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Marketing Research Consultant and Impact Based Researcher

Dr. Michele Madansky is a digital research and advertising pioneer and sought-after media and market research consultant.

In her 20+ years in the industry, Michele has helped multiple Fortune 500 brands, cross-platform publishers, and groundbreaking business to business technology companies with thought leadership research, brand tracking, audience insights and marketing effectiveness research.

Michele works seamlessly with clients, in whatever way works best for their needs and budgets whether that’s short-term or long-term projects or on a retainer basis – pinch-hitting as a research lead for teams in transition.

contact info: michele@michelemadansky.com

Michele Madansky
““Michele is one of the best minds in advertising research. She provides creative thinking and flawless execution to provide truly groundbreaking thought leadership.””
— Edwin Wong, SVP Insights, Research & Innovation at Vox Media

Marketing Research

““Whenever I have insights needs, Michele is my first point of contact. She has been my de facto research lead at my last five companies.””
— Elizabeth Harz, CEO, [Awareness]

Michele has run her own consultancy since 2007, helping clients with both long-term engagements (including interim research lead) using a variety of research modes. Dr. Madansky develops research plans using the best methodologies to achieve her clients goals, including qualitative methods (one on one interviews, focus groups and ethnographies), survey research, incorporating syndicated data and internal data as appropriate.

Select Clients:

Media:

Brave, Pinterest, Overtime, Yahoo, Activision, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Time Inc., Hearst and Dentsu

Consumer/Tech:

Postmates, Spotify, Whatnot, Care.com, tastytrade

B2B:

Informatica, Illumio, Awareness Technologies, Proofpoint

Types of Projects:

I love learning about new challenges and designing bespoke methodologies to meet clients’ needs. My work has included research to support new product launches (Disney+), help consumers discover new music (Spotify) and come up with new opportunities for food delivery services (Postmates). Many of my engagements have fallen into these four categories of projects:

Thought Leadership Research: using both qualitative and quantitative methods, Michele has written and presented numerous research studies focused on evolving consumer behavior from Millennial Travelers to Social Gamers and The Rebranding of News.

Brand Tracking and Brand Positioning Research: One of Michele’s specialties is ‘re-vamping’ clients’ brand trackers to ensure that they are more impactful and actionable for internal clients’ needs.

Audience Insights:

  • Consumer/B2B: Understanding your target audience and key segments for product and marketing efforts. This can be achieved through survey research, segmentation, secondary research and consumer deep dives.

  • Publishers: Having a good understanding of your audience and unique differentiation is critical to the pre-sales process. I have worked with numerous marketing teams to develop and hone insights-based core sales stories for publishers.

Cross-platform advertising effectiveness research: For many of her media clients, Michele has helped develop, implement and manage brand life studies and advertising effectiveness studies to help brands (across all categories) 



Examples of Client Projects

Dentsu VidMob & the Ad Council

Creative Optimization

Impact Based Research

In addition to Dr. Madansky’s corporate clients, she has been engaged in a number of impact-based research studies across topics related to the evolving workplace. These have included gender bias, diversity and inclusion and Breadwinner Wives.

Breadwinner Wives: Michele’s essays from her upcoming book ‘Breadwinner Wives Thriving’ have been published on PS.

PowHer Redefined: Women of Color Reimagining the World of Work

It’s Time for a RESET: Men, Leadership and the New World of Work

““‘Elephant in the Valley’ survey sheds light on issues women face in tech.””
— Techcrunch

Elephant in the valley

Michele is co-author of The Elephant in the Valley, a 2015 study on gender bias in Silicon Valley.  The Elephant in the Valley is the most cited research on the extent of conscious and unconscious bias in tech, and has been mentioned in publications as far-reaching as Vogue and The Irish Times.  The Elephant in the Valley inspired a keynote address at SXSW, which Michele moderated.

Since publishing The Elephant in the Valley, Michele has partnered with organizations in other industries to field similar surveys.  Most notably, she has partnered with:

• The 3% Movement on Elephant on Madison Avenue

• The Insights Association on a study re: gender bias in Marketing Research  

• AutoNews also leveraged the survey instrument and published a special supplement about gender bias in the Automotive Industry

Expert Witness

 

Dr. Madansky has served as an expert witness on a number of cases involving online advertising technology and measurement as well as marketing research. As an expert, Dr. Madansky has authored numerous reports and been deposed four times. None of her cases (yet) have made it to trial.

