Podcast Ep 265: Declan O’Reilly, CEO of Empathy Research, discusses how AI is transforming market research, the challenges of understanding consumer sentiment in the digital age, and his journey building a successful research business in Ireland.
Empathy Research describes itself as a human insights consultancy that is trusted by brands like Musgrave, Kerry Group and An Post. With over 20 years’ experience decoding how people think, feel and act, the business helps brands translate consumer sentiment into smarter, future-ready strategies.
The business helps businesses decode consumer sentiment, uncover deep insights, and drive data-informed strategies to shape more effective marketing, branding, and innovation.
“The world is drowning in data, and clients want to get back to truly understanding humans – not just as consumers, but understanding the totality of human beings with all their wants, desires, triggers, and barriers”
Since its acquisition by managing director Declan O’Reilly in 2015, Empathy has grown exponentially and is poised for further growth in the year ahead.
Having been awarded the most Research Excellence Awards, seven in the past three years by the Marketing Society of Ireland, Empathy’s innovative research methodologies set the industry benchmark.
The business of people
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I begin by asking O’Reilly how, in our current digital landscape with algorithmic echo chambers, do we translate consumer sentiment into strategic insights for brands like Musgrave?
“ The first thing from a traditional market research perspective is ensuring that what we’re seeing is representative of the population and your customer base. A big part of our work is getting a representative view of how people feel, think, and behave, then translating that back to clients for confident strategic decisions.
“Market research has always been about understanding people, but the real value is in how we interpret, translate, and embed those insights within client organisations. The fundamentals haven’t changed, but we’re living in an incredibly interesting time where AI is having a huge impact on how we conduct research and structure our agencies.
“Every brief is different, every client’s challenge is unique, and it’s this variety that keeps the work fascinating. Most people in market research, myself included, fell into the industry rather than planning for it, but we stay because of this diversity and the opportunity to understand how different and nuanced people’s reactions can be.
The two-speed market research revolution
But with so much data available today, how do you ensure accuracy and combat misinformation while providing genuine insights?
“ We’re seeing what I call a “two-speed market” emerge. Certain types of research are becoming commoditised – your bread and butter research like concept testing, advertising testing, and basic brand tracking. Technology and AI are bringing hyper-efficiency to these areas, making them lower cost but also lower value.
“On the other track, we have more transformational work where experienced researchers leverage their expertise to work with clients, sometimes challenging and reframing the brief entirely. It’s about human insight, deep strategic thinking, and forward-looking analysis.”
He said that the key differentiators in an AI-accessible world are proprietary data that you own and can use to fine-tune models, and most importantly, the humans on your team.
“It’s always been about human skills in market research – asking better questions, knowing which data to trust, understanding context and emotion. AI isn’t very good at understanding context and emotion yet, and it’s always been about translating insights into business strategy.”
Building and growing Empathy Research
O’Reilly’s arrival in the market research world was circuitous. “Like most people in this industry, I fell into it. I landed back in Dublin in 2008 during the height of the crash and got a job with Publicis and Core Media Group. I started as a one-man research arm and grew that business to the early teens in terms of team size over five years.
“We did a lot of international research through the Publicis network, which was fascinating – seeing how differently people in the Netherlands react to concepts compared to people in the Philippines or Mexico.”
In 2014 Michael Dwyer from Pigsback approached O’Reilly because he was open to selling his own research business, as it wasn’t synergistic with the main business.
“I’d always harbored ambitions of business ownership, so after about a year and a half of negotiations with Michael – who’s a fantastic poker player, which made for interesting negotiations – I bought the business outright on 1September 2015. We’re celebrating our 10-year anniversary this September, and it’s been an incredible growth journey year on year.”
AI and the future of marketing
While O’Reilly fundamentally believes in human-first research, the reality is you cannot keep tech out of the conversation. “Technology and AI will be central to our business going forward. About 18 months ago, we hired a CTO, Gary Walsh, and built a development team that’s now seven strong. We recently launched Empathy IQ, taking over 100 years of cumulative senior leadership experience and encapsulating that in a research platform.
“There’s a lot of research technology out there built by companies without research experience, which is problematic for clients. We’re harnessing our research expertise and human knowledge, making it available through Empathy IQ while providing additional support when needed.
“I don’t see us becoming a pure software company. We want to play in the strategic insight consultancy space, doing transformational work by providing human insight and forward-looking strategic thinking. Technology and AI will enhance our work, not replace us.
“I think qualitative research will have a resurgence. The world is drowning in data, and clients want to get back to truly understanding humans – not just as consumers, but understanding the totality of human beings with all their wants, desires, triggers, and barriers.”
There’s an urban myth that Sigmund Freud once said that you can’t psychoanalyse the Irish. While such an utterance is nigh impossible to corroborate, Empathy Research’s work into what Irish people are doing, thinking and desire is probably as close as it gets.
I ask O’Reilly what makes Irish consumers tick in a decade or more of rampant social media growth and lurching from economics boom to bust to boom again.
“Irish people have traditionally been quite benign and passive culturally, but we’re becoming more discerning and critical. We’re not afraid to make a stand or voice complaints where warranted. Loyalty is no longer guaranteed, particularly with cost of living pressures and inflation. Private label has grown significantly, forcing brands to adapt.
“Globally, there’s been much more two-way conversation between brands and consumers, with increased engagement around purpose-led brand marketing. This trend isn’t going away.”
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