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London, March 21, 2024 – DVJ Insights is proud to announce its receipt of the FD Gazelle International award for the second consecutive year in a row. This award honours the most rapidly and consistently growing companies worldwide. To meet the strict requirements for winning the FD Gazelle International Award, a minimum international growth of 25% annually is necessary in combination with being an FD Gazelle winner for the domestic market. For the second year in a row, DVJ Insights was granted this recognition, meeting all criteria. A total of 78 companies were nominated this year and 53 last year for the award, which shows the unique character of these companies. DVJ Insights is a Dutch-based innovative and fast-growing marketing research agency with an international reach. It has a presence in the British, German, Benelux, and Nordic markets. Winning the local FD Gazelle six years in a row, and now the FD Gazelle International twice, makes DVJ a unique company within the market research world. “The ambition to be the best marketing research agency is driving us forward to both local and international success. DVJ’s strategy is focused on becoming better every day. Besides providing our clients with the best possible research, we also want to be the best place to work for all people at DVJ. This remarkable growth in Europe is a direct reflection of that strategy and our team’s hard work,” stated Lucas Hulsebos, CEO and owner of DVJ Insights. “At the core of DVJ Insight’s success are our outstanding people, best-in-class solutions, and a unique approach that incorporates academic thinking into our business strategies. This combination has not only set us apart in market research but has also been crucial in our continued growth and industry leadership. Thanks to our DVJ way of working, a client-centric mindset, and our pure focus on quality, knowledge, and innovation, we can improve our performance every day. During the past seven years, we have expanded from one office in Utrecht (the Netherlands) to London (the UK), Hamburg (Germany),  Helsingborg (Sweden), and Copenhagen (Denmark), and have built long-lasting relationships with top global and local brands,“ explains the CEO of DVJ Insights, Lucas Hulsebos.

Utrecht, October 19th, 2023 , DVJ Insights is, for the 6th consecutive time proclaimed as FD Gazelle 2023, joining a unique group of businesses that have received this prize six times in a row. There are only a few businesses in the marketing research market that show eight years of uninterrupted growth, all by organic growth. The company reveals the key to its success: “It’s the result of the right strategic choices, our passionate employees, and a continuous focus on innovation. Realizing growth in all our markets including the Nordics makes us feel proud of the choices we have made.” DVJ Insights has experienced rapid growth in recent years (100% organic growth & not through acquisitions), which has not gone unnoticed by several awards organisations, including FD Gazelle and FD Gazelle International organised by het Financieel Dagblad, the biggest Dutch financial newspaper. DVJ was able to grow in three years more than 60% meeting the strict criteria of a 20% increase in turnover for each of the three years. Lucas Hulsebos, CEO of DVJ Insights: “For me, growth is the result of the right strategy and choices that we make. Growth is not an objective but a recognition of what we do. This is only possible by having the right people in combination with a good strategy. I am very proud of what we can realize together with our global and top local clients and the impact we create in the market. It is a pleasure to work with such a group of enthusiasts who are willing to help our clients and DVJ grow,” Lucas continues. ” I can speak for everyone at DVJ when I proudly say that the FD Gazelle Awards have become our well-captured autumn tradition. We are driven to improve and grow, which, based on our experiences, is impossible without a focus on innovation.“ Being the best research agency and the best place to work The most important reason for growth is people and that is why we want to create the best place to work. Lucas:“ For me, this means that everyone is happy and creates an impact in innovation and marketing“. Integrating everyone is the core of our marketing and was also recognized by NIMA who awarded DVJ as best marketing company of the year. Our ambition as a company is to become the best in market research. Innovation has become the drive to improve and become better and better each day. Currently, this means integrating AI in all the steps of the research cycle: from method development to actionable deliverables. Our Mass qual approach is a good example; it creates added value to the research project and makes it more fun for a researcher to work on it. This year, the DVJ’s MassQual technique was presented at several industry events across Europe, to spread awareness of the wealth of insightful possibilities provided by innovative approaches. The FD Gazelle 2023 The FD Gazelle Awards are being held for the twentieth time this year, organised by the Financial Dagblad, awarding the top sustainably growing Dutch companies. Criteria include a turnover growth in the previous three years of at least 20%, with a profit at the end of the last year. The actual award ceremony takes place on Thursday 23rd of November at Theater Amsterdam. One thousand and three businesses have qualified to meet the criteria for an FD Gazelle.

