For many entrepreneurs, success isn’t just about top-line growth. It’s seizing opportunities to break barriers and shape their identities as cultural and economic drivers. That’s especially true within the Latino community, where small businesses continue to power economic growth in both the U.S. and Mexico. But thriving in today’s marketplace requires more than determination and grit. On a practical level, it takes access to digital tools.

One of the biggest barriers for Latino entrepreneurs remains the digital gap. During the pandemic, many small business owners, particularly in underrepresented communities, found themselves forced to adapt overnight. They made a digital leap in three months, setting up e-commerce and learning video conferencing, that others took years to accomplish. Their determination highlights a crucial truth for marketers: to reach multicultural audiences, you must meet them where they are, not where you assume they should be.

Adaptation means more than bridging the digital divide, however. Global companies have traditionally viewed Mexico as just a source of inexpensive labor or materials. But today, it’s a hub for innovation, driving change not just in Mexico but worldwide. For brands, this means rethinking how they engage with the Mexican and broader Latin American markets, seeing them not just as suppliers but as partners and sources of influence.

In this new episode of The New Mainstream podcast, Israel Serna, entrepreneur and Partner Marketing Manager at Autodesk, shares how his work in digital education, entrepreneurship, and cross-border collaboration is reframing what it means to do business in a global, multicultural economy.

Meet Our Guest: Israel Serna 

Digital Marketing Strategist | Small Business Advocate | Bilingual Trainer & Speaker 

Israel Serna is a bilingual marketing strategist, brand consultant, and speaker with over 15 years of experience spanning tech, small business development, SaaS, and the design and interiors space. His expertise includes partner marketing, digital strategy, brand positioning, and content development—helping businesses and creators connect authentically with diverse audiences. 

Known for blending creative vision with data-driven insights, Israel approaches every project with cultural fluency, empathy, and a belief in purposeful growth. In addition to his marketing work, he curates antique collections and supports design-focused ventures bridging the past and present. 

In a digital environment where attention spans are measured in seconds, traditional metrics like clicks and views offer an incomplete picture. They tell us what users did but not what they saw, felt, or understood. Which parts of the creative actually registered with them? Did the ad spark interest, confusion, or indifference?

That’s where online neuroresearch comes in. By analyzing visual attention, emotional response, and cognitive load, marketers can move beyond surface-level performance to discover how audiences truly engage with content. The result is a sharper creative, stronger messaging, and a deeper understanding of what drives real impact.

Technology Reveals What Traditional Metrics Miss

With today's digital tools, it’s possible to conduct neuroscience-based research entirely online — no lab or specialized equipment required. Technologies like remote eye tracking, facial coding, and EEG sensors can now be deployed directly from a user’s computer or mobile device in a natural and familiar environment.

This shift enables marketers to evaluate a wide range of assets, from video ads and social media content to display banners, landing pages, and full user journeys. By going digital, researchers get instant insight into what captures attention, what emotions are triggered, and how cognitively taxing the experience is, all without leaving the screen.

Actionable Insights Before Launch

Unlike traditional metrics that show what happened, digital neuroresearch helps us understand why it happened. We can identify which visual elements attract attention, when users disconnect or feel confused, and which moments spark positive or negative emotional responses.

These insights empower teams to make data-driven adjustments to campaigns before they go live, such as reworking layouts, refining messaging, tweaking video pacing, or emphasizing emotionally resonant elements. It’s especially effective for early-stage concept testing, A/B comparisons, message validation, and UX optimization.

Seeing Beyond the Obvious

At ThinkNow, we integrate these tools into digital studies to capture real-time, real-human responses. That is, what users see, feel, and process as they interact with advertising campaigns. It’s a smarter way to move beyond vanity metrics like clicks and views, and uncover insights that drive ad effectiveness.

If you’re interested in applying this technology to your next study, reach out. We’d love to help you discover what your campaigns are truly communicating.

Contact: ventasfullservice@thinknow.com

Inclusive marketing isn't just about doing the right thing—it’s about doing what works. When companies fail to speak the cultural language of their audiences, they risk more than lost market share. Brands lose trust, relevance, and relationships. But when inclusion is rooted in strategy rather than performative gestures, it becomes a powerful business driver for long-term growth.

Even in industries not typically associated with emotional connection, like utilities or manufacturing, marketers can find more meaningful ways to engage. That starts with listening to real people, using data to understand their needs, and communicating in ways that reflect their everyday lives. The goal isn’t to craft the perfect message for everyone as much as it is to show each group that they matter.

