behaviour who were previously part of the co-creation hub.

Quantitative approach: 
✔    500 online interviews to assess customer experience and brand impact.
✔    Some of the data presented will be collected from our cutting-edge online panel comprising approximately 1000 individuals who willingly installed a mobile app on their smartphones to track their digital behaviours, forms the foundation of this presentation.

From "So What?" to "So Good!"
Andra Constantinescu, Senior Account Director, Kantar, Insights Division

How do we meaningfully use a structured perspective in order to reliably answer business questions and provide clients with a specific action plan and less hustle in decision-making.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the actionable decisions with a major business impact were the Holy Grail of the research industry. Clients were asking for it, research was seeking it, but everything remained in the stage of expectations. Back then, the projects were difficult to implement and broadly followed one of a few very general directions: they either covered so many indicators, that only a small part was eventually used for strategic decisions; or they informed tactical decisions or looked only in the rear-view mirror. During presentations, we would often hear: „So what?” from the clients, a question that often kept the lights on in our offices until late in the night.

Currently, research brings much more meaningfulness to clients: it can significantly better guide strategic decisions through focused solutions and structured approaches, it can address the needs for agility, it comes with a much higher predictive value and helps optimise business investments. What we set out to do is to show how the structured and validated approach that we have used in our brand studies supports strategic decisions by measuring the predisposition towards the brand, the gap between the level of „demand” vs acquisition, the potential to support an above-average price and its growth potential. 

We will see, together, through real data, how using the landmarks of Meaningfulness, Differentiation and Salience in the minds of consumers in the brand equity study anticipates the growth potential of a brand and guides the next steps that it should take in order to improve performance.

A Short Guide to Taming Humour
Daniel Enescu, Partner, Daedalus Online

It's no secret that humour brings value to marketing communication. In our database of tested ads, those with humour are significantly better rated on average than those without humour.

So why aren't there more humorous ads in marketing? One answer is as simple as it is unintuitive: humour is deceptive. In fact, I could say it's more like a two-faced person, in the truest sense of the word – meaning it has many faces. People do laugh at different things. Moreover, what makes some people laugh can leave others indifferent or even offend them. This makes humour a difficult and even dangerous "animal" to tame if used carelessly. We have divided humour into several categories based on the mechanism that triggers the smile/laughter and the type of humour so that we can better understand which type of humour works best for which type of people.

With an innovative methodology and real stimuli for testing people's reactions, we have managed to tame humour. Based on study data, we have generated a short guide that will help the audience both optimise humour in marketing communication and avoid the pitfalls it sets.

Romanians and The Rules: That's How We Do It
Liviu Micu, Senior Researcher, DataDiggers

Our study aims to see how the Romanians' aspirations for a developed country match their behaviour regarding compliance with rules. We tried to define some of the citizens’ expectations about areas that would lead Romania closer to the ideal country, such as the quality of public services, the infrastructure, and the standard of living.

We put the Romanians' way of dealing with the rules, either written or unwritten, under the magnifying glass to find out if, although we ardently profess the wish to modernise, some deep-rooted customs can hold us back. Thus, we want to identify the possible fractures between certain characteristics of Romanian society and its aspirations toward a brighter future.

We hope our results will also provide a dose of optimism and give us some ideas about what each of us could do to get as close as possible to the society we want. Let’s find out together how we can build a better Romania.

The Dreams and Aspirations of Romanian Consumers
Ioana Davitoiu Head of Quantitative Research, ISRA

Despite being developed and coordinated by people, it is too rarely the case that market research is also about people. A method of gaining competitive advantage through the rich arsenal of possibilities it offers – research often aims to understand consumer behaviour and attitudes. As a result of the imbalance between the multitude of questions we target and the limited interactions with consumers, the need for prioritisation arises, and in the overwhelming majority of cases we end up investigating the consumer and leave the human behind.

The paper presents the current climate of the Romanian consumers with their worries, concerns and aspirations, so that all market insights are better contextualised and understood as part of a whole set of factors. We describe both the current conditions and the aspirations related to education, development, economy, health, security, environment and social belonging, along with other issues.

Starting from the insights of several multi-country quantitative studies and adding local statistics, we will draw a portrait of the Romanian consumer from a perspective that emphasises the person and his feelings, and we will identify potential ways brands and manufacturers can become more relevant in the lives of communities.

Bad data: what can cause it and how to avoid it.
Jon Puleston, Chief Methodologist, Ipsos, UK

This presentation will explore some of causes of bad data in research, based on my experiences of gathering and analysing research data and the big mistakes I have made along the way.

 Bad data can come from bad respondents, bad surveys, bad methodologies and bad analysis, so what should you watch out? What tips can I share on how you can avoid gathering bad data?