mindswarms Customer Success Story: Leslie Stone - Ogilvy NYC

In a recent sit-down interview in Brooklyn, Ogilvy NYC’s Director of Strategic

Services, Leslie Stone, shared her thoughts on the current climate of qualitative

research and how mobile video plays a unique role in the culture.

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mindswarms — Background

Background

The purpose of the document is to share key excerpts from the interview that

touch on bigger themes in the field of research.

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mindswarms — Purpose

Purpose

“You have to find a human connection to your audience if you want to elicit a human response.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“I started as a qualitative researcher; I interviewed people in their homes. I worked at Sesame Street, interviewing kids. I interviewed teachers and parents and asked them about topics that made them really uncomfortable, like sex education, and animals dying in the rainforest—kids were crying. You have to find a human connection to your audience if you want to elicit a human response.”

What is the bigger goal of your qual research?

“People now have less consumer insight, yet talk about it more.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“When I started as an ad agency strategic planner, no one used the word ‘insight.’ We just did qualitative research. We talked to people; we found interesting things; and then we had a strategy. I feel like people simultaneously now have less consumer insight, yet talk about it more all the time. They seem to think that if they just Google it, or do an online forum, or read stuff, that they “get it.” But that doesn't work.”

Where is the industry vis-a-vis qual now?

“We have to bring in new people, and quickly get them wrapped around a topic.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“Our creative teams can be working on a number of different things sometimes. It's not this luxuriating pace where it’s the same thing for years and years. We have to bring in new people and quickly get them wrapped around a topic. We work with a whole suite of agencies and our clients have a lot of stakeholders; having visual content is just a really easy way to get people up to speed.”

What’s unique about the ad industry?

“mindswarms is so self-driven. In all other ethnography, the observer is there.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“For me, ‘video selfie’ sums up exactly what mindswarms is. I think on some level, maybe it sums up what makes it unique, because mindswarms is so self-driven. They reveal themselves. I ask a question, but I'm not in the room. With all other ethnography, the observer is still really there. Here, the observer is not there: people hold up their device, and they forget that it's just them, and them alone. They are less guarded as a result.”

How does mindswarms compare to traditional ethnography?

“It's amazing that you can edit stuff so quickly digitally; it’s ridiculous.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“Everything is moving to the cloud, so to be able to be able to watch it, share it, analyze it, download it and then edit with it so easily is aligned well with our pace of work. It’s amazing that you can edit stuff so quickly, digitally; it’s ridiculous.”

How about the process of mobile video?

“Mobile video saves a gigantic amount of operational time.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“One huge benefit is that I don't have the time or resource to go do this myself. It's amazing to go home, come back in the next day and just watch videos. It saves a gigantic amount of operational time. I used to travel all over the place talking to people, and that was fun, but I don't have the time to do that anymore. The real value of mindswarms is that you're seeing people, and it's in their words. And that I get to collaborate with you guys in coming up with really interesting questions.”

What’s a key benefit of mobile video?

“It's a no-brainer for anything in the home.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“Anything in the home could be any consumer good or any food or anything in your closet or shopping. I worked on Gap and Wonderbra back in the day, and we definitely used to go in and look in people's underwear drawers. It was always interesting! <laughs>.”

Where has mindswarms worked well for you?

“For early stage creative, it’s been great. Or to pump up your brief in a pitch.”

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mindswarms — Interview: Leslie Stone, Ogilvy NYC

“Even if you had already had your brief but you just wanted to pump it up with extra insight or give people thoughts to react to, mindswarms is great. Or in the middle of a pitch to show clients people talking about your strategy, it helps to engage them. mindswarms can also be helpful when you're stuck.”

When have you used mindswarms?

If you’re curious about how self-driven mobile video qualitative research could enrich your development process, please contact: research@mindswarms.com.

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mindswarms — Contact Us

mindswarms Contact Information1501 Mariposa Street, Suite 426, San Francisco, CA 94107 — tel. 415 865 0441. research@mindswarms.com