The same applies inside the workplace. Inclusion has to go beyond written policies and procedures and glossy posters on the wall. It must be part of everyday actions being taken and decisions made, showing up in how people are treated, included, and supported. That means being mindful of the different life experiences employees bring, whether they have children or not, are married or single, or navigate life in a myriad of other ways, and ensuring every team member feels valued. When inclusion is lived, not just stated, it creates a culture where people feel safe to contribute, grow, and thrive.

In this episode of The New Mainstream Podcast, Crystal Marie McDaniels, Senior Manager of Product Marketing & Acquisition (B2B) at Duke Energy, shares how leading with inclusion in the marketplace and the workplace builds stronger brands and better teams.

At ThinkNow, we’ve spent over a decade building DigayGane^TM, our proprietary online consumer panel designed to connect brands with diverse, hard-to-reach audiences in the U.S. and Latin America. Today, DigayGane^TM powers thousands of interviews monthly and fuels insights for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and media partners alike. But behind the clean dashboards and seamless user experience lies a constant battle: maintaining data integrity in an ecosystem vulnerable to bots, bad actors, and evolving fraud tactics.

This blog shares what we’ve learned over seven years of defending the integrity of the Hispanic online panel. These lessons have shaped DigayGane^TM into one of the most trusted multicultural research panels in the industry.

The Paradox of Accelerated Growth

When I joined the company in late 2017, DigayGane^TM was in the midst of scaling its reach and capabilities. We celebrated every new signup because expansion meant greater statistical representativeness, better segmentation, and, of course, higher revenue. However, the joy brought by volume came with a silent threat: fraud. The success of our panelist recruitment campaigns—referral programs, programmatic ads, social media promotions—turned into open hallways for bots, cloned accounts, and users who discovered how to “farm” rewards without adding any value.

As fraud threats evolved, so did the need for a more strategic approach to panel protection. Being appointed Panel Security Director wasn’t just about guarding credentials. It meant designing a socio-technical system that rewarded genuine panelists while deterring, detecting, and eliminating opportunists. This blog chronicles that journey, from early failures and hard lessons to the solutions that today form a highly effective three-phase model.

I’ll also outline the challenges on the horizon, like the rise of generative AI to global data regulation, and the strategic ideals that, in my opinion, will shape the next decade of digital market research.

Understanding the Anatomy of Fraud

In 2018, our dashboards showed seemingly healthy indicators: completion rates above 80% and average survey times below estimates. It was tempting to call it a “success.” The wake-up call came when blatant inconsistencies, contradictory and nonsensical answers, began to appear. This forced us to acknowledge that speed is not always synonymous with efficiency. Sometimes it’s pure fabrication.

Identified Fraud Typologies

1. Mass registration bots: scripts that auto-fill forms and confirm disposable emails.
2. Human “survey farms”: groups exchanging credentials and rapidly responding with copy-pasted generic text.
3. Incentive hunters: real users creating dozens of identities to multiply redeemable points.

The first lesson was paradigm-shifting as it revealed that fraud is not just a technical issue, but also an economic and sociological one. The attacker values the incentive and assesses the cost of outsmarting us. That’s why our countermeasures had to raise the “cost” of attacking while minimizing friction for legitimate users.

Phase 1 – Reinforcing the Entry Gate

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) at Signup

We adopted a simple approach. The more dynamic the verification, the lower the chance of automated replication. Implementing SMS-based 2FA resulted in a 38% reduction in the creation of profiles using temporary emails within the first three months. The key metric wasn’t just the drop in fraudulent volume, but also the conversion rate and retention. After some UX improvements, we lost just three percentage points of legitimate signups, an acceptable cost for the benefit gained.

Real-Time Geolocation

We inserted a microservice that, before confirming registration, validates the IP and compares the declared country with physical location. Of 10,000 daily attempts, 7% came from VPNs jumping regions to access higher-paying studies. Automatic blocking, combined with manual review, created a visible deterrent: after six weeks, proxy attempts dropped to 2%.

Welcome Call

Many in the industry see welcome calls as costly. For us, it was qualitative gold. Over 90% of respondents demonstrated genuine intent. Evasiveness was highly correlated with low-quality scores in later rounds. The call also revealed linguistic nuances that enriched our demographic questionnaire. For example, we learned that certain anglicisms confused lexical verification algorithms in the southern border area near Mexico. We retrained our models and improved dialect matching accuracy by five percentage points.

Phase 2 – Ongoing Panel Monitoring

Geo-Verification via Newsletters

We turned the monthly mailing into a digital “proof of life.” We added tracking pixels to log opens and IPs, without compromising privacy (only storing partial hashes). If a panelist fails to open three newsletters or opens them from inconsistent locations, they are quarantined. This practice reduced zombie email inventory by 26% and cleaned our base for targeted campaigns.

