DVJ’s perspective on cooperating with academia

Lisette Kruizinga-de Vries

At DVJ Insights we have a passion for growth and research. Therefore, we focus on the D, V, and J in research, which stands for Data Quality, Value Added, and Joy. We strive for quality in each part of the research process; the processes themselves, the questionnaire, reporting, a consultancy. We strive towards continuous improvement of our products and services. Second, we also add value for our clients; how do we translate data into actionable insights? Finally, we all work with passion and joy in what we do.

Fulfilling this promise can only be done when listening carefully. To our clients, the broader market, the consumer and the academic world. In a previous blog we focused on our cooperation with students, in this blog we explain our broader cooperation with and how we listen to academia.

Academic advisory board

By listening to academia, we can learn a lot. The academic world plays an important role in the development of new research solutions, the validation of (new) techniques and the increasingly intelligent analysis of data. To collaborate with academia we, first of all, have our own academic advisory board. The board consists of professors from the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and France.

More specifically, we have Prof. Henrik Sattler from the University of Hamburg, Prof. Caroline Wiertz of Bayes Business School in London, Prof. Peter Ebbes from HEC Paris, and Prof. Bijmolt from the University of Groningen. They all have their own expertise and background, which we can utilise to rubber stamp and further improve our methods, cooperate in research, and create knowledge. We meet up at least twice a year to discuss any current affairs, ask for advice on any questions we have, and update each other on important topics in practice and academia.

Sponsoring and cooperating with PhD students

What is often a challenge in academic marketing research, is the access to high quality, relevant and real-life data. However, we have abundant data that we are willing to share. For PhD students, this is great as they can work with ‘real’ data, get the opportunity to work on ‘real’ problems for either us or our clients, and we in return get the opportunity to learn, have our methods validated, and publish together on new insights. Therefore, it is a win-win for everyone and a great opportunity to bridge the gap between science and academia.

Starting from September 2019, Hidde Smit, supervised by Prof. Bijmolt and Prof. Gijsenberg from the University of Groningen, started working on a fully financed PhD position by DVJ Insights. Tammo Bijmolt, Professor University of Groningen: “With this partnership, we are better able to use what is happening in the business. We look forward to working with subjects that are relevant outside of the university and provide practice with valuable insights and inspiration.” His PhD research focuses on the ‘Effectiveness of media within the new media context’. More specifically, it is split up into two research projects, one focuses on how to plan media investments regarding the amount spent, timing, always-on or always-off, and the channel, to grow brands and sales. The other project focuses on how the creativity of TV ads affects brands and sales.

Then, in September 2023, Veronica Burbulea, supervised by the same Professors, started her PhD on the effectiveness of outdoor or out-of-home (OOH) ads. Interestingly, even though OOH ads have a wide reach and are relatively less costly than other types of ads, relatively little is known about their effectiveness. Veronica’s research focuses on the content – what is on the ad – and the context – where the ad is placed – of OOH ads and how these elements jointly impact consumer responses to an ad.

Finally, we also cooperate with other PhD students from different universities, like the University of Hamburg or the Technical University of Munich with the provision of data.

Based on these cooperations academics get valuable data and insights on what is going on in practice, whereas we obtain valuable insights that strengthen our knowledge on our domains.

Presenting at the EMAC conference

In May 2024, DVJ Insights hosted a special session at the EMAC Conference, chaired by Lisette Kruizinga – de Vries, entitled “New Developments in Advertising Research: Insights from Ad Content, Context, Media Types, and Planning”. The European Marketing Academy is the largest European network of marketing academics and has over 1000 members from more than 50 countries worldwide (https://www.emac-online.org/about-emac). At the annual EMAC conference, most of these members come together to learn, share knowledge, and connect. Hence, this is the must-be event, if you want to make a difference in academic research. Hence, therefore it is striking that we, as practitioners, get the time to speak at the conference.

During the special session, Lisette shared insights from DVJ Insights’ own meta-analyses, related to advertising research. Prof. Gijsenberg presented findings from the PhD research of Hidde Smit and Veronica presented her own research as well. Evert de Haan, presented work from Kai Tan, who is also a PhD student from the University of Groningen, that focuses on the development of advertising creativity and consistency over time, which has been claimed to have decreased over the years, and how these link to sales.

Academic round tables

In 2023 we organised our first academic round table. During this round table prof. Gijsenberg from the University of Groningen, presented important findings from his own and other academic studies on the effectiveness of advertising. It was a very inspiring and highly insightful session for a select amount of our clients. In addition, also for Prof. Gijsenberg, it was a unique opportunity to get in contact with and discuss advertising issues with practitioners.

Round table with Prof. Gijsenberg in June 2023

We will plan academic round tables more often in the future on topics that are relevant to our clients.

Cooperating with academia is a win-win!

To conclude, we cooperate a lot with academia and each year we strengthen and intensify our cooperation. It has several advantages and is certainly a win-win situation for both academia and practice. Namely:

• We fuel academic research by providing relevant data and topics that are relevant for practice,
• We gain top-notch and up-to-date academic knowledge on different topics,
• We are able to write interesting content pieces about the findings,
• We generate knowledge and thus learn from it,
• It enables us to validate our research methods and analyses,
• It helps us think about things from a different perspective which fosters innovation.

And, this list is definitely not exhaustive and can be extended every time. We believe it is very beneficial for us and directly adds to our Data Quality, Value Added, and Joy, which enables us again to deliver more and more relevant insights to our (potential) clients.