The imperative of imagination is the future of Insights.

The marketplace ahead will demand more expansive thinking and decision-making. Growth and success will come from more imagination.

Imagination may sound like reaching for the stars, but actually it is a core competency for success. Kantar thought-leadership has demonstrated consistently over the years that imagination is the foundation for growth. Imagination is the overarching takeaway from Insights 2030, Kantar’s in-depth investigation of the future of Insights.

But not just Insights. Imagination is critical for the business as a whole. For example, BrandZ analysis of brand value growth from 2014 to 2017 found that disruptive brands significantly outperformed all other brands by completely reimagining brand differentiation. Recent work by other consultancies has caught up with and confirmed these Kantar insights about imagination, such as the new book from BCG (The Imagination Machine, Harvard Business Review Press: 2021, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller) and a working paper from McKinsey (“The Growth Triple Play: Creativity, Analytics and Purpose,” June 21, 2021, Biljana Cvetanovski, Orsi Jojart, Brian Gregg, Eric Hazan and Jesko Perrey).

The mandate for Insights is to spark the power of imagination.

The imperative of imagination was best articulated by the legendary Harvard marketing guru Ted Levitt in a handful of classic essays well-known to every business leader