“Talk to customers” but remember that “we are all weirdos, and think about things in a weird way” says Virginia Barnes, Interim Brand, Sponsorship and Retail Marketing at Standard Life UK, in this week's MAD//Fest partner podcast, Shiny New Object.

Virginia Barnes has learnt the importance of qualitative research throughout a varied career, from working in advertising agencies to moving client side in food and now financial services. She emphasised how powerful customer conversations can be for changing perspectives on the latest episode of our podcast.

Virginia’s Shiny New Object is qualitative research in the digital age because marketers can be too seduced by spreadsheets and data to understand an important dimension of what makes customers research for their products in the first place. This is because, in her words, “the data tells you what’s happening, not necessarily why.”

Although data driven marketing relies on the “ones and zeroes” to tell a story, that can miss important nuances. There’s even a huge difference between sending out a questionnaire to your audience and actually sitting down for a 1:1 chat. But this doesn’t mean any source of information should be discredited. As Virginia puts it: qualitative research “is a different colour in your paint palette that you have access to.”

The host of the Shiny New Object podcast is Tom Ollerton, founder of Automated Creative.