Highlights from
ESOMAR Congress
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Ipsos at ESOMAR Congress 2026
Highlights from Valencia
Explore the highlights
From 1 to 4 September, the global insights community gathered in Valencia to discuss the future of our industry.
Across Ipsos' keynote presentations, award-winning work, and conversations with clients and partners, one theme stood out: while AI is transforming how we generate information, true value comes from transforming information into understanding.
By bringing together cutting-edge technology and deep human expertise, Ipsos helps clients move beyond surface-level information to uncover what truly matters, enabling smarter decisions and greater impact.
Navigating the metamorphosis of insights
CEO keynote
Shaping research in the restless decade
Exploring the future of insights
Thought-provoking sessions
Celebrating impactful research
ESOMAR Award
Creating valuable exchanges and new connections
Ipsos booth
Insights that move the world forward
Innovation in action
How leading brands are combining multimodal
AI, smart labels, and AI agents to reveal deeper consumer truths, inform innovation decisions, and unlock triple-digit growth.
The award-winning study, Oral Care as Social Currency: Cultural and Sensory Insight from Brazil’s Access Consumers, highlighted the power of human-centered research to improve understanding of underserved consumers.
Celebrating excellence
How synthetic data can transform insight generation by delivering faster, scalable consumer perspectives, while relying on scientific modeling, rigorous validation, strong governance, and human expertise to ensure trusted outcomes.
Synthetic data: From promise to practice
Insights that make a real difference
ESOMAR award-winning study, Oral Care as Social Currency: Cultural and Sensory Insight from Brazil’s Access Consumers, recognized the power of deep consumer understanding. Through digital diaries, in-home interviews, and ethnographic immersions, the research uncovered how daily realities, cultural norms, and access barriers shape oral health behaviors.
The award highlights the strength of Ipsos and Haleon’s partnership, bringing together global and local expertise to generate meaningful, human-centered insights for underserved consumers.
Research in the restless decade
Catch up on key highlights
Explore perspectives from global insights leaders and Ipsos experts on the trends, innovations, and opportunities reshaping the future of insights.
From AI and synthetic data to new ways of understanding consumers, discover ideas and applications that help organizations make more confident decisions.
Explore our ESOMAR thought leadership
Watch more videos
The New Moments of Truth
Championing the Evolving Consumer Journey
Stay in the loop to stay ahead
Cracking the Africa Code
08
Digital Twins: From Promise to Practice
07
Talk to My Twin
06
Beyond Defence: How Advocacy Can Build Markets, Trust, and Opportunity
05
Smart Labels, Real Homes, True Usage
04
Decoding the Gold Standard
03
When AI Sees but Doesn't Understand
02
Research in the restless decade
01
At a glance
Why organizations need a new generation of insight capabilities to navigate complexity and make better decisions in an increasingly fragmented world.
Join us this November as we unpack key insights and emerging themes from ESOMAR, exploring how brands can navigate an increasingly complex consumer journey.
From AI-assisted shopping and digital twins to retail and in-home behavior, discover how emerging technologies and human-centered research can work together to uncover deeper truths and drive better decisions.
Stay tuned for registration details.
Kim Larsen, BHT Service Line Leader, Ipsos in South Africa
Catherine Burton, Global Equity Lead for Brand Health Tracking, Ipsos
Rhulani Baloyi, Senior Manager of Brand Insights, MTN Group
What drives brand growth in Africa? Drawing on Ipsos’ Brand Value Creator database, the session explored how functional excellence and emotional connection work together to build stronger brands, with practical recommendations for unlocking sustainable growth across African markets.
The functional path to emotional excellence
Cracking the Africa Code
Kelly Beaver,
Chief Executive Officer, Ipsos
In unpredictable and unprecedented times, understanding people requires a new approach. Kelly Beaver explored the new rules for success in our restless decade and the vital role researchers can play in helping organisations navigate uncertainty, distinguish signal from noise and make sense of an increasingly complex world.
Research in the restless decade
Jon Puleston (Ipsos); David Priestley (Ipsos); Maciek Ozorowski (Ipsos); Davide Baldo (Ipsos)
authors
David Priestley, Head of Product, Synthetic Data, Ipsos
Maciek Ozorowski, Head of Synthetic Data, Ipsos
Can AI Digital Twins reliably simulate real consumers? Drawing on the Ipsos-Stanford experiment, this session explored where LLM-based simulations can deliver value, where their limitations remain, and what is needed to build calibrated and trustworthy Digital Twins for commercial research.