Device Fingerprinting

We implemented device fingerprinting, which combines user-agent, screen resolution, time zone, and 40 other attributes. When the same device tries to register multiple identities, the system applies elasticity: two profiles are allowed (e.g., siblings), but three or more trigger an audit flag. Thanks to this policy, we detected a cluster in China operating 120 profiles pretending to be in California. We dismantled it in under 48 hours.

Adaptive Captchas and S2S Redirects

We migrated from reCAPTCHA v2 to an adaptive system triggered only on suspicious events, preserving ease of access for legitimate users. In parallel, we consolidated all survey redirects into an encrypted SHA-1 S2S bus. Traffic no longer exposed tokens in the frontend, and we blocked malicious URL injections that were stealing incentives. Today, every survey completion generates a checksum validated in real-time, saving 60% compared to the previous architecture.

Phase 3 – Post-Survey Safeguards and Community Reinforcement

Data Reconciliation

We trained a gradient boosting model to evaluate semantic coherence, item-level response time, and cross-survey similarity. Responses in the bottom 10th quality percentile are queued for human review. We discard an average of 3.2% of interviews per study, resulting in a 12-point increase in our Net Promoter Score and higher client satisfaction in 2024.

Social Media Groups as a Strategic Trust Layer

We created closed communities on Facebook and TikTok where top panelists receive previews of new projects and participate in AMA sessions with researchers. This “trust ring” serves two functions:

• Social identity: peer pressure discourages fraud; it’s hard to lie when your reputation is on the line.
• Early warning: members themselves report fake links or impersonations. This is how we detected an “incentive phishing” scam on WhatsApp and deployed countermeasures within two hours.

Emerging Challenges: Facing the Next Tech Curve

1. AI-Powered Synthetic Identities: Generative models can now produce hyper-realistic faces and voices. I foresee attackers generating “digital twins” with seemingly valid documents. In response, we will invest in passive biometric verification—specifically, micro-expression analysis in video selfies—and decentralized proof-of-personhood using blockchain technology.
2. Contextual Content Automation: Tools like GPT can generate coherent text to fill open-ended questions, bypassing traditional lexical filters. It will be essential to combine stylometric analysis with AI signature detection (perplexity, repetition, burstiness) and, most importantly, change the type of question: incorporate multimedia, local-context microtasks, or verifiable personal references.
3. Privacy Regulation and Multi-Jurisdictional Compliance: With the EU AI Act and national frameworks, such as the revised U.S. Federal Data Protection Law, coming into force, we’ll need to constantly audit the data custody chain. One strategy will be building “clean rooms” where analysis occurs without exposing PII.
4. Panelist Fatigue and the Attention Economy: More filters mean more friction. The challenge will be choosing meaningful friction. We’re piloting variable incentives based on “historical quality” and transparent gamification: the more reliable your track record, the fewer authentication steps you see. This turns security into a positive experience.

Recommendations for Industry Peers

• Security equals UX: if your defense layer causes 20% abandonment, you haven’t won—you’ve just traded fraud for attrition.
• Iterate fast on “micro-fraud”: resist the urge to build the “perfect wall.” Target the most profitable weak spot this week, measure, learn, and move on.
• Culture of shared data: involve Support, the Product PM, and the Sales team in metric design. Each sees a different angle of the same diamond.
• Transparency with clients: sharing your anti-fraud policy, including numbers and mistakes, builds trust and reduces future external audits.

From Fortress to Resilient Ecosystem

Now active in 17 countries, DigayGane^TM handles thousands of interviews daily, of which less than 3% are flagged for review and only 0.6% are discarded due to confirmed fraud. But the most significant achievement isn’t statistical—it’s cultural. The company now understands that security and quality are inseparable from the value proposition, not just technical appendices.

My journey as Panel Security Director has taught me that the fight against fraud is a relay race, not a sprint. To professionals just starting on this path, I’d say, invest in people before tools, document every hypothesis, celebrate small wins, and embrace constructive paranoia. Because, in the end, security is the science of anticipating others’ creativity, and creativity, both good and malicious, never rests.

Want to know more about our advanced anti-fraud solution? ThinkNow Shield combines cutting-edge AI and proprietary tools to safeguard your data. Learn more.  

How government-funded university research has shaped the insights industry

The market research industry is built on innovation. Whether it’s new ways of collecting data, developing predictive models or finding more accurate ways to understand human behavior, much of what we use daily as market researchers can be traced back to one powerful engine of innovation: government-funded university research.

