The Nursery Nosey

We are The Nursery Research and Planning. We like to be nosy about everything. Have a nosey with us.

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Bodies in Balance at The Wellcome Collection - Lucy Foylan

A few weeks ago I decided to do something a little different with my weekend. After seeing a poster on the tube: Tibet’s Secret Temple, I looked up the Wellcome Collection online and discovered that they were running a whole day of free workshops and activities on the 16th January. Intrigued, I signed up for a couple of talks and headed to Euston bright and early (around mid-morning…) on Saturday.

I’m not sure how much you know about the Wellcome Collection but I think it would be fair to describe it as a bit of a hidden gem in the middle of London. Conveniently located about a 2 minute walk from Euston Station, it houses a number of impressive, colourful exhibitions as well as a large library and reading room. Entrance is free, and the main exhibition changes regularly. At the moment it’s Tibet’s Secret Temple, which exhibits a number of items relating to Tibetan medicine and spirituality. This falls squarely under the remit of The Wellcome Trust (which runs the Wellcome Collection) as it was founded in part to build connections between science, human experience and the arts.    

My day started with a talk from Dr. Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, a lecturer at Goldsmiths University. She spoke about the Four Tantras, texts which guide Tibetan medicine from diagnosis to treatment, as well as the centrality of the three humours – phlegm, wind and bile. She also spoke about the importance of examining tongues, pluses and urine. All of this was accompanied by images of amazing art work which turned out to be sort of diagrams and guides for practitioners, and at the end we were able to look at one in real life which belongs to the Wellcome Collection library.

(Tibet image)

I then headed to the Reading Room, a very light and airy high ceilinged room with a lot of interesting art work as well as literature. In the middle of the room people were gathered, seated on chairs, on the floor or standing, around a man sitting crossed legged on the floor. This was John Renshaw, who has been teaching Yantra yoga for 18 years. He was running yoga workshops throughout the day where he encouraged people to try out some moves for themselves. He explained that one of the main tenements of Yantra yoga is that the body is like a horse and the mind is its rider. You might be the kind of person that’s led by the horse, or someone that’s led more by the rider. The aim is to get body and mind working together holistically.

(Reading room)

Finally I attended ‘Meditation as Medicine?’ a really interesting lecture by Alejandro Chaoul, Assistant Professor and Director of Education for Integrative Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre. Dr. Chaoul spoke to us about complementary therapy for cancer patients involving practices from Tibetan medicine including breathing exercises, meditative exercises and some yoga moves. It has been shown that these therapies have improved ailments such as insomnia and stress in cancer patients. Dr Chaoul didn’t talk about whether or not complementary therapies improved medical outcomes, but there was an interesting talk about it afterwards during the Q&A.  

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Being a Dad in the modern world

On Wednesday 25th November at 8:30am The Nursery will be holding a breakfast to share our findings from a project we recently undertook on being a Dad in the modern world. Driven by our natural curiosity, we wanted to explore the role of Dads – what’s important to them? What part do they play in the running of the household, and how do they feel about it? How do they interact with their children and their partner?

We got stuck in, running groups, speaking to couples in their homes, getting them to contribute with videos, photos and commentary on their daily lives, as well as running a wider online quantitative survey.

Having collected all this great, funny, insightful, and sometimes surprising information, we started to ask ourselves what all our findings might mean for brands operating in today’s world. What does the way in which Dads navigate the supermarket mean for FMCG brands, not to mention the supermarkets themselves? What exactly does a day out with dad entail and what lessons can restaurant, fast food, travel and tourism brands learn? In what ways are Dads’ relationships with their children different from their own relationships with their fathers, and what does this mean for any brand trying to target anyone with a Dad and/or a child?

 One really interesting aspect of the project was getting Dads to watch how they are represented in advertising. We showed them a whole bunch of ads that we thought were relevant to, or depicted, fatherhood to see what they thought. The findings were really interesting, prompting us to think about which brands are keeping pace with the ever changing nature of the family unit in their communications.

 So it’s not surprising that we’re really excited about sharing all this interesting stuff with everyone on Wednesday 25th November at 8:30am. Hopefully there’ll be some learnings and surprises as well as free bacon sandwiches!   

If you can’t make it and would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact us – [email protected]

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The APG Awards - Jared Tanna

I felt like an imposter heading to the APG Awards dinner two Fridays ago. A researcher amongst planning’s elite; a note-taker surrounded by paper-writers. My main worry though was my interpretation of the ‘Awards Show’ dress-code; more black jeans than black tie. Approaching the giant, grand doors of the Renaissance Hotel I tucked my shirt in and gave my hair one last look in the reflection.

The Renaissance Hotel in King’s Cross was the perfect setting for a clash of planner philosophies and exchange of ideas - an impressive cross between the industry (and ingenuity) of a Victorian train station, the glamour (and cheek) of a 1920s flapper party and the majesty (and magic) of the halls of Hogwarts.

A warm welcome from the ever smiling APG team allayed my fears that I had actually been invited by accident… my name was on the list. Making my way up the Gilbert Scott staircase (or as it’s more commonly known ‘that staircase where the Spice Girls filmed that bit in the music video for Wannabe’) it began to sink in how much of a proper do this was.

