by The changes caused by the pandemic over the past year have made it very challenging for marketers to know how to reach out to consumers. Gabriel Gontijo, Head of Clients Insights at Facebook will explore how consumer behavior can help advertisers plan their campaigns during his session at the MRMW NA 2021 Virtual event next month. We caught up with him recently to learn more about his challenging topic and the impact of COVID-19 on market research and consumer behaviours in general.
Question #1: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?
Gabriel: At Facebook IQ we are focused on understanding with data and insights people’s behaviors that can help marketers optimize how they are having a conversation with their customers. I’m presenting the Topics and Trends Report for 2021, where we have explored conversation topics that gained momentum on Facebook and Instagram, assessing the habits and interests they reflect.
Question #2: Why did you choose the topic of your talk?
Gabriel: We understand it is very challenging for marketers to know how to reach out to consumers as a result of the changes caused by the pandemic over the past year. In this study we are exploring how COVID-19 is affecting individuals and communities. Spanning borders, the pandemic has created common experiences that touch on local cultures in different ways. In many instances, it is accelerating cultural developments that were already underway. We hope marketers will use these to understand the people they serve and to connect meaningfully in the future.
Question #3: What motivates you to join MRMW NA 2021 and what are your expectations?
Gabriel: It excites me to be able to join great presenters and audience to learn and share a bit of the work we have been developing, in the hopes this will inspire others to continue to use data and insights to build strong business decisions.
Question #4: There is a lot of talk about the current state of consumer insights and the impact of technology. How would you sum up the current state of the industry in 1-2 sentences?
Gabriel: We are all going through a new learning phase in most business and social interactions. There are a lot of new behaviors and, particularly for researchers and marketers working with consumer insights, this is a massive opportunity to embrace the change and revisit the concepts they had about industries they work with and understand which behaviors are new, which are being accelerated and which are going away.
Question #5: Looking back on the past months please share your thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the market research and the consumer behaviours in general.
Gabriel: Without giving too much away of what we have seen in the study, in this time, people are prioritizing what matters most, be it community or time spent outdoors. They’re caring for themselves and each other more intentionally and getting crafty with limited resources. Digital media are helping people connect in new ways, accelerating the adoption of nascent technologies in new markets. While the pandemic will eventually pass, many of these trends may prove to be fundamental shifts as people discover new and more authentic ways of being.
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