As an industry, we often champion advancements like synthetic data, online panels, machine learning and behavioral science. Yet we rarely acknowledge that these innovations stem from university research, which relies heavily on public and institutional funding. Advocating for its continued support is essential because many of the tools we now take for granted wouldn’t exist without it.

Here are three examples of government-funded university research that have shaped the modern market research industry.

1. Synthetic data and machine learning models

The emergence of synthetic data solutions over the past few years has completely transformed market research. Synthetic data allows researchers to simulate realistic consumer behaviors while protecting privacy, expanding datasets and reducing costs.

Much of this would not have been possible without early academic research into generative models like GANs (generative adversarial networks). GANs were first proposed by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in a 2014 paper while at the University of Montreal, an institution that received significant government research funding through Canada’s National Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Similarly, the foundations of generative AI that fuel synthetic data creation today, such as transformer models, were first explored in depth at publicly funded institutions like Stanford and MIT.

These academic breakthroughs, originally meant to solve theoretical problems, have been adapted and commercialized by synthetic data providers across the market research space. If public funding for these early experiments had not existed, the synthetic data solutions we now rely on might still be a decade away, or not exist at all.

2. Online sampling and survey methodology

The shift from telephone-based to online-based sampling was one of the most significant disruptions in market research over the past 30 years. But building reliable online samples required understanding how people behave differently on the internet compared to traditional media.

This understanding was made possible by research from universities like the University of Michigan and Stanford, which conducted early experiments in online behavior and social science, often with grants from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies.

Foundational concepts like nonresponse bias in online surveys, sampling representativeness in digital populations and even online panel recruitment strategies emerged from peer-reviewed academic work. Today’s leading panel companies and sample providers owe much of their methodology to these early university studies, which were often theoretical when they were first published.

3. Behavioral science and choice modeling

Behavioral economics is now a mainstay in market research, shaping everything from questionnaire design to advertising testing. However, behavioral economics itself and key methods like conjoint analysis and discrete choice modeling originated from university researchers, funded by government grants.

For example, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, who developed many of the concepts behind behavioral economics, conducted his research at Princeton with funding from U.S. government agencies. Similarly, conjoint analysis, now a standard method for testing product features and pricing, was developed at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, supported in part by government-funded research grants.

Today, almost every brand study, advertising test and product optimization project in market research benefits from behavioral science. Without these original academic innovations, many of the most effective techniques we rely on would not exist.

Championing university research

As an industry, we must recognize the importance of government funding for university research. The innovations that drive market research forward, like synthetic data, new sampling techniques and behavioral science breakthroughs, all depend on a pipeline of academic discovery.

When public investment in university research is threatened, it isn’t just theoretical fields that are at risk. It’s the foundation of our industry’s future. The ideas, breakthroughs and jobs that have long driven innovation depend on sustained support. Without it, we risk slowing the next wave of innovation before it even starts.

Our role as industry leaders, vendors and practitioners should be to champion policies and initiatives that protect and expand investment in academic research. We must recognize that today’s research paper is tomorrow’s industry disruption. 

Market research does not exist in a vacuum. It exists because of decades of research that government funding made possible. If we want to continue delivering insights that matter, we must collectively advocate for funding the university research that makes it all possible.

This blog post was originally published on Quirk's Media.

Trust is at the heart of effective communication today, particularly when it comes to science and healthcare. In a time when mistrust of institutions is growing, communicators must prioritize building authentic connections rather than relying solely on facts and figures. It’s not just about relaying information. Brands must understand audience concerns and engage in storytelling that resonates with people’s core values.

Employees are brands most powerful storytellers. Their real-life experiences help humanize organizations and build credibility both internally and externally. Tapping into employee stories not only enhances brand trust but also strengthens employer branding efforts, particularly as competition for talent intensifies.

In addition to positioning employees as brand ambassadors, research plays a crucial role in brand building. Balancing qualitative and quantitative methods enables organizations to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholders and craft messaging that is both authentic and effective. Whether preparing for a rebrand or launching a major campaign, starting with research ensures the strategy is informed and adaptable.

Inclusivity remains critical. Organizations that reflect the diversity of their customers and workforce cultivate stronger connections and build loyalty across both external and employer brands. Authentic, inclusive storytelling elevates underrepresented voices and drives measurable business results, helping brands navigate complex expectations from various stakeholder groups.

In this episode of The New Mainstream podcast, Kate Smiley, Head of Global Employer Brand at GE HealthCare, emphasizes that in an era of skepticism, trust is essential. By combining storytelling, research, inclusivity, and emerging technologies like AI, brands can build authentic relationships and achieve real business results.