Thankfully, a chat with a few familiar faces, a couple of flutes of fizz and one dapper gentleman in all-gold Nike hi-tops later put my imposter (and dress-code) fears at ease.

Like clockwork, guests were guided back down stairs and into the main hall for a spot of dinner and the awards ceremony. Not before, of course, a range of ‘zigga-zig-ahs’ were successfully pulled off on the famous staircase.

The obligatory float around the table plan brought about the nervous feeling of being sat at the kids’ table at a distant relative’s wedding … Thankfully our table consisted of the clever guys and girls from Mintel and Mother. Three rounds of food, wine and copious clapping followed. Big cheers and woops for Nursery researched campaigns – Direct Line, McVitie’s, Royal Navy – along the way and suddenly we were into gold giving territory.

Up stepped our very own Lucy Banister to expertly hand over the Nursery-sponsored award for Best Commercial Impact to O&M New York for their work on BA’s ‘Visit Mum’ campaign.

The W+K crew who were sat next to us were visibly and audibly getting more excited as they held out hope for pipping Sport England and Always to the post with their incredibly funny #holidayspam campaign for 3. But it wasn’t to be…

And so started the murmurs and speculation of which girl could (and would) triumph.  

Of course in the end there could only be one winner – and one everybody was happy to lose to. The win for FCB Inferno’s This Girl Can campaign for Sport England was met with raucous applause and cheering from everyone as the unmistakable opening bars of Missy Eliot’s ‘Get Ur Freak On’ belted out of the sound system. How fitting then that This Girl Can would win in the same building where ‘Girl Power’ was first captured over a decade ago.

How unfitting then, that an evening that had seen thinking for mostly commercial and global heavy-weights slug it out, was won out by a relatively low-key brand. An imposter of sorts given that previous years had seen wins for overseas brands in Banco Popular and the Colombian Ministry of Defence. On that form you would not have bet on Sport England winning this year’s award... but it was a joy to see the recognition that could be given to a home-grown brand unified by a single great and deeply influential idea.  The interesting thing now will be to see how Sport England grows as a brand and sustains its cultural significance in what will be an exciting next few years for them.

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Collaborative consumption: the shift from owning to accessing - Alice Cappelli

Recently, I came across an article that caught my attention: "Why Don't Young Americans Buy Cars?" which was published on The Atlantic a few months ago. The article focuses on the struggles of Ford, Toyota, General Motors and other companies to create new appealing car models for millennials in order to increase their revenues. According to the author Jordan Weissman, the main problem is that millennials just “don't feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car”; however, what's more concerning for the author is the following question: “Is this a generational shift, or just a lousy economy at work?”  The economic crisis has surely played a huge role in this phenomenon: high gas prices, widespread unemployment and stagnating wages are clearly responsible for some of the decline. But if we take a closer look at the phenomenon we'll see that the change is also a cultural one. For most of the past century, consumption has meant ownership;  the goods that we owned contributed to define identities and social status. However, the advent of new technologies has disrupted the existing paradigm by enabling a different kind of consumption, a collaborative consumption, where consumers prefer to have access to something instead of owning it outright. According to the Economist, this is now possible because: “technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a much larger scale”. This model works especially well for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them, such as cars, houses, furniture, clothes and in some cases even energy

The automotive sector is one of the areas where collaborative consumption has become more popular and widespread. Ride-sharing companies such as Zipcar, Lyft, Sidecar, and, in some cities, UberX, sign up ordinary car owners and when someone needs a ride they can find a car owner nearby and ask to be picked up through an app. This shift can also be explained from a cultural perspective, especially if we take into consideration how the symbolic role of the car has changed in the past few years. Especially in western societies, having a car was synonymous with freedom, travel, friends, dating. The car could carry us far from the physical space in which we reside. Nowadays with the advent of technologies that are able to transcend time and space, having a car is not the only way to feel “connected” any more. Technology is giving us the possibility to have close, immediate exchange of thoughts and experiences with countless “friends” without leaving our houses. As stated by Forbes: “Generation Y stands at the forefront of the next chapter in mankind’s evolution: experiencing everything while going nowhere”.

Furthermore the advent of collaborative consumption could be perceived as a sign that ties between consumption and ownership are loosening and that young people are increasingly leery of making big up - front purchases. In fact the success of these businesses shows that, at least with some goods,  renting and sharing can trump ownership: in this way people get access to a much wider range of products than they could ever own. Also, “sharing” gives people the opportunity to get involved in the process, to become small -scale entrepreneurs, as explained by The New Yorker “the sharing economy requires people to function as micro-entrepreneurs".

In conclusion, collective consumption could become a disruptive force if companies and regulators fail to wake up to it. But it's also a wide new territory that can offer a lot of innovative potential to the companies who are willing to explore it.

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The Power of Winning - Lucy Foylan

Yesterday James and I were walking through Piccadilly Circus Underground on our way back from a briefing. I looked around and realised I was talking to myself: he had stopped abruptly a few metres back, awestruck by the Evian pop up that’s been constructed in one of the shop spaces.

