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SHOPPER MARKETING FOCUSING ATTENTION ON THE NEXT NORMAL Focus Insights promotes its shopper and consumer insights that use different technology to what has previously been around, with quick analysis and quick results meaning you can gain competitive advantage quicker. ShopAbility Director Peter Huskins talks to Focus Insights CEO Deane Hubball. Deane, tell me a bit about how you got started in the FMCG industry. After graduating from university in marketing, I was fortunate to be offered one of the very first graduate roles with Cadbury Schweppes as a sales rep. This really set the foundations for my career and it was a baptism of fire having to deal with all types of retailers ranging from milk bars, convenience stores, distributors and grocery stores. While I had initial aspirations to be a marketer, I found that I enjoyed the cut and thrust of sales and dealing with customers. I’ve spent the majority of my career in various sales management and trade marketing/ category management roles. I’ve also been blessed to work in some amazing companies, like Cadbury, Simplot and Twinings, and have had the opportunity to work in all corners of the globe. What led you to start Focus Insights? After spending most of my career on the supplier side, I was looking for a new challenge and moved to the ‘agency’ side of the fence. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this move as I still get to play in the FMCG/CPG space and get great satisfaction empowering and assisting our clients to solve their problems and achieve their goals. Focus Insights was essentially born out of the rapidly changing dynamics in our industry where the ‘good old days’ of having plenty of time and money to complete consumer research no longer existed. We saw there was a gap in the market to provide agile research solutions that could be delivered in days at a fraction of the cost of traditional agencies. Our ability to access more than 64 million consumers across 94 countries has allowed us to rapidly expand, with clients all over the world, as well as assisting Australian and New Zealand companies with their local and international research and insight requirements. How have you been able to assist clients operating in this Covid-19 environment? The past nine months have been a rollercoaster for everyone, with no ‘playbook’ or historical data to help navigate through this Covid world. Given our speed and agility, we’ve been able to work closely with clients in understanding 70 RETAIL WORLD OCT, 2020