Reviewing the top tips for 2025

This past year was filled with challenges and triumphs for the market research industry and the world. So, as 2025 revs up, we review the sage advice shared from the global experts featured in ‘Insight250’  Winners Series, from leaders and legends across the market research, consumer insights, and data-driven marketing sectors.

The following is a rundown of top tips from experts who span a spectrum of points, perspectives, companies, and countries. These individuals provide helpful advice to any professional, whether they are just embarking on their career or have extensive expertise. Here is hoping that having this insight organised in this two-part series helps you focus on kicking off a great 2025.

I’ve attempted to split these top tips into themes that reflect different dimensions of professional life. If you want to hear more from any of these innovators and leaders of our profession, you can find all of the interviews on Insight250.com.

I hope you find this as helpful as I did - here’s wishing everyone a fantastic year as 2025 kicks off and don’t forget to submit your Insight250 nominations at Insight250.com.

Don’t Fear Failure

Debrah Harding, Managing Director, Market Research Society

“My advice to any leader or innovator is to embrace failure. I strongly believe you learn more from failing than you do from succeeding – and every failure, big or small, will ultimately help you to improve and succeed in the future.”

Alex Hunt, CEO, Behaviorally

“Too often, data and insights professionals have prided themselves on having the correct answer. Yet, to innovate, you must accept that the methods of the past, even if relationships or business have been built on being right, might have been wrong.”

Innovative Insight

John Sevec, SVP of Client Strategy, mTab

“My top tip for insight and research pros is to cautiously embrace innovation. There is danger in being an early or late adopter of technology advancements. Pouncing early can make you a guinea pig assuming a lot of risk, whereas holding back too long can have you fall way behind.”

Monica Tenorio, Vice President of Insights, Analytics & Marketing Capabilities for Europe, PepsiCo

“You need to have big dreams, everything is possible, and your teams and partners should believe so too.”

Listen Closely

Sheryl Brie, Senior Vice President and Head of Behavioral Qualitative, Behaviorally

“My top tip is for market researchers to continue to listen closely to client needs and to innovate, innovate, innovate. By doing so, we’ll push boundaries and create a future where qualitative research becomes even more impactful for businesses and consumers alike. My vision is for qualitative research to continue blending human intuition with the latest technological advancements to unlock deeper insights into human behavior. I see innovations, such as GLADYS, helping clients reach new heights in understanding not just consumers but people as a whole. We must keep exploring new methods and storytelling techniques that allow us to build more meaningful connections through research.  This is just the beginning!”

Be Authentic

Litthya Baez, US Portfolio Lead Consumer & Shopper Insights, Haleon

“Bring your true self to the role. Be the same person you are when you’re having coffee with a friend. Authenticity and passion are critical qualities that our corporations are hungry to see in us. If we care for the people we serve and want our team to succeed in delighting them, that’s a great start. However, these two objectives are not always aligned. As a result, you have to be the voice of those who can’t be at the meeting with us but are speaking loudly.”

James Endersby, CEO of Opinium

“Be yourself. To be an effective leader you need to show up every single day. That is impossible to do if you’re trying to be someone you’re not. Think hard about what makes you tick, about your authentic self, and bring that all to work. Not only will that be less stressful for you, and you’ll be setting the right example for your teams, but you’ll certainly have more fun, and almost definitely be more effective.”

Curiosity Connects

Sarah Ashley, EMEA Marketing Insights, Google

“My top tip is to stay curious, embrace an experimentation mindset, and never lose sight of the human element behind the data. Wait... that's three.”

Christian Niederauer, Global Head of Insights, Colgate-Palmolive

“Be curious. Curiosity paired with a passion for uncovering new insights, always using cutting-edge approaches are key success factors from my perspective.”

Stephan Gans, Senior Vice President and Chief Consumer Insights & Analytics, PepsiCo

“Always be curious.”

Marco Baldocchi, Neuromarketing Research Director, Italian National Association of Applied Neuroscience

“I believe in the power of curiosity. Curiosity is the key to evolution. Being curious drives you to understand what happens in consumers' minds when they have an experience. We are emotional beings who rationalize our emotions, and our reactions can be both fascinating and surprising. My suggestion, or rather my top tip, is this: be curious. Push yourself beyond the limits of your curiosity, and you will discover amazing answers.”

Be Empathetic

Richard Colwell, CEO of Red C Research & Marketing

“Empathy. With your clients, with your staff, with your suppliers and with your partners. Understand what they are going through and help them to achieve their goals. Understand their pressure points and make it easier, and better for them to complete and deliver quality insights.”

Invest in Yourself

Melanie Courtright, Chief Executive Officer, Insights Association

“Stay highly informed, and really invest in your own skills. Or as my professor used to say, “stay marketable.” Think of yourself as a product – it’s essential to continually invest in the utility of your skills to ensure your own personal product life cycle doesn’t move into decline and eventually sunset. Use changes in the profession as an opportunity to drive your own experimentation and skill development.”

Integrity Counts

Judith Passingham, Chair of ESOMAR’s Professional Standards Committee

“I think there are many characteristics required to be an effective leader in our profession which is challenging in so many ways. The one thing I would highlight is the importance of personal integrity. What we do as an industry relies on trust, in what we do, how we do it. All the leaders that I admire and have admired in our industry have that quality.”

Drive with Data

Vinay Ahuja, Vice President of Analytics and Insights, Proctor & Gamble Europe

“Embrace a data-driven mindset but balance it with creativity and intuition. Collaboration is key—leverage diverse perspectives to generate innovative ideas and solutions Finally, remain consumer-centric in all you do; understanding how to solve specific consumer pain points and empathizing with your customers will always be the cornerstone of impactful consumer insights and analytics."

Lead Fearlessly

Jane Frost, CEO, The Market Research Society

“Leadership is a rare quality. It is emphatically not about management. Good managers can be poor leaders. Leaders develop a diverse ecology in their teams, and they do not need to be the tallest tree in the forest. They do need to care about their purpose and the people around them, and they need to take personal responsibility for outcomes. It can be a lonely place as you must model the behaviours you expect from others. So leaders inspire trust, shouldering responsibility for failure and sharing success. They liberate people around them to be their best.”