The pandemic: risk or renaissance for the insights sector?
To those who didn’t get the memo, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that adapting to digital methods is key to thriving in today’s market research and insights sector.
According to ESOMAR’s annual Global Market Research Report (GMR), the industry grew an enviable 8% in 2019. The trend towards greater use of technology was already apparent back then, with 11.5% growth for tech-enabled research compared to 4.3% growth for more traditional research methods.
When the lockdown first hit in March 2020, it prevented face-to-face research and forced people to work from home. Many researchers were very pessimistic as projects were cancelled or put on hold. ESOMAR’s Insights in times of COVID-19 study published last May predicted the US$89.9 billion industry would shrink by up to 22% due to widespread uncertainty.