JAY OWENS
  • Home
  • About + Contact
  • Writing
  • Work
    • Research writing
  • Dust
  • Talks
  • Reading
  • Blog
  • Photo essays
    • Islay
  • Home
  • About + Contact
  • Writing
  • Work
    • Research writing
  • Dust
  • Talks
  • Reading
  • Blog
  • Photo essays
    • Islay
JAY OWENS
What I do
I work freelance in consumer insight, with a focus on media and technology research.

I mostly work - and work best - on early stage, big picture 'discovery' projects, as part of clients' brand strategy and innovation programmes:
  • I explain culture and the context your brand's operating in
  • I map the needs, behaviours and mindsets of target audiences - from software developers, to Millennials, to high-end whisky drinkers.
  • I help companies act; unlike most consumer research, my work isn't reportage. It's 50% recommendation, and 50% why.
  • I can coach your teams on narrative and recommendation-building to help your work do this too. 

Recent projects include:
  • the Public Media Stack, building an ethical guide to public media technologies (with Storythings)
  • helping renewable energy company Bulb design & launch their Carbon Calculator tool
  • food & beverage trends and innovation research for a major US brand (with Black Swan)​
Get in touch
info@newriver.ltd
Jay Owens
Methods and background
I worked at Pulsar in London from 2010 to 2019, and before that in public policy research. I have deep expertise in working with social media research and audience intelligence tools, but at heart I'm methodologically agnostic: it's about the right method for the problem, and I also use depth interviewing, survey data, and extensive third party & desk research reviews as required.
​
​ I like building teams with complementary skillsets, triangulating a problem from a few different angles, and working with both quantitative & qualitative data (the what and the why).
Conferences, talks & training workshops
Market Research Society IMPACT annual conference, annually 4x 2016-2019
  • Most recently moderating a session on 'The Futurist's Toolkit' featuring Anab Jain of Superflux, Scott Smith of Changeist, and sci fi narratives author & researcher, Paul Graham Raven 
  • 2019 writeup: Futurology: A Way to 'Bridge the gap between complex data and the decision-makers' (Research-Live.com)
  • 2018 writeup: Social Media: 'No Longer on the Lunatic Fringe of Research' (Research-Live.com)

​MRS Customers Exposed (2016)
Marketing Week Live (2015)
Insight Innovation Exchange (2014)
Training for ESOMAR (2014-2017) and Association of Qualitative Researchers (2017).