How to champion the customer and drive business impact
For insights leaders and customer activists, we’re at a moment of accelerated change and opportunity – and moving beyond transactional relationships to uncover the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ is more critical than ever.
Watch the on-demand sessions from this year’s Better Why Conference and Awards, check out the 2022 winners and enter to win in 2023!
Keynote
Brand Building with a Better Why
Darren ‘Daz’ McColl, Chief Marketing Officer at Neiman Marcus Group and bestselling author, sits down with Chris Nurko, Chief Innovation Officer at C Space and Interbrand Group, to discuss what it takes to create and activate a true customer strategy. Daz will share his customer-focused approach to brand transformation, as well as the impact his work has had within his organization.
There’s sometimes an over interest in measuring versus understanding… what I’m striving for in this organization is to continually get that balance right.”
Daz McColl, CMO, Neiman Marcus Group
Darren ‘Daz’ McColl
Chief Marketing Officer, Neiman Marcus Group
Chris Nurko
Chief Innovation Officer, C Space and Interbrand Group
Panel
Inclusive Storytelling
Hear from Dayna Carney, Founder & Executive Director, Development & Production at Dayna’s House, Adrianne Smith, Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard, Marianne Waite, Director of Inclusive Design at Interbrand Group, Thomas Han, Executive Vice President, Head of Integrated Planning, at BBDO Worldwide and Kisha Payton, Global Chief Diversity Officer at C Space, about how and why we need to bring diverse voices and perspectives together to drive increased relevance and connection. They will share real-life examples of getting inclusive storytelling right, as well as the risks for companies who don’t embrace increased representation of audiences and the breadth of our lived experiences.
Ultimately, what we want to know in storytelling is how true is this story, and you can only get to the truth if you’re having real conversations with real people who have had that experience and are knowledgeable about the situation.”
Adrianne Smith, SVP, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, FleishmanHillard
Dayna Carney
Founder & Executive Director, Development & Production, Dayna’s House
Adrianne Smith
SVP, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, FleishmanHillard
Marianne Waite
Director of Inclusive Design, Interbrand Group
Thomas Han
EVP, Head of Integrated Planning, BBDO Worldwide
Kisha Payton
Global Chief Diversity Officer, C Space
Welcome
Are You Ready for the Relationship Economy?
In today’s world, no longer is it enough to simply meet your customer’s functional needs. For brands to remain relevant and competitive into the future, they must develop ongoing, authentic relationships with their customers. Relationships built on human connection that evolve and respond as quickly as customer needs and expectations.
C Space’s Global Chief Executive Officer, Jessica DeVlieger, explains how brands can thrive in this new Relationship Economy — and why this is an exciting time to be in insights!
Interested in learning more about implementing a winning Customer Strategy? Here’s a powerful method for measuring the strength of your customer relationships and understanding the human emotions behind them.
Jessica DeVlieger
Global CEO, C Space
In the future is the relationship economy, where customers and employees will pick brands that they feel are invested in them, where there is a commitment to shared success.”
Jessica DeVlieger, Global CEO, C Space
The 2022 Better Why Impact Award Winners
Celebrating the teams who are transforming customer insight into strategic advantage
The results are IN. We’re excited to share this year’s Better Why Impact award winners: Global Hotel Alliance, Google, Liberty Global, Otsuka and our Better Why Champion: BET Networks.
A host of prestigious judges, from brands including the McDonald’s, Mars, Logitech and Super, selected the winners based on their ability to generate insights that change the world of business, transforming customer insight into strategic advantage. Each of these brands know their customers are the most important asset they have, and have elevated the role of the insights departments through business and market impact.
Learn more about the incredible stories behind their award winning work below.
AWARD WON
FUTURE-BACK AWARD
Staying ahead of the customer
For a program that has used foresight to get ahead of changing customer expectation and has led to impact on business or customer outcomes
Award won: FUTURE-BACK AWARD
Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) created a new rewards program by interviewing millennials to combat changing customer expectations in a competitive market. Their new loyalty program has proven to be effective and has led to measurable success with increased enrollment, doubled cross-brand revenue, increased reward redemption +59% YOY and lengthened redemption stays and spend, and a 17x bottom-line ROI vs the previous program.
One of the judges said, “The way GHA approached this was fabulous, with an ideation contest and cross-industry interviews with millennials… the effect of this work to understand the customer has lead to measurable improvements across the business model.”