Utrecht, October 17th 2024  – DVJ Insights has received the FD Gazelle for the 7th year in a row, meaning 10 years of consecutive growth of at least 20% per year. The award celebrates the fastest growing and most consistently expanding companies in the Netherlands. Remarkable is the consistency of this growth in a market that faces more and more competition from AI, self-generated data and Do it Yourself Solutions. Another finding that stood out is that this growth is completely organic and realized without any acquisition or merger. DVJ is still a fully owned private company. Lucas Hulsebos, owner of DVJ Insights commented on this remarkable achievement by sharing his secret. A company can only grow if the people in the company share the ambition to succeed. The past ten years we had the opportunity to recruit the best people in the market and when you provide these people with the best possible tools, guidance and education success comes automatically. We also believe that the passion of these people makes the difference. For that reason, we have a daily measurement system in place to monitor how happy the company is and what we need to do to improve happiness. The second part of success is the ambition to build relationships that are based upon positivity, added value and commitment. We do not walk away from choosing to stop the co-operation with clients if these elements are missing. If people in the company are not happy, we are not able to accelerate and help our clients to grow. By putting this central in the way we work we have been able to build amazing relationships with our clients that last for many years. Besides people we also share the ambition to continuously improve ourselves. Working and supporting the academic world helps us by finding the best ways to do research. This in combination with continuously monitor the needs from our clients via vision interviews and large-scale studies we know better how to help them to answer their questions and help our clients to grow. That is much easier if you practice what you preach by growing ourselves as well. We consider growth not as the target or the objective, but as the result of a strong and consistent strategy. Winning the first Gazelle in 2018 was already a big achievement, wining it now for the seventh time is truly amazing. A recognition for the hard work of an amazing team and proof that consistency in marketing works. THE FD GAZELLE 2024 The FD Gazelle Awards, organised by Het Financieele Dagblad (the leading financial newspaper in the Netherlands), are being presented for the 21st time this year. To qualify for this prestigious accolade, companies must have demonstrated a minimum turnover growth of 20% over the past three years and closed the final year with a profit. A total of 927 companies in the ‘Large’ category have met these criteria for the FD Gazelle Award. ABOUT DVJ INSIGHTS DVJ Insights  is the marketing research and analytics agency for brand growth. DVJ is a  global company with offices in UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and headquartered in the Netherlands. Besides the growth in the Netherlands we also grew outside of the Netherlands, resulting in 2 FD Gazelles International. The combination of quality, added value, and passion ensure that DVJ Insights helps companies improve communication, build stronger brands, introduce more innovative products and services, and better understand the buying behaviour of people. DVJ Insights is known for its innovative approach and innovation which is the result of intensive cooperation with practice and science and the willingness to listen. For questions and interviews: Lucas Hulsebos, Owner/CEO DVJ Insights +31 643479458 lucas.hulsebos@dvj-insights.com   Other Press questions: Nicole Hagen, Senior Marketing Communication Manager, +31 (0)6 82 05 29 33 nicole.hagen@dvjresearchgroup.com

Research study on attention and brand recall for social reel, social feed and pre-roll advertising Nowadays, many brand managers will admit that one of their biggest challenges is determining how to effectively reach the youngest members of their target audience – i.e., "Millennial" or "Gen-Z" consumers – through advertising campaigns. According to a recent report by the World Advertising Research Center, consumers that fall within one of these demographic groups typically spend the vast majority (60-65%) of their media consumption on online channels. As a result, brands seeking to advertise through video also tend to allocate considerable parts of their advertising efforts to online channels (instead of TV) to be noticed by these younger consumers.

