With January coming to an end, 1/12 of the “New Year” is already nearly over. Still, we find ourselves inspired by the spirit of motivation and creation that often comes with the changing of years. What challenges and opportunities are we particularly looking forward to at eye square? In an interview with the market research portal planung&analyse, our CEO Michael Schießl hints at what 2019 may bring:

1) Which topics have you been the most concerned with in 2018?

In 2018, we strengthened and internationalized our range of research services in the field of brand exposure, using our Live Receptivity platform and the InContext approach. This approach is relevant both in the digital sphere (advertising, eCommerce, websites) as well as in classical media channels (TV, print and OOH). Our focus was on the investigation of user behavior and the impact of advertising in individualized social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat. We also worked on further automation of our tools and services, technology licensing in the US market, the opening of new offices in New York and Hong Kong, and expansion into the US and Chinese markets.

2) What do you have planned for 2019?

In the coming year, we aim to strengthen our team of experts and to continue striving towards sustainable economic growth while maintaining focus on our implicit toolset and methodological development. In particular, we would like to expand the InContext technology and further enhance online measurement methods for mobile devices alongside our desktop solutions. Ultimately, human beings remain the heart of our research focus as we continue working towards deepening our understanding of their needs in the increasingly digitized world. In 2019, eye square plans to enhance its research on the acceptance of new technologies, that is, human-machine interaction, including the acceptance and adoption of autonomous vehicles or service robots.

3) When you think about the challenges of the industry, what gives you a headache?

Price competition and automation in the market research industry lead to new approaches, which sometimes require methodological discussion. Further, quality assurance and staying competitive as a consultancy will remain two important and challenging topics.

4) Which challenges and opportunities are you particularly looking forward to?

We are especially looking forward to increasing internationalization. It is very exciting to see what questions our US, Indian and Chinese clients are coming to us with, as all three markets are so advanced in terms of digitalization. On the one hand, there is India’s and China’s enormous economic growth, which drives our Western clients’ need to understand the motivations, hopes, longings and fears of Chinese and Indian consumers. On the other hand, in the US we are directly serving a market that is already highly developed, where automated testing capabilities are of particular necessity to have a decisive competitive edge in terms of client service and communication.

For the original interview with planung&analyse in German, please click here.