The work that surrounds us
We've tried to provide a flavour of the kind of projects we attract via case studies although confidentiality means we can't reveal too much detail.
It's worth stressing that these projects are more or less current. We're trying to give a sense of the work that surrounds us every day rather than dredging up only the interesting work we've done since inception.
How can a wealth of baby feeding insights be most effectively digested?
After four phases of in-depth research we shared a great deal of insight via workshops and debriefs with our client, regarding the emotionally sensitive and complex journey that is baby weaning.
In order to make best use of the information our client wanted to create a ‘legacy’ output in the form of an easy to search internal website. We worked with our web design and development partner to create an engaging, interactive, multimedia tool, which allows the client to revisit key research learnings quickly and easily, as well as bringing new-hires and external agencies up to speed with consumer insight.
From top-line summaries to deep-dive analytical output across the whole journey from preparing for baby’s first spoonfuls to navigating the challenges of establishing a balanced diet, we provided not only the insight and strategic guidance, but an optimal means of ensuring it remains live and dynamic. We’ve handed it over to our client now, but for many months of research and a few weeks building the site, it really was our baby.
What does Eastern Europe consider beautiful?
Now the wall has come down, we welcome our former Eastern Bloc cousins as Europeans, but this project aimed to uncover where their approaches, perceptions habits and needs might be different from the West. From an exploration of their current outlook on life to their conceptualisations of beauty and masculinity right down to their specific personal care regimes, we spent time with consumers to discover the context and extent of scrutiny they give to personal care products as they spend their zloty, forint and leu.
How does a global number one personal care brand grow in the one market where a local competitor is popularly entrenched?
Using examples of pretty much every product and variant on the market, and groups of loyal local brand consumers, as well as conflict groups of client brand and local brand loyalists, we helped our client understand just what is behind the local brand’s popularity and success and what levers their brand could use to come out smelling sweeter.
How can advertisers best evoke and connect with the experiential side of vodka consumption amongst the real socialites of the metropolis?
We tested the early stages of a campaign aimed at the leading edge consumers of a vodka brand, reaffirming its credentials at the beating heart of urban life. We worked in ‘designer’ research facilities and the best bars in town, with creative illustrations and video stimuli to set the scene for us, as musicians, bankers, stylists, lawyers, designers and anyone who was anyone on the New York and Chicago social scenes guided us to what makes a night out work for them
How do you ensure that Midwesterners keep on trucking, as the fuel landscape changes around them?
We worked with a major fuel producer to explore how Americans in Midwestern states might react to changes in the content of their fuel, as legislative, economic and environmental pressures exert themselves. How will they navigate the pumps with different product architecture, what decisions will they make and what’s informing them. Using pump mock-ups, we toured the Midwest to find out. It’s a long old road to Omaha Nebraska!
How do you denormalise violence and intimidation in teenage relationships?
We were tasked with researching the worrying proportion of teens who either live with an element of violence or aggression from their partners, or consider some level acceptable in their relationships. We needed to understand which messages would be most persuasive in altering their mindsets, empowering them and freeing them from negative cycles of behaviour. In a project conducted for the Home Office, we uncovered insights into these teen attitudes and behaviours that went on to inform and shape the national ‘if you could see yourself’ campaign. Tackling such tough stuff was a challenge we had to meet creatively, using techniques which overcame inhibition and artifice in the teens’ responses.
Which areas should a brand survey to firm up its foundations?
We were asked by a leading property search engine to explore how its brand can shine at the head of its game, whilst assisting as much as it can to turn searches into sales for its fee paying members. We probed the relationships that both consumers and members had with the brand and surfed the site and its competitors with consumers at their desktops, arriving at some findings which helped our client see areas where they could potentially add that all important value, that’s so crucial in the property game.
How do you convince an airline executive to part with nearly $200million?
