The Evolving Economics of Global Research: A 2025 Perspective
In this article from Esomar’s Global Prices Study 2025, industry expert and sounding board member Hana Huntova discusses the fees for professional researchers and their implications for the insights industry.
Professional Rates: Rising Faster Than Inflation?
A key insight is the sharp rise in professional researchers’ nominal rates, especially at mid and senior levels. Senior researchers now command a median daily rate of $850 and an hourly rate of $106, with mid-level professionals also seeing robust growth. Junior roles, however, have only modest gains. This hints at a “barbell” effect—strong demand and value at senior expertise levels, balanced by slower growth and pressures on junior roles, likely due to automation and freelance dynamics. Despite recent rate increases, some remain below pre-2018 peaks, reflecting inflation’s uneven impact and long-term market adjustments. I’ve seen clients increasingly skip the entry-level tranche altogether—opting instead for independent seasoned practitioners who can both design and interpret complex studies on day one. That shift often means that agencies must reconfigure junior roles, folding them into apprenticeship models or project pods, rather than standalone hires.
This transition creates concerning implications for industry attractiveness to young professionals— we risk creating a talent pipeline crisis where we struggle to recruit and retain early-career professionals. More tangibly, I believe this shift is driving fundamental changes in our pricing models. As automation reduces time requirements but increases the premium for strategic insight, we're moving away from traditional hourly billing toward project-based and value-based pricing. The talent shortage is pushing rates up significantly in specialised areas, forcing agencies to reconsider service delivery and potentially price out smaller clients who traditionally relied on junior-level support.
Regional Disparities and the European Challenge
North America and Latin America report higher nominal rates, while Europe trails behind. At first glance, this is surprising, given Europe’s wealth of expertise and advanced methodologies. However, it is important to note that North America’s data accounts for just two countries, whereas Europe’s median is based on contributions from more than a hundred agencies across a very diverse region. This structural diversity likely explains some of the differences in rates, though it still raises the question of whether Europe’s research capabilities are fully recognised in global pricing.
Many clients still rely on panel-based studies and established tools, which can slow down investment in bespoke analytics or AI-driven approaches. It often takes a successful proof-of-concept to build confidence in such new methods. In these moments, market researchers demonstrate their ability to compete with consultancies and data specialists, bringing analytical rigour and a deep understanding of consumer behaviour. The challenge is not a lack of talent within our industry, but rather the need to more clearly articulate the value we deliver to clients who are increasingly willing to pay premium rates for exceptional insights.
What Lies Ahead: The Ultimate Recipe for Success
The future belongs to hybrid experts who treat AI fluency and automation not as threats but as creative collaborators. Insight professionals must master the art of prompting, transforming generative models into extensions of their own curiosity. Beyond that, they should be fluent in the full tech stack—tools for data collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualisation—so that they become data producers rather than mere data collectors. Predictive models will drive initial hypotheses, but seasoned business acumen and a broad market outlook are essential to interpret those forecasts, weave in client-specific context, and deliver insights that resonate and inspire action.
Equally important is cultivating a learning mindset: continuous upskilling in emerging platforms, hands-on experimentation with new methodologies, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing should be as natural as drafting a survey. Professionals who embrace lifelong learning will not only keep pace with rapid technological change but also shape the evolution of the industry—ensuring that human ingenuity, guided by sophisticated tools, remains at the heart of every breakthrough.
Esomar’s Global Prices Study is a biannual study that delves into the prices of market research projects across the globe. Download the report to benchmark your prices against the global, regional and country-level median prices.
Currently a Marketing & Media Coach, Hana Huntová has worked in marketing and communication since 1994. She has held various positions in advertising agencies in the Czech Republic and abroad, including MindShare and Saatchi & Saatchi, followed by working in marketing and communications functions in Unilever.
In 2007, she established an independent coaching and training company, whose clients have included Unilever, Czech Television, Millward Brown, Union of Publishers, Google, and others. A graduate of the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague, Huntova is an active member of the Czech Association of Advertisers. She was one of the judges of the European Effie in Berlin in 2002 and has been the judge of the Czech Effie for the past 6 years.
