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Gemini 3 and the Move From Curation to Connection In recent weeks, Gemini 3 has sparked a quiet but meaningful shift in how we think about artificial intelligence. The conversation is no longer focused only on scale or multimodality, or benchmark performance. It is increasingly centred on something more subtle: the emergence of models that behave less like pattern recognisers and more like systems that can genuinely reason.

The Clear Sight

London, 4 December 2025 – DVJ Insights has won the MRS Award for best Media Research, recognising its pioneering work in redefining how retail media is understood and optimised. In partnership with Cyreen and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the study not only showed that in-store advertising drives sales but also revealed a powerful creative multiplier, showing that creative quality is the deciding factor in retail media effectiveness. Retail media is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels in the world, yet uncertainty around how to best use the channel has long held brands back. DVJ’s award-winning research helped close this gap through an innovative combination of individual-level exposure tracking and large-scale creative effectiveness testing. Leveraging Cyreen’s innovative C.A.P. technology, where smart in-store screens detect nearby shopping carts and link delivered ads to anonymised receipt data, we were able to directly connect in-store exposure to actual sales. By evaluating creative quality across more than 50 campaigns, we revealed the true multiplier effect of strong creative in driving in-store impact. The results were conclusive: exposure to digital in-store advertising increased sales by +8.1% on average, with significantly stronger effects for new products and well-known brands. But the most striking finding was the creative multiplier. Top-performing ads delivered a +265% higher sales uplift than weaker creatives, proving that creativity is the single biggest driver of return on retail media investment. Jori van de Spijker, Global Head of Brand & Communication , comments, “Winning the MRS Media Research Award is a great recognition of the work we and our partners have done to bring real clarity to retail media. For years, advertisers have invested heavily in this channel without truly understanding what drives its impact. Our research shows, with real behavioural data, that retail media works and that creative quality is the biggest driver of success. I’m proud of the impact it is already creating for brands around the world.” Marieke van Echtelt, Global Managing Director, adds: “This recognition reflects the strength of DVJ as a global organisation. We have built teams across markets who combine academic thinking, commercial understanding and an ambition to make research genuinely useful. Wins like this show what happens when those teams work together with a shared focus on quality and impact. I’m incredibly proud of how our people bring that mindset to clients every day, and of the culture that allows us to keep innovating while staying true to our values.” DVJ’s work transforms retail media from a black box into a strategic, measurable, and creative powerhouse. The findings have already influenced major advertisers. Brands have shifted creative strategies and increased retail media investment based on the results, supported by clear guidelines on what drives attention, memory and purchase behaviour in store. About the MRS Awards The Market Research Society (MRS) is the world's leading authority for the research, insight, marketing science and data analytics sectors. The MRS Awards celebrate the most outstanding work in research, insight and analytics. The awards recognise projects that set new standards for quality, innovation and commercial impact, highlighting the organisations and teams that push the industry forward. Winning an MRS Award is considered one of the highest honours in the research community.

Utrecht, 26 November 2025 - DVJ Insights has once again been recognised as one of the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands, winning the FD Gazelle Award for the 8th consecutive year. This recognition follows DVJ’s inclusion by the Financial Times and Statista as one of Europe’s Long-Term Growth Champions 2026, proving that the company’s success is not just a moment in time, but a sustained and strategic journey. DVJ has been able to realise a consistent annual growth for over a decade. The growth has been completely organic without the help of investors or other financial companies. This is a unique performance because the total market for market research is not growing. DVJ has proven that a clear strategy, passionate people and continuous innovation form the foundation for long-term success. By studying growth for more than 10 years via its academic partners in Europe and interviewing marketing professionals on a continuous basis, DVJ has developed a deeper understanding of growth than anyone else. That is why the company has grown, and that is also why it can advise its clients better on how to organise for growth. In 2026, the 10 th  edition of DVJ’s annual Brand Growth Event will take place, celebrating the learnings of the past 10 years. “Growth has never been our goal in itself,” says Lucas Hulsebos, CEO and owner of DVJ Insights. “It’s the result of doing the right things for a long time; building a company where quality, curiosity, and people come first. We grow because we understand growth ourselves, and that’s how we also help our clients grow. That will always remain our focus. I am proud that a Dutch company outperforms the global market with continuous growth while staying completely independent.” “Consistent growth is possible even in a challenging market when you stay close to your values,” adds Marieke van Echtelt, Managing Director at DVJ Insights. “We grow because we constantly innovate, because we listen, and because we care about our people and the brands we work with. That’s what makes us different.” About FD Gazelle 2025 The FD Gazelle Awards, organised annually by Het Financieele Dagblad, recognise the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands. To qualify as an FD Gazelle, companies must demonstrate consistent revenue growth over a period of at least three years, be financially healthy, and grow organically rather than through acquisitions alone. The awards highlight organisations that combine strategic vision, operational excellence, and sustainable business performance. Being named an FD Gazelle is considered one of the most prestigious acknowledgements of long-term growth and entrepreneurship in the Dutch business landscape.

Humans learn slowly. We spend years studying, specialising, and narrowing our field of vision until we can say we truly know something. A good physicist often knows little about law, and a great lawyer rarely writes code. This limitation shapes how we think about intelligence. We divide people into generalists and specialists because our minds are bounded. There is only so much we can hold and process. When artificial intelligence arrived, we extended this same mental map to machines.We spoke about AI models for medicine, AI for law, AI for finance. We assumed that specialisation was a sign of progress, that if humans become experts by focusing, machines must do the same. The logic felt intuitive: garbage in, garbage out. If we fed the right data, we would get the right expertise.

Through DVJ’s Brand Growth platform, we interview over 2,000 marketers across 12 markets in Europe and the US every year. These conversations offer a fascinating pulse check on the marketing mindset. Over the years, one theme has stood out: caution. We’re seeing more and more emphasis on immediate returns, tighter efficiency targets, and a steadfast belief in consistency above all else.