These have included:

  • Class action suits

  • Patent infringement

  • Negligence

contact: michele@michelemadansky.com

Bio

MicheleMadansky

Dr. Michele Madansky leads a media and market research consultancy specializing in digital media and advertising. She has worked with some of the top digital brands including Spotify, Postmates, Disney+, BuzzFeed, Pinterest, Brave, Adobe, Twitter, YouTube, Chegg and BabyCenter.

Dr. Madansky was the first interactive specialist at BBDO. She also authored the first Ph.D. dissertation focused on online advertising. Michele was an EVP at Grey Insight Partners, an Analytics Consultancy, Vice President of Global Market Research at Yahoo! and EVP of Insights at iHeart Media.

Dr. Madansky holds a Sc.B. from Brown University, and an MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She is a frequent industry speaker at events ranging from the ARF, i-com and the Youth Marketing Summit, and, was a keynote speaker at SXSW Digital. She has also been a lecturer at Haas Graduate School of Business.

contact info: michele@michelemadansky.com

Board Work

• Wogrammer 2017-2020
• San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2011-2012

advisory roles

• Zip2 (acquired by Compaq)
• Slideshare (acquired by LinkedIn)
• Martini Media (purchased by Evolve Media)

Dr. Madansky is open to additional Advisory and Board of Director positions.

Industry

• I-COM (Global Forum for Marketing Data and Measurement) - Consumer Content Committee
• Advertising Research Foundation - Women in Analytics

Dr. Madansky has been a lecturer on Consumer Insights and Marketing Research at University of California Berkeley, Haas Graduate School of Business

She has also guest lectured at:
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Fuqua School of Business
• Johnson Graduate School of Management
• Queens College
• Wharton
• Chicago Booth

Speaking

Michele is a frequent speaker at international advertising and marketing conferences. She also speaks and moderates panels on gender bias and inclusion. She was a featured keynote speaker at SXSW.

Please contact Michele to schedule a speaking engagement at your company or industry event.

ME CONVENTION

Elephant in the Valley
Frankfurt, Germany
Presented trending data on gender bias in Silicon Valley

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SXSW Keynote

Elephant in the Valley
Austin, TX
Moderated a keynote panel including Trae Vassallo (former Kleiner Perkins partner), Megan Smith (CTO of the United States under Obama) and Laura Weidman Powers (co-founder Code 2040)

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Anita Borg Partner Meeting

Elephant in the Valley
San Jose, CA
Learn More
Co-presented research findings with Trae Vassallo

i-Com Global Summit

GenZ Changing the Media Game
Porto
Insights on college students’ media behaviors with Graeme Hutton from UM

i-Com Global Summit

The Data Driven Marketing Officer
San Sebastian
Michele moderates a panel with Harvey Goldhersz, Chief Data Officer & CEO GroupM Analytics, USA and Glenn White, Director of Media Infrastructure, EA

3% Conference

Elephant On Madison Avenue
New York, NY
Michele participates in a panel presenting the latest research on gender equality in advertising

Advertising Week

Marketing to the Millennial Traveler
New York, NY
Learn More
Co-presented original research developed for Adara with Lynn Bader

Youth Marketing Summit

Moments That Matter in College
Brooklyn, NY
Learn More
Co-presented original research developed for Chegg with Kevin Moeller from UM

SXSW

Elephant on Madison Avenue
Austin, TX
Learn More
Moderated featured panel with Brad Jakeman, PepsiCo, Lisen Stromberg, 3% Leslie Wingo, SandersWingo

2017 Insights Association Leadership Conference

The Marketing Research Workplace: A Look at Gender Issues
Palm Springs, FL
Learn More
Presented the results of original research on gender issues in Marketing Research

Creative Convergence Silicon Valley (C2SV)

Elephant in the Valley
San Jose, CA
Keynote panel with Lisen Stromberg and Hillary Mickell

Press

Here are some recent articles and podcasts featuring Michele and her research.

Aspiriant Podcast

Breadwinner Moms
Michele speaks about her research on couples in which women bring home the majority of earnings. Listen here

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Society for women engineers (swe) magazine

Changing Mindsets
Michele’s research around the impact of COVID 19 and working moms is featured in this article.

CONSUMERS DURING CORONA PODCAST

Working Moms and Gender Bias during COVID
Michele joins Stephen Kraus on the podcast he desperately wants to rename. Listen here.

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Harvard business review

3 Ways to Advance Gender Equity as We Return to the Office
Michele’s research on Working Moms during COVID 19 is featured in this article by David Smith and Brad Johnson.

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wogrammer podcast

My STEM best friend and more
In this series of podcasts, Michele interviews the founders of Wogrammer, Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen and other inspiring women in STEM. Listen to all of the podcasts at: wogrammer.org/podcast

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