Case study — research and strategy
RX Global: Attendee Behavioural Archetypes
How a global qualitative and quantitative research programme produced an award-winning framework for understanding attendee needs — and changed how one of the world's largest event organisations thinks about its customers.
The project in brief
From Fragmented Insight to a Common Global Language
RX needed a shared framework for understanding B2B event attendees across its global portfolio. Ade led a multi-country research programme — qualitative interviews followed by a global quantitative survey — that produced a set of behavioural archetypes now used in every business unit worldwide.
Get in touch about a similar projectThe challenge
RX was rebuilding its core event platform and needed to establish what B2B event attendees had in common globally — across markets as different as the US, UK, France, UAE and China. Without a shared understanding of attendee needs, the digital toolset risked being built around assumptions rather than evidence.
What Ade did
Recruited and managed the research agency, coordinated ten country business units, developed the methodology with RX insight teams, and oversaw qualitative interviews filmed across multiple markets. The findings were validated with a quantitative survey across 68 events globally.
The results
The research produced a set of behavioural archetypes that won the 2017 Market Research Society Award for Best B2B Paper. A programme of 19 global workshops embedded the framework across the organisation, achieving 88% awareness amongst senior event managers within a year.
The Full Story
As part of a global initiative to rebuild the core event platform, the brief was to find out what B2B event attendees had in common — regardless of geography, sector or event format. The goal was a framework that could underpin a standardised yet modular digital toolset, applicable across the entire RX portfolio.
The first task was to recruit the right research partner. Ade selected The Sound HQ and worked closely with them and RX insight teams to develop a methodology that would work across culturally diverse markets. Ten country business units took part — including the US, UK, France, UAE and China — each requiring coordination, briefing and local adaptation.
The qualitative phase involved filmed interviews with attendees across multiple markets — designed not just to capture data, but to produce compelling material that could communicate the findings internally. Interview briefs were developed collaboratively and reviewed at each stage to ensure consistency and depth.
The qualitative findings were then validated through a global quantitative survey polling 68 events. The Sound HQ brought tools and techniques that resulted in a set of findings recognised by the Market Research Society — winning the 2017 Award for Best B2B Paper.
A key output recognised by the judges was a set of behavioural archetypes. These went beyond digital tool preferences to describe the different ways attendees get value from a live event — from structured meeting-seekers to serendipitous explorers. The archetypes provided a language that event teams could use to think about their audience in a more nuanced, evidence-based way.
To embed the framework across the organisation, Ade delivered a programme of 19 workshops around the world. These weren't passive presentations — they were working sessions designed to help event teams apply the archetypes to their own events, audiences and commercial models. When senior event managers were surveyed the following year, 88% were aware of the framework and its applications.
The archetypes were subsequently integrated into RX's registration and post-event survey processes, allowing event teams to assess which attendee goals mattered most at each show — and to match those goals against the tools and experiences on offer. This became a key driver in improving Net Promoter Scores across the portfolio.
"This work not only gives us a common global language around customer behaviours, but the insights are helping drive ambitious transformation into a data and digital driven business by providing clear evidence of common needs."Chet Burchett — CEO, RX
Headline Outcomes
Ade's role: Research programme leadership, agency recruitment and management, methodology development, coordination of 10 country business units, global workshop delivery, and integration into registration and survey processes.
Working on Something Similar?
Whether you're looking to understand your audience better, build an evidence base for digital investment, or align a global team around a shared framework — Ade would welcome the conversation.