An exploration of the capabilities of Digital Twin & LLM generated insights for commercial research
Digital Twins: From Promise to Practice
Christine Antoine Simonet (Danone);
Mathilde Guinaudeau (Ipsos bva); Benoit Hubert (Ipsos bva)
authors
Benoit Hubert,
Chief Data Science Officer, Ipsos bva (France)
Mathilde Guinaudeau,
Head of Data Analytics, Social & Search Intelligence and Platforms, Ipsos bva (France)
Christine Antoine Simonet, Global Strategic Insights Director, Danone
Synthetic data is transforming market research — but how can it be used responsibly and effectively? Through an interactive discussion involving AI-generated Digital Twins, the session explored scalability, governance, synthetic data and the evolving role of human expertise.
When Human and Synthetic Intelligences Debate the future of insights
Talk to My Twin
Rupert Van Hullen,
Global Chief Privacy Officer, Ipsos
Ravinder Roopra
CPO/DPO, Head of Privacy, Data, Cyber and AI Law, Kantar
Kim Smouter,
Director General at Esomar Chair, Professional Standards Committee, ESOMAR
Moving beyond advocacy as a response to regulatory threats, this session explored how the insights industry can proactively build trust, support proportionate regulation and help create the conditions in which research and data-driven decision-making can thrive.
Beyond Defence: How Advocacy Can Build Markets, Trust, and Opportunity
Nirmit Behal (Unilever); Karolina Dobrzyńska (Unilever);
Bert Nijhuis (Unilever); JinHo Cho (Ipsos); Richard Trenam (Ipsos); Nikolai Reynolds (Ipsos)
authors
Richard Trenam, Innovation Director, Ipsos in the UK
Nirmit Behal, Consumer Insights Manager, Unilever
How do people really use products at home? Combining smart labels, passive observation and AI-driven analysis, Ipsos and Unilever explored the gap between what consumers say they do and
their actual behaviour — opening the way to more accurate product evaluation and better
innovation decisions.
Closing the say-do gap in product testing with passive observations
Smart Labels, Real Homes, True Usage
Gustavo Castro (Ambev (ABI Group); Marcela Ayres (Ipsos); Fernanda Wajchenberg (Ipsos); Tiago Fernandes (Ipsos)
authors
Marcela Ayres, Account Director, Ipsos in Brazil
Gustavo Castro, Strategy & Insights Director, Ambev (ABI Group)
Ipsos and Ambev showed how combining human insights and AI helped transform Stella Artois’ low-gluten beer in Brazil from a niche proposition into a broader wellness success. The new positioning contributed to a significant uplift in brand performance, including a 150% increase in sales.
How AB InBev and Ipsos decoded the wellness mainstream
Decoding the Gold Standard
Patrick Young (PRS IN VIVO Ipsos); Olivier Blanchet (PRS IN VIVO Ipsos)
authors
Olivier Blanchet
Chief Executive Officer of PRS IN VIVO, Ipsos
Patrick Young
Managing Director,
PRS IN VIVO, Ipsos in the UK
Drawing on more than 50 FMCG packaging tests, this research compared AI-powered attention modelling with human eye-tracking. The findings showed where AI can add value — but also why
human validation remains critical when attention is shaped by cognition, brand familiarity and shopping intent.
Evidence from 50+ parallel tests of AI vs. human eye-tracking
When AI Sees but Doesn't Understand
Three shifts shaping the future
As organizations navigate an increasingly dynamic world, interconnected themes emerged at ESOMAR Congress, around how they explore possibilities, understand people, and make decisions with confidence.
From measurement to possibility
Organizations are increasingly looking beyond validation to exploration, using new capabilities to better understand the opportunities, choices, and futures ahead.
Technology may expand what is possible, but meaningful progress continues to be rooted in a rich understanding of people, their needs, motivations, and lived experiences.
A deeper understanding of people
Further Reading
Transforming product development with multimodal AI
Is there depth and empathy with digital twins?
Further Reading
How to build trust in the AI era
Further Reading
In a rapidly changing world, trusted insight, human expertise, and connected thinking are becoming essential to move from uncertainty to confident action.
Building confidence in decisions
How are global leaders navigating the metamorphosis of the insights industry?
Frank Brézout Humans and Brands Intelligence Director, L'Oréal
Discover ESOMAR voices
Nirmit Behal Consumer Insights for Homecare, Unilever
Asking better questions is only the beginning.
Some of the richest insights and strongest decisions emerge when organizations bring together what people say, what they do, and what they experience, creating a more complete understanding of the people they serve.
AI is everywhere. As a result, many organizations are finding that value comes not only from generating answers, but also from the quality of the questions they ask.
As AI becomes ubiquitous, the opportunity lies in combining transparent AI, trusted data, and connected ecosystems to make smarter decisions at scale.
Richard Trenam Innovation Director, Ipsos
In an increasingly dynamic environment, rapid understanding is only part of the equation.
Organizations are increasingly looking beyond technology to trusted guidance that helps them navigate uncertainty, adapt with agility, and turn insight into impact.
Eleni Nicholas Chief Client Officer, Ipsos
Adrian Terron Head, Corporate Brand and Marketing Strategy at Tata Sons
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