The list below is a sampling of Hall of Fame members who championed this issue.
- J. Walter Thompson - established one of the first marketing research departments.
- George Gallup - A pioneer in the area of public opinion, Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion and the Gallup Organization, contributing immensely to the advertising industry and everyday life.
- William M. Marsteller - emphasized the importance of the market-research department, which was a fairly new function in the industrial field.
- Arthur C. Nielsen Sr. - revolutionized the marketing-research industry with his scientific approach to marketing problems. Standards established by Nielsen included the concept of continuous marketing research, the performance measurement known as "cost per thousand," and drug and food indices based on audits of purchase invoices and shelf stock.
- Jean Wade Rindlaub - BBDO's longtime commitment to advertising and marketing research can be traced to Rindlaub. The innovative methods she developed to sound out consumers were adopted by BBDO and became widely modeled within the business.
- E. St. Elmo Lewis - was among the first advocates of establishing new methods for tracing results in advertising and made important contributions to the development of a more scientific approach in the business.
- Charles Coolidge Parlin - Often called the father of marketing and commercial research, he organized and conducted a commercial research division for the Curtis Publishing Company, the first marketing research organization in the U.S.
- Stanley Resor - The scientific market research he inaugurated during WWI was perhaps the first of its kind done by an advertising agency.
- Orlando Clinton Harn - One of Harn's greatest contributions to advertising was his leadership of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. He was one of its key founders and served as its president from 1920 to 1927. In 1927 he became the bureau's managing director until 1939. More than any other man, he was responsible for the birth and success of this bureau, which revolutionized American advertising and has served as a model for others around the world.
- Raymond Rubicam - believed that an advertisement should mirror the reader. Knowledge and understanding of the customer was a critical component of effective advertising. With the help of George Gallup, Rubicam pioneered new methods of consumer and media research.
- Tom Dillon - was instrumental in creating the first computer-based mathematical model for media selection, which served as a model for many years in the industry. He also revamped research operations with the aim of being more responsive to the needs of those creating advertisements.
- Morris L. Hite - strongly believed in consumer research and that advertising consisted of communicating with consumers on an individual basis. In the mid 1960s he created a subsidiary company called M/A/R/C, which conducted baseline research on consumers' buying habits and preferences.
- Jay Chiat - Under Chiat's guidance, Chiat/Day was the first agency in the U.S. to introduce account planning, a research-based discipline which establishes a dialogue with consumers to ensure that the advertising is relevant to its target audience.
- Peter A. Georgescu - elevated the role of research in the field of commercial communications. Under his leadership, Y&R invested $50 million in the most comprehensive global database of consumer perceptions about brands, Brand Asset Valuator (BAV). BAV is based on in-depth conversations with over 100,000 consumers in 35 countries concerning 13,000 brands. It has given Y&R a unique understanding of the dynamics of brands, much of which turns conventional wisdom about marketing and brands on its head.