AWARD WON
AGILITY IN INSIGHTS AWARD
Working at the speed of the customer
For an insights program that flexed with rapidly changing customer needs to enable rapid decision making aligned to customer outcomes
Award won: AGILITY AWARD
AWARD WON
INSIGHTS INCLUSIVITY AWARD
Leading Change for Better Business
For an insights program that has had a measurable impact on either organizational (internal) or customer (external) inclusivity practices
Award won: INCLUSIVITY AWARD
Liberty Global helped ensure that customers in the United Kingdom with disabilities and other barriers to access were able to take part in accessing entertainment, connectivity and smart home technology.
As the award winners said, “There is a strong belief that if we create products that are inclusive by design, we will create experiences that benefit everybody.”
AWARD WON
CUSTOMER-RELATIONSHIP AWARD
Do you truly ‘get’ your customer?
For a project or program that combines insight and relationship design to drive a customer-centric outcome
Award won: CUSTOMER-RELATIONSHIP AWARD
Otsuka set out to better serve patients with mental health conditions. By working closely with doctors and patients and taking a patient-first approach, they were able to uncover what patients felt were their top unmet needs and work them into a system that would help decrease barriers to adherence.
As one of the judges said, “Their team faced a huge challenge of leveraging digital solutions to inform the care and treatment of mental health conditions in a highly regulated environment.”
AWARD WON
BEST-OF BETTER WHY IMPACT AWARD
Championing the customer as a true disruptive force for business
For an organization in which growth can be directly attributed to insights, customer experience or customer relationship design programs
Award won: THE BETTER WHY CHAMPION AWARD
BET Networks worked to create a news platform that represented Black America — and one that could become a trusted news outlet that speaks to diverse experiences within the country. The team’s research busted myths about Black news consumption and led to the creation of a newsmagazine show that reaches viewers of varying ages in collaboration with CBS.
As the award winner said, “This award means so much to me. I am very honored, not just as me as a person, but me as a Black woman and a Black researcher. I feel like oftentimes, in many spaces, but specifically in research, we are underrepresented. So, to be able to accept this award on behalf of BET and represent our organization… I hope it inspires other Black women to enter the research field.”
Thank You to Our Judges
Mike Joiner
Director, US Marketing DEI Strategy, McDonald’s
Katie Kaylor
Global CMI Foresight, Mars
Vicky Nef
Global Director of Consumer Insights, Logitech
Rose Wong
Staff UX Research Manager, Super
Marianna Eyzerovich
Discovery Researcher, Innovation & Customer Insights, Logitech
Danielle Paris
US Menu Strategy, Culinary Innovation, McDonald’s
THE 2023 BETTER WHY IMPACT AWARDS
Enter to Win in 2023!
We’re now collecting nominations for The 2023 Better Why Impact Awards. Check out the award categories and enter the form below to submit your work and pre-register for The 2023 Better Why Conference.
Award Categories
FUTURE-BACK AWARD
Staying ahead of the customer
For a program that has used foresight to get ahead of changing customer expectation and has led to impact on business or customer outcomes
AGILITY IN INSIGHTS AWARD
Working at the speed of the customer
For an insights program that flexed with rapidly changing customer needs to enable rapid decision making aligned to customer outcomes
INSIGHTS INCLUSIVITY AWARD
Leading Change for Better Business
For an insights program that has had a measurable impact on either organizational (internal) or customer (external) inclusivity practices
CUSTOMER-RELATIONSHIP AWARD
Do you truly ‘get’ your customer?
For a project or program that combines insight and relationship design to drive a customer-centric outcome
THE BETTER IMPACT AWARD
Championing the customer as a true disruptive force for business
For an organization in which growth can be directly attributed to insights, customer experience or customer relationship design programs.
Submit to Win
NEW FOR 2022
The future of insights co-creation session
In addition to shining a spotlight on your insights contributions with The Better Why Awards, a select group of award finalists had the opportunity to join a co-creation session with peers in one of two destinations, New York and London.
At the co-creation session, we focused on developing strategies that remove barriers commonly faced by insights professionals and brainstormed solutions to drive the industry forward.
Given the meeting’s diverse representation across industries and functions, it was encouraging to hear the ways we are collectively working together to drive the industry forward.
The Better Why Report
Hear from over 100 insights leaders on how to grasp the opportunity of this inflection point.
With recommendations for success, this report will leave you with inspiration about how to:
- Structure the strategic and the tactical
- Work more effectively with agency partners
- Design your projects with purpose and at speed
- Translate customer needs into business imperatives
The Better Why
Generate breakthrough insights and drive impact
A conference for insights leader
2022
2021
