With businesses across exhibitions, conferences, music, sport and family entertainment, NEC Group has numerous competitors  as well as having to work with a range of organisers and promoters to put on live events.

Its insight team is made up of eight people with expertise in data management, compliance, analytics, qual and quant research and business intelligence. Insight has contributed to the NEC Group's  growth strategy which has seen profits increase 120% over the past four years.

There have been a number of specific areas the insight team has worked on. These have included: GDPR leaders and building ‘event-lover’ segmentations; using AI software to capture visitor feedback and improve experiences; carried out a strategic review of more than 90 competitors; delivering a B2B market categorisation project and researching future leisure trends to direct its 2030 masterplan vision.

Among the results of this work has been open rates of personalised emails going up 5%, 97% increase in click rates and £56,000 revenue increase in ticket sales per week.

Feedback from the improved customer experience has  seen NPS for some shows increase from lows of 8 to highs of 50.

Research also led to FanClub being created which has more than 2000 members and has led to £1.2m of revenue.

Paul Thandi, CEO of NEC Group, said: "Their expertise has enabled us to predict trends, identify emerging markets and add to customer audience reach and growth. Their customer segmentation insights have set us apart, delivering commercial results for our group and our customers."

Simon Wigley, head of business intelligence and analytics, said: “It’s an honour to receive this MRS award. To be chosen for the award alongside some amazing business such as Barclays, Formula One and Twitter is testament to the hard work of our team.

“Working across the entire business, our team harnesses the diverse set of skills to create a function that specialises in data management, compliance, analytics, personalisation, qualitative and quantitative research, and market & business intelligence.”