Empath Awards 2026 announces its winners: 14 awards recognising excellence in market research and business decision-making. November 7, 2026 Empath Awards 2026, Romania's first competition dedicated to recognising the impact of market research on business, has announced the winners of its inaugural edition. During the awards ceremony held on 22 October in Bucharest, 14 distinctions were presented: six Gold, five Silver and three Bronze awards, recognising projects that demonstrated how research-based insights can contribute to strategic decisions and tangible results. The competition's first edition brought together 54 projects submitted by 14 agencies and 27 brands, with 26 making it to the final stage. They were evaluated by an international jury led by Jane Frost, CEO of the Market Research Society (MRS) UK. The competition aimed to highlight projects in which research goes beyond data collection and interpretation, becoming a tool with direct applications in business operations. The evaluation criteria included measurable outcomes generated by research, such as product or service launches, strategic transformations and well-founded business decisions. Who are the winners of Empath Awards 2026? In the Research Activation category, the Gold award went to PPC and Exact Business Solutions for the project "Activating PPC Residential Personas". The Bronze awards were presented to "How a Gen Z study shaped Zbor Hubs", developed by BCR and GRF+ / Cult Research, and "Reshaping Storage & Organisation Category", developed by Leroy Merlin and Exact Business Solutions. In the Research Application category, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Appinio and Kantar received the Gold award for "Turn category entry points into a brand decision system". The Silver award went to PPC and Exact Business Solutions for the project "From One-Size-Fits-All to behavioural personas". The Creative Development category saw Unilever, together with Unlock and Kantar, win the Gold award for the project "Delikat Aromat: On top of a New Generation". The Silver award went to MedLife and Unlock for "Good Stress Prescription". In the New Consumer Insights category, Unilever, Unlock and Kantar once again received the Gold award for "Delikat Aromat: On top of a New Generation". The Bronze distinction was awarded to BCR and GRF+ / Cult Research for "Confidence is built in person". In the Client Team of the Year category, Raiffeisen Bank Romania won the Gold award, while the Silver distinction went to the team comprising PPC, Exact Business Solutions, DesignThinkers Academy, AHA Moments and To Know. In the Social Change | Social Good category, Zi de Bine Association and D&D Research received the Gold award for the project "Prevention begins in a relationship". Two Silver distinctions were presented to "Social Attitudes to Road Traffic Risks", developed by Ursus Breweries Romania and the Romanian Police, together with Cult Research, and "Patterns of rural parenting & impact on schooling", developed by BookLand Association and Leroy Merlin, together with Unlock. Market Research as a tool for decisions with real impact. The Empath Awards 2026 gala brought together professionals from the market research industry, marketing directors and business leaders, providing a platform for recognising projects that demonstrate the value of relevant insights in driving business development and creating a positive impact on society. The competition was organised in association with Market Research Society (MRS) UK, with the support of IAA Romania. Through its inaugural edition, Empath Awards aims to help establish a benchmark for Romania's market research industry, highlighting the collaboration between agencies, brands and business teams. The award-winning projects demonstrate the role of research in understanding consumer behaviour, developing brand strategies and building initiatives with economic and social impact.

Unilever invests €35 million in Indian R&D facilities. THE WHAT? Unilever has announced a €35 million investment to expand its research and development facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore, strengthening its global capabilities in cosmetics innovation, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. THE DETAILS The investment builds on more than €20 million spent over the past five years developing Unilever's Indian R&D infrastructure. The Mumbai facility will become an integrated Product Innovation Centre, combining formulation science, fragrance development, packaging design, rapid prototyping and manufacturing scale-up. Bangalore will expand its role as a global science and technology hub, including a €5 million Bio-Futures Partnership focused on microbiome science, biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Both facilities will incorporate AI, predictive modelling, automated experimentation and digital twins to accelerate product development across Unilever's Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Home Care businesses. THE WHY? The investment highlights India's growing strategic importance as a global research and innovation hub for the cosmetics and personal care industry. By integrating advanced scientific capabilities with digital technology and manufacturing expertise, Unilever aims to shorten product development cycles, strengthen formulation innovation and improve its ability to scale new technologies across international markets.

Unilever data breach: Whitearmor ransomware claim (Nov 2026). HookPhish team Summary. In the latest cybersecurity news, Unilever - an organization based in GB - has fallen victim to a ransomware attack conducted by the group Whitearmor. This data breach, discovered on Nov 4, 2026, 20:57 UTC, underscores the increasing need for proactive cybersecurity defenses as HookPhish continue through 2026. Incident report. | Target Organization | Unilever | | Threat Group | Whitearmor | | Summary | Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London. It owns over 400 brands, including Dove, Knorr, Hellmann's, and Rexona, spanning beauty, personal care, home care, and foods, serving consumers in around 190 countries worldwide. HookPhish hold 665K contacts, 5.5K OTM accounts with roles and logins, 14M locations, 3.8M shipments, 229M status records, 13.8K invoices, plus 838K distributor loyalty profiles and ledgers. 79 gigabytes, 1.8 million files, three regions. Unilever7.z is about 79GB decompressed. Its ransom demand is only $15,000,000 in BTC Emails with instructions will be sent to you shortly, if you have failed to receive them, Contact: Session: 0547b7f96d469ecb332e89d0108e71c92df5bacff6c4ed5b9801ab5fffe872ee67 Email: [email protected] | | Date of Breach | Nov 4, 2026, 19:26 UTC | | Discovery Date | Nov 4, 2026, 20:57 UTC | | Region | GB | | Business Sector | Manufacturing | How to reduce your ransomware risk. Most ransomware intrusions start with a stolen password or a phishing email. A few proactive steps sharply cut your exposure: * security awareness training - close the gap attackers exploit. * dark web monitoring - close the gap attackers exploit. Disclaimer. HookPhish does not engage in the exfiltration, downloading, taking, hosting, viewing, reposting, or disclosure of any stolen information. All breach data reported here is sourced from publicly available threat intelligence feeds for awareness purposes only.