Revisiting Agentic Intelligence in the Age of Execution In April, I wrote about a shift in posture. From reactive AI systems to autonomous ones. From tools that wait to systems that act. That article, Agentic Intelligence , sketched a near future where models would not just respond, but take initiative. It was about architecture, intent, and the structure of action. Now, that shift is no longer theoretical. With the release of ChatGPT Agent, the idea has entered the desktop.

The ''Democratisation'' of Market Research - A Force for Good or a Step Too Far? The process of testing innovative ideas or concepts has become remarkably accessible, so much so that it may seem that virtually anyone can do it. With just a few keystrokes, users can identify an online testing platform, upload stimulus materials, configure a few parameters, and receive results shortly thereafter. This ease of access has undeniably empowered innovation teams, allowing them to work with greater speed and lower transactional costs. However, what was once a streamlined solution for agile development is increasingly showing signs of overuse- and, at times, misuse. In the wrong hands or without due expertise, this democratisation risks eroding research quality, compromising comparability, and resulting in misleading insights or ill-informed decisions.

Blog by Femke Vriend The online video advertising industry is expanding rapidly, with the market valued at $191 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $268 billion by 2029 (Statista, 2024). This growth highlights online video as a crucial advertising medium, offering diverse, creative, and customised strategies. Despite these benefits, a significant challenge persists: ad skipping. Approximately 90% of consumers habitually skip pre-roll video advertisements (MAGNA, 2017). This behaviour leads to lower brand recall, favourability, and purchase intention for businesses. Given these negative effects, addressing ad skipping is crucial for improving ad effectiveness. A potential strategy to reduce ad skipping lies in the use of emotional appeals in advertising. This research dives into the impact of specific complex emotional appeals, admiration and gratitude, on reducing ad skipping, and reveals whether product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) even makes a difference. Unpacking Complex Emotions in Advertising Emotional appeals in advertising aim to connect with viewers on a deeper level. While some studies have explored basic emotions (e.g., joy, surprise, anger or sadness), which occur quickly and are automatic in nature (Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1993), this research focuses on complex emotional appeals. Complex emotions, unlike basic ones, require varying degrees of cognitive effort to interpret (Shiv and Fedorikhin, 1999). Previous research by Campbell et al. (2017) found that advertisements using complex emotional appeals were more effective at reducing pre-roll ad skipping compared to those employing basic emotional appeals. Their study explored emotions such as exhilaration, entertainment, humour, nostalgia, relaxation, shock, and warmth, finding that humour, entertainment, and warmth significantly reduced ad skipping. To further build on this, this study investigated two additional complex emotional appeals: admiration and gratitude. These emotions are particularly relevant because of their self-conscious nature, meaning they involve heightened self-awareness (Edy and Ashgarie, 2024; Homan and Hosack, 2019; Immordino-Yang and Sylvan, 2010). As self-conscious emotions, they are more cognitively demanding than basic emotions, making them especially pertinent in the context of ad skipping (Bi et al., 2022; Izard et al., 1999; Japutra et al., 2022; Lewis, 1993; Manalu et al., 2022; Tracy and Robins, 2004). Admiration is defined as a positively valenced emotion triggered by recognising excellence in others, often motivating emulation (Onu et al., 2016). Gratitude is an attribution-dependent state that occurs when an individual recognises they have benefited from another’s intentional actions (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). By expanding the range of complex emotional appeals examined, this research provides a more comprehensive understanding of how complex emotions can influence ad skipping. Data Collection This study employed an archival research approach, utilising a unique dataset. The dataset comprised survey-based evaluations of 216 pre-roll video advertisements, collected from over 17,000 individual responses across seven countries: Czechia, Germany, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The advertisements spanned 22 distinct product categories and 96 unique product types. To ensure internal validity and focus on the relevant emotional input, advertisements containing only written communication were excluded, as spoken communication elicits stronger emotional responses (Berger et al., 2022). This resulted in a subset of 150 ads with spoken dialogue. Furthermore, since prior research identifies the first five seconds before skipping is possible as a key decision point (Campbell et al., 2017; Jeon et al., 2024), the analysis focused on the spoken content within this initial five-second window. This led to a final sample of 135 pre-roll video advertisements, with 10,596 individual responses. Respondents were recruited via online research panels using stratified sampling and quota controls to ensure representative subgroup distributions. Data collection involved in-context exposure to digital advertising within simulated web environments. Pre-roll video ads were shown before video content and were non-skippable for the first five seconds, after which participants could skip. System-level tracking recorded viewing duration, providing behavioural exposure metrics. Ad skipping was operationalised as a binary behavioural measure: 0 if the respondent watched the full advertisement, and 1 if they skipped it at any point after the initial five seconds. This individual-level binary measure avoids the limitations of aggregated measures, such as the ecological fallacy (Pollet et al., 2015), and allows for controlling individual-level factors like age and gender. To quantify the presence