Ipsos Update - January / February 2017

We start with political uncertainty. After a year of historic political events, our new 22-country survey paints a picture of a global public who feel left behind by the traditional system of politics and government, with 64% of our international sample saying traditional parties and politicians “don’t care about people like them”.

One country which may have better times ahead of it is Colombia. “Reviving” is the title of our new Ipsos Flair report on the country. Written by Ipsos in Colombia researchers, it charts the mood of the nation in the wake of the recent peace agreement. The country faces many challenges, but also great opportunities, for example in developing ecotourism and energising an increasingly connected population.

One group very well equipped with the latest devices is people working in advertising and creative industries. Building on our recent work on the Perils of Perception, we find this group somewhat out of touch with how consumers are actually interacting with content in real life. For example, they completely underestimate how much TV is still watched live. Andrew Green and Daniel Blackwell talk us through the evidence and ask the question: does this perception gap affect the decisions they make?

Still on the subject of decision-making, we feature a new piece by Douwe Rademaker and Marco Vriens, who describe an alternative, incremental approach to identifying and reacting to consumer insights – grounded in staying closely connected to the consumer and making the best use of the most up-to-date information.

We feature a report on digital banking, which sees established providers feeling the squeeze from financial technology pioneers in Silicon Valley. Banking executives see real benefits in outsourcing innovation to the experts.

This month’s report shines the spotlight on China, where our latest Pulse report focuses on communications effectiveness, including the role celebrities play in effective advertising. And we showcase new thinking from Peter Minnium on how behavioural science can improve the effectiveness of digital creative.

Meanwhile the new Ipsos Australia Climate Change Report finds increasing concern about the subject, and a sense that not enough is being done to tackle the issue at both national and international level.

Finally, we take a look at US Presidential Approval Ratings - as expressed by people from 24 countries around the world. President Obama left the White House with high worldwide approval ratings: 76% say he has been a “good” president of the USA. There is less optimism about Donald Trump; on the eve of his inauguration we find just 34% saying he will be a “good” leader, although this figure does rise to 65% in India and 74% in Russia.