What sort of copy appeals to someone with serious decision making potential? How should an aeroplane be branded to really convince them? What words and imagery would help to make the manufacturers products really fly off the shelves… so to speak. Using a mixed methodology of mini-groups and depth interviews, we spoke to a fleet of 15 aviation analysts from international airlines who gave our output more than a little lift.
How hungry are the Hungarians for more opportunities to play the lottery?
In a burgeoning lottery market, how ready are consumers for self-service online lottery solutions in their social, shopping and gaming destinations? Speaking to both players and retailers, and using a multi-discipline methodology, it was down to us to map out the opportunities, barriers, likely play patterns and ways to differentiate the new offering from its competition. In a country that gave the world the Rubik’s Cube we were always likely to find folk with a certain discernment applied to occupying their leisure time.
What’s it like to be a shopper looking for power tools in a crowded fixture when you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for?
What do these shoppers need to navigate a fixture and alight on a product made for them? How can we avoid confusion or indecision leading to ‘bounce off’, with the shopper leaving empty handed or simply choosing the cheapest and being dissatisfied? Working with both the retailer and manufacturer, we devised a method that combined both recruited and non-recruited respondent techniques and focused on the actual real-time in-store experience for maximum accuracy.
What’s the link between parenting style and approach to washing detergent?
Just how relaxed have we become about letting kids get dirty and getting clothes clean, in this age of automatic washing machines and evolved, effective detergents? What are the messages we really want to hear in order to feel convinced a detergent is for us. We showed a variety of communications to consumers with kids in Greece and UK and discovered appetites for ideas way beyond the window test and doorstep challenge.
How does it feel to be a young woman living your life in a major international city and how does that affect your personal care attitudes and priorities?
We coordinated a global study across the UK, US, South and Central America, Thailand, India and Russia. We asked young women to prepare collages in advance of the groups and, by integrating a semiotic analysis of them into our qualitative findings, we were able to add a cultural backdrop to enrich our understanding. This led to the discovery of a common global insight that helped shape the theme for our client’s product range.
How does a rainforest charity make its cause seem relevant again when it seems to have been overtaken by more recent ‘causes celebres’?
Saving the rainforests doesn’t seem as pressing anymore, when there are so many other environmental and humanitarian charities fighting for people’s share of charity spend. How can people be re-engaged effectively in terms of content and tone of voice? We conducted a staged, iterative project - starting in the UK and expanding overseas. We used an audition-style approach to assess a large number of communications concepts and a collage exercise to facilitate thorough mindset expression, so that a subsequent two-country quantitative stage could be best directed and refined.
If you let them loose on designing their own DIY equipment, is there much common ground between English blokes and French mecs?
What are their priorities and what are they prepared to trade off. A two country project covering the UK and France. We asked people to design their ideal device as well as contemplate their decision drivers prior to the groups, which meant that we had a wealth of data for analysis and some colourful material for the debrief presentation, to help everyone clearly see that consumers are no fools when it comes to tools.
Needs based segmentation is all very well, but who are the real live people represented within the segments?
We were tasked with exploring and validating a series of typologies in the world of laundry to help our client feel more in tune with their target consumer. We wanted to really get under their skin – finding out everything from ‘how they see themselves’, to ‘where do they keep their socks’ to ‘how do they feel in a new scarf’. We worked closely with an ethnographer and integrated his findings in our qualitative analysis. At the end of this fascinating 6 month project, we all felt so close to our target consumer it was almost unreal.
How do you stay ahead of the game, in the increasingly crowded sports drink market?
What’s going to energise and enthuse active people and serious sportsmen and women more than what’s already available? Especially when they are becoming increasingly savvy and health conscious. They now demand a solution that’s both effective in terms of specific ingredients yet holistically more than a chemical formula. In a three country study, we didn’t limit the sample to target consumers, consulting elite performers, trainers and sports nutritionists as well. This resulted in some surprising conclusions on who drives this market – consumers or experts? Not to mention an opportunity to pick up some top tips and even an autograph or two.