of admiration and gratitude, state-of-the-art tools for transcription, transcription review, translation, and emotion classification were applied to the spoken content. In the figure below, you can see an overview of the complex emotional appeals extraction process. Figure 1. Overview of the emotional appeals extraction process. Key Findings The analysis delivered some clear takeaways for advertisers. Our data revealed significant effects for both admiration and gratitude: ads that successfully evoked  admiration  and  gratitude  each lowered the probability of viewers skipping the ad. What does this tell us? Complex emotions like admiration and gratitude increase a viewer's cognitive load. When people are more deeply absorbed in what they're watching, they have fewer mental resources available to notice or act on the skip button. This also means they're less likely to realise they're being persuaded, making them less inclined to resist the ad. Essentially, admiration and gratitude engage viewers just enough to hold their attention without overwhelming them, making ad skipping less likely. What's also interesting? The study found that product type (whether it's a fun, hedonic item or a practical, utilitarian one) did not significantly change how effective admiration and gratitude were in reducing ad skipping. This means these powerful emotional appeals work across the board for both hedonic and utilitarian products. It's possible that even everyday utilitarian products can be presented with a touch of emotion in advertising, blurring those strict lines for viewers. Managerial Implications These findings offer clear, actionable guidance for managers diving into digital campaign development. Given that ad skipping directly harms brand recall, favourability, and purchase intention, reducing this behaviour is crucial.   Firstly, admiration and gratitude could be integrated   into pre-roll video ads. Our results strongly suggest that weaving these emotions into the spoken content can significantly reduce ad skipping. For instance, you could verbally express gratitude by thanking your audience or acknowledging customer support. Similarly, highlighting achievements, values, or excellence can evoke admiration. Another key takeaway is the   universal effectiveness across product types. The positive effects of admiration and gratitude are consistent for both hedonic (pleasure-focused) and utilitarian (practical) products. This broad applicability means you can confidently prioritise these complex emotional appeals across your entire campaign portfolio, from luxury items and entertainment to everyday appliances and financial services. This strategic insight equips you with a powerful tool to design more effective pre-roll video advertisements that resonate widely. By strategically using complex emotional appeals like admiration and gratitude, advertisers can significantly boost viewer engagement and enhance the overall effectiveness of their digital advertising campaigns in today's highly competitive online video landscape. References Berger, J., Rocklage, M. D., Packard, G., Cotte, J., & Moore, S. G. (2022). Expression Modalities: How Speaking Versus Writing Shapes Word of Mouth.  Journal of Consumer Research, 49 (3), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab076   Bi, X. Y., Ma, X., & Tao, Y. (2022). The consistency of the influence of pride and shame on cognitive flexibility: Evidence from ERP.  Neuroscience, 487 , 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.12.021   Campbell, M. C., Thompson, F. M., Grimm, P. E., & Robson, K. (2017). Understanding Why Consumers Don’t Skip Pre-Roll Video Ads.  Journal of Advertising, 46 (3), 411–423.  Edy, D. F., & Ashgarie, R. I. A. (2024). The Role of Gratitude and Forgiveness Toward Self-awareness in Emerging Adulthood.  KnE Social Sciences , 232-244. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v9i30.17522   Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions.  Cognition and Emotion, 6 (3-4), 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939208411068   Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (2), 377–389. Homan, K., & Hosack, L. (2019). Gratitude and the self: Amplifying the good within.  Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29 (7), 874–886. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2019.1630345 Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Sylvan, L. (2010). Admiration for virtue: Neuroscientific perspectives on a motivating emotion.  Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35 (2), 110–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2010.03.003   Izard, C. E., Ackerman, B. P., & Schultz, D. (1999). Independent emotions and consciousness: Self-consciousness and dependent emotions. In J. A. Singer & P. Salovey (Eds.),  At play in the fields of consciousness: Essays in honor of Jerome L. Singer  (pp. 83–102). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Izard, C. E. (1993). Four systems for emotion activation: cognitive and noncognitive processes.  Psychological Review, 100 (1), 68–90. Jeon, Y. A., Ryoo, Y., & Yoon, H. J. (2024). Increasing the Efficacy of Emotional Appeal Ads on Online Video-Watching Platforms: The Effects of Goals and Emotional Approach Tendency on Ad-Skipping Behavior.  Journal of Advertising ,  53 (1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2022.2073299 Lewis, M. (1993). Self-conscious emotions: Embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions  (pp. 563-594). The Guilford Press. MAGNA. (2017). Turbo charging, your skippable pre-roll campaign. [PowerPoint slides]. 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Advertising has always been an industry driven by human creativity. But anyone paying attention to the marketing landscape recently has seen a major shift: artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way we approach creative work. At Cannes Lions, the industry-wide conversation was clear: AI isn't just the latest buzz, but a transformative force reshaping the advertising process. And with tech companies such as Google, Meta and TikTok having increasing presence at the event, the question on everyone’s mind was whether we are moving from a creative industry to a purely tech industry.

