This edition saw a return to the robust sample size we typically get for the Business & Innovation report, however we decided to augment the buyer sample through a partnership with NewtonX. This additional effort yielded great results, enabling even deeper analysis of the critical buyer perspective of the industry.

As always, the GRIT program is evolving to meet the needs of a changing industry, and in 2021 we decided that our core mission was to provide unrivaled depth of analysis and recommendations, while also ensuring our audience could digest everything. The reality is that the GRIT reports could easily be five hundred pages long if we included all of the analyses we think are important, but we also recognize that size is untenable for most readers. Our solution is to create three sets of “spin off” reports focused on marketing and targeting, business performance, and benchmarking. We released seven “field guides” earlier this year to help the marketing and targeting efforts of different types of suppliers, and we will be rolling the others out later in the year. This report still covers those topics, but in a more high-level (and shorter!) way than in previous editions. This has also allowed us to cover other topics in more detail than previously allowed due to space limitations.

Another change you’ll notice is that we have worked to make the online version more modular and easily navigable, so while we approach this as a single report in terms of the structure and narrative consistency, we also strive to make each section “standalone” for online readers so they can ingest the information in a more flexible and on-demand way.

Although we continue to insource much of GRIT production (the vast majority of the design and analysis is now done only by the GreenBook team), GRIT continues to be a “coalition of the willing” and our commentary providers, sample partners, advertisers, and especially our research partners make it all possible. Special thanks go out to AYTM – Ask Your Target Market, CANVS, Gen2 Advisors, Infotools, Knowledgehound, NewtonX, Displayr, and Tango Card. Without their generous contribution of time, energy, and expertise we simply wouldn’t be able to do this.

Enjoy!

LEONARD F. MURPHY
Executive Editor & Producer, GreenBook
[email protected]