GWI is a leading global consumer research platform delivering on-demand, actionable insights into the attitudes, behaviours and interests of billions of people across 50+ markets. Powered by a continuously refreshed, anonymised global dataset, GWI enables brands, agencies and media companies to understand audiences, track cultural and behavioural change, and make smarter, faster decisions with confidence.
Many leading sports agencies rely on GWI to power their audience insight, sponsorship analysis and global research reporting projects. Read on to discover how one such partnership transformed their market research reporting workflow through automation and delivered results at scale.
The Sporting Struggle: Scaling Market Research Reporting
At GWI, sports research rarely means a single survey or a single market. Trackers often span dozens of countries, combining syndicated data with bespoke studies to understand global fan behaviour, sponsorship impact reporting and commercial opportunity at scale. These projects generate thousands of data points and multiple deliverables, all feeding into decisions that shape sponsorship strategy for the season ahead.
Daniel Bradley from GWI’s Research and Insights team explained that, in sports reporting and sponsorship reporting, time is never on your side. There are only weeks to deliver insight that proves value and informs what comes next. “Clubs finish in May or June and by August everything needs to be decided.” This gave GWI a very short window to deliver accurate, data-driven reports to clients.
While GWI’s platform makes insight accessible, much of that work still culminates in complex, formal reporting: automated PowerPoint reports, Google Slides decks, infographics, Excel data tables and PDFs, produced at scale. For the Research and Insights team, manual reporting and slide production quickly became the biggest operational pressure point.
“Without automation, delivering what we promised in the RFP would have been extremely difficult – if not impossible.”
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
E-Tabs: The Essential Report Automation Partner
For GWI, E-Tabs became an essential report automation solution rather than an optional add-on. By implementing sponsorship report automation, GWI removed the single biggest reporting bottleneck from the project. Charts were populated directly from live data sources, templates were reused across markets, and consistency was maintained through scalable, automated reporting workflows.
Over a three to four month period, Daniel estimates his team spent around 750 hours on the project. Without PowerPoint automation and automated reporting, that figure would have climbed far higher.
“Without E-Tabs, it would have easily taken over a thousand hours, realistically, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver ourselves within the timeframes.”
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
Benefits Beyond Speed: Accuracy Through Automated Reporting
Whilst time-savings from market research automation were significant, the benefits went far beyond speed. Automated reporting gave GWI renewed confidence in data accuracy and quality control.
With automated outputs handling charts, layouts, updates and data visualisation consistently, the team could trust the results without repeatedly checking every slide. This level of data visualisation automation dramatically reduced manual proofing and human error.
“Once the initial checks were done and we knew the data was pulling correctly, we were confident the rest of the reports would be right. This dramatically reduced the need for manual proofing.”
Global Scale with Enterprise Reporting Automation
E-Tabs’ enterprise reporting automation proved invaluable again on a second major project for a global basketball association. The brief involved analysing fan behaviour, merchandising engagement and brand health tracking across thirty markets, with different surveys targeting different demographics.
The outputs were substantial: twenty five automated PowerPoint reports, many running to sixty slides, alongside thirty six automated infographics — all required within a tight two to three week reporting window.
“The E-Tabs automated PowerPoints were a beast, without them, it would have been pretty much impossible to do this in house.”
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
Infographics in Seconds: Automated Data Visualisation
By relying more heavily on E-Tabs for both PowerPoint reporting automation and infographic automation, GWI saved an estimated ninety hours on infographic production and more than three hundred and seventy-five hours on report creation alone. What could have consumed weeks of analyst time through manual charting was delivered within days using automated reporting tools.
Perfect Preparation: Optimising the Research Reporting Workflow
A critical part of making report automation work was preparation. GWI and E-Tabs collaborated before fieldwork concluded, setting up reporting templates, defining automation logic and mapping data flows so that automated reporting could begin the moment results landed.
“Something that we really leveraged was being able to set the templates up in advance,” Daniel explains. “We knew there were going to be additional requests coming in, so everything we could do beforehand was going to save us time later.”
That groundwork ensured the automated reporting process ran smoothly once live data was available.
When Clients Change Their Minds: Agile Reporting Automation
Automation also transformed how GWI handled client feedback — an unavoidable part of research delivery. Narrative tweaks, late changes and additional data requests no longer required rebuilding slides manually. With automated PowerPoint reporting, updates could be reprocessed and delivered within the same day.
“Even more complex changes were usually turned around within a day or two.“
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
When Delivery Stops Being a Fire Drill: Scaling with Automation
Perhaps most importantly, market research reporting automation changed the pressure dynamics for Daniel’s team. Summer delivery peaks often coincided with annual leave, creating resource risk at critical reporting moments. Without automation, Daniel estimates it would have required his entire team of eighteen analysts just to maintain output.
“Instead, we were able to keep delivery focused within the sports team and use E-Tabs for the heavy lifting,” he says.
Today, Daniel and his team see automated reporting as a competitive advantage, not just an operational fix. It allows GWI to compete confidently against larger agencies, commit to ambitious RFPs and maintain both quality assurance and analyst wellbeing.
“Automation lets us be agile and reliable at the same time. Our analysts can focus on insight and storytelling, not manual charting.”
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
Built on Trust, Not Transactions: Long-Term Reporting Automation
That reliability is why GWI continues to partner with E-Tabs across formats, global markets and enterprise reporting projects. The combination of dependable automated delivery and consultative support ensures that research reporting remains accurate, scalable and efficient.
“I haven’t come across a reporting format yet that they haven’t been able to help us with. Whenever we’ve hit a technical challenge, they’ve helped us find a better way — often saving us weeks of work.”
Daniel Bradley
Senior Insight Manager, GWI