When we talk about successful marketing strategies, price management often sits in the background, rarely discussed with the intensity it deserves. Yet pricing is arguably the most powerful and immediate lever in the marketer’s toolkit. Set it too high, and customers walk away. Set it too low, and you erode profitability and limit your ability to reinvest in growth. Despite this, pricing tends to receive significantly less attention than other marketing activities. It's time to change that.

Why “Illusion of thinking” makes a great clickbait title, but a poor reading of the evidence. The Headline Hype: How a Stress-Test Became a Doom-Post Most headlines follow the same tone: “AI reasoning fatally flawed,” “Apple exposes the illusion of intelligence.” These headlines reference Apple’s recent paper, The Illusion of Thinking, but rarely do they engage with the paper’s actual content. So what did the paper actually test? It benchmarked models on a narrow class of symbolic puzzles: Tower of Hanoi, Blocks World, River Crossing, and Checkers. These puzzles were chosen because they offer objective ways to check correctness. Even so, the authors make clear that this represents only a narrow slice of reasoning. It is not intended as a comprehensive evaluation of intelligence.

Blog by Xiongkai Tan – PhD student at the University of Groningen Creativity Crisis Research indicates that the impact of advertising is declining over time (Sethuraman et al. 2011). This trend, thought to be due to diminishing creativity in advertising, is concerning for advertisers. In recent years, the creativity of ads has been overshadowed by technology-driven trends. This shift has led advertisers to prioritise metrics such as click-through rates and immediate sales results, pushing brands to focus on “what works” and over-optimize the same ad formats (Roach 2019). Ads cannot stand out due to high ad clutter and low distinctiveness (Ha 2017). At the same time, brands also face a trade-off between distinctiveness and consistency, as straying too far can confuse consumers or dilute brand identity.