In 2000, the United States declared that measles had been officially eliminated as a contagious disease, as there had been no person-to-person transmissions in the previous twelve months. That feat was achieved due to the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine and high vaccination rates. However, as of May 16, 2025, there were over 718 reported cases of measles, including two deaths in West Texas and another 50 cases in New Mexico. Most measles cases in this recent outbreak are occurring in unvaccinated children between the ages of 5 and 17. This troubling trend prompted ThinkNow to conduct a nationally representative quantitative survey of 1,500 U.S. adults on attitudes and behaviors surrounding vaccination, and the results are concerning.

Download the report here.

Vaccination Intent Remains High but Not Universal

Herd immunity against infectious diseases requires a 95% vaccination rate. Back in 2000, the vaccination rate was 90.5%, demonstrating that disease elimination is possible with slightly lower coverage. Our recent study, conducted in March and April of this year, found that 86% of parents have vaccinated or plan to vaccinate their children against illnesses like measles, polio, and chicken pox. That percentage may increase as more children enroll in school. Still, the widening gap between current levels and the herd-immunity threshold contributes to the size and scope of today’s outbreak.

Further complicating prevention efforts is the variability in vaccination rates, from 79.6% to 98.3%, across states and within communities. Gaines County, the epicenter of the current Texas outbreak, has an 82% vaccination rate, largely attributed to many Mennonite families in the area who opt out of childhood vaccinations. At a national level, our study found that aside from religious exemptions, parental age and race significantly influence vaccination decisions. While 12% of parents overall say they don’t plan to vaccinate their children, that number rises to 29% among African American parents and 17% among Gen Z parents.

What Drives Vaccine Hesitancy?

The most cited reason for vaccine hesitancy is the belief that immunization is unnecessary. This perception is especially prevalent among Gen Z parents who opt out of vaccinations. Concerns about adverse reactions and misinformation about vaccine ingredients also play a significant role.

Key findings from vaccine-hesitant parents include:

• 36% of Gen Z parents fear negative side effects.
• 33% believe vaccines contain harmful ingredients.
• 27% feel their children are healthy and don’t need vaccines.

These attitudes point to a clear need for better education and communication, particularly among younger parents and communities of color, about the role vaccines play in preventing serious illness.

Confidence Gaps Across Generations

While 61% of parents overall report confidence in the safety of childhood vaccines, only 39% of Gen Z parents say the same. Nearly one-third of Gen Z respondents say they’re neutral on the issue. In contrast, confidence among older generations is much higher, 70% among Gen X and 72% among Baby Boomers. These generational differences suggest a broader erosion of trust in public institutions and medical guidance among younger adults, an emerging challenge for public health leaders.

Doctors Top Choice as Social Media Influence Grows

Physicians remain the most trusted source of information about vaccines, cited by 76% of respondents. However, social media and online influencers are increasingly shaping the views of younger and minority parents. Among African Americans who support vaccination, 30% say online sources have influenced them. Among Gen Z, while most still cite doctors as a top source, many also report being swayed by peers, influencers, and online content.

To improve vaccine uptake, public awareness campaigns must reach younger parents where they are—on social platforms—and reinforce science-based messages through trusted, culturally relevant voices.

Can Minds Be Changed About Childhood Vaccination?

One-third of parents who oppose childhood vaccination say nothing could change their minds. But not all are immovable:

• 21% say they might reconsider if more scientific evidence becomes available.
• 13% could be influenced by seeing positive outcomes in other vaccinated children.
• 12% say public awareness campaigns might sway them.

These findings point to the potential power of community storytelling and consistent, transparent communication in shifting attitudes.

School Requirements: Still a Tipping Point

Seventy-one percent of parents believe vaccines should be required for public school attendance, regardless of exemptions. However, among Gen Z parents, support for mandates drops. Fifty-two percent believe vaccination should be entirely optional, compared to just 15% of Boomers. Still, many parents acknowledge the broader social benefit of vaccines. The idea that immunization protects not just one child but the entire community continues to resonate, even among those with reservations.

Final Thoughts

Our recent findings reveal a shifting landscape. While most U.S. parents continue to support childhood vaccinations, confidence is slipping, particularly among Gen Z and African American parents. Addressing this decline in trust will require more than data points. Listening, cultural understanding, and amplifying trusted voices within communities will be necessary to shift the conversation.

As we confront the re-emergence of preventable diseases, rebuilding vaccine confidence must be a top priority. Because when trust breaks down, the consequences ripple far beyond the individual and put us all at risk.

Download the report here.

Agencies like the CDC and USDA rely on government insights solutions. Discover what ThinkNow Government offers the public sector.