‘Oh did you not know that was there?’ I wondered aloud as we basked in the glory of its pink glow. We had now been standing still for longer than 30 seconds, a rarity for Londoners in an underground station, and were inevitably approached by a lady with ‘Evian’ emblazoned across her top, proffering free Oyster Card wallets and scratch cards. Something for nothing and a chance to win more? This was our lucky day.    

We eagerly scratched the silver foil off the cards in the hope that we could claim our winnings there and then. 20p of a 50cl bottle for James, not so great, for me, a free Pure Drop 20cl bottle! I felt my mood immediately lift as I realised that I had won something.  I triumphantly claimed my prize and drank it on the way back to the office.

(The winning card!)

Later I was regaling my boyfriend with this thrilling tale. He was quick to point out that Evian have been giving away Pure Drop bottles at other stations ‘probably bigger than the one you won’.

This got me to thinking about the power of winning stuff (after I’d finished thinking about what a killjoy my boyfriend can be, obviously). Behavioural economists often talk about the power of something being free. In Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely uses chocolates to explore how people would prefer something of worst quality for free than pay even a few cents for a much higher quality alternative.

How much better, then, to find that not only are you getting something for nothing, but you won it! Winning gives an extra thrill that can’t be rationally explained. I’m one of those people who can’t really see the difference between tap water and bottled, so for me water is pretty much free all the time. Yet I couldn’t help but feel happier, lighter, brighter with my winnings in my hand. My enthusiasm was framed by James having won nothing, or at least nothing tangible, giving me a special winner’s status (albeit a trivial one).

Luckily, I walk through Piccadilly Circus quite regularly so if you see someone hovering around the Evian pop up come and join me for a scratch card – who knows what you might win!*

 *(it’ll probably be water, though).    

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Thrive at Battersea, rounders and a lesson in human behaviour

On 23rd July the Nursery decamped from Soho to Battersea Park to spend the day helping Thrive, a gardening charity. Established in 1978, Thrive uses gardening to bring about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities or ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable.

Our job for the day was to help the Thrive workers with all the impressive things they do constructing, developing and maintaining a safe and inviting space for Thrive users. 

We started with an introductory tour of the site during which we were shown the work that needed to be done. We then split into four groups – one to help in the shop, one to paint gardening boxes, one to fetch and carry mulch and one to put down a new walkway.

(Gareth potting the shed)

We set to work, pausing for a brief picnic lunch, and finished up mid-afternoon with a team photo.

Once our tasks were completed we waved goodbye to Thrive and head off to find a suitable field for a Rounders match. After much debate, we split the group alphabetically to randomise teams. A couple of innings later it was clear that the two sides weren’t too evenly matched, leading to a massive victory for one team.

We paused for an ice cream break during which a valuable lesson was learnt about the life span of a Mr. Whippy (not long enough to arrive safely in the hands of your colleague several 100m from the ice cream van). When Rounders recommenced, we decided to go for the old two-team-captains-pick-their-teams routine in order to ensure balance.

After a long and painful process, we surveyed our teams. To everyone’s surprise, we realised that they were almost exactly the same as the groups we had been in when gathered alphabetically.

This got us to thinking about human behaviour and team work. During the first match, we had established connections and solidarity within our respective groups. When the team captains came to choose teams, it was impossible for them to turn their backs on this, and they inadvertently brought their teams back together, albeit with a couple of changes.

It also meant the same team triumphed massively again, but isn’t the real winner here the concept of team work and camaraderie? (Answer: depends on which team you ask, think you can guess which I was on…)

We finished off the day in the pub, happy, worn out, and pushing the boundaries of how dirty/paint covered/badly dressed you can be without being asked to leave. A good time was had by all!    

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‘The Anatomy of Humbug’ Paul Fieldwick Book Review  Lucy Foylan

As someone comparatively new to the advertising industry, I hoped that Paul Feldwick’s latest work, ‘The Anatomy of Humbug’, would provide me with an interesting take on how advertising works. In this I was not disappointed. I found that the book provided an engaging guide to how people think, and how people have thought, about advertising: What’s its purpose? What makes an ad successful? How effectively can this success be predicted and measured? In order to explore these questions, Feldwick draws on a range of studies and examples reaching back to the 19th century, charting the recent history of advertising along the way.   

Feldwick presents two main arguments in his work. Firstly, that those working in advertising today could benefit from paying more attention to the people and ideas that came before them. As a history graduate I was glad to hear this, and was interested to read the ways in which we typically overlook historical precedent in the industry. This first argument is established in the prologue, and it eloquently supports Feldwick’s use of historical mapping in the main part of the work. The reader already understands by chapter one that any attempt to comprehend how advertising works is deeply rooted in a store of knowledge build gradually over time by those in the industry, as well as many from outside it.

Feldwick’s second argument is explored throughout the main body of the work. He argues that following one particular mode of thinking or model will limit your potential and that of the advertising you work on. In order to explore this, he identifies six different modes of thinking and explores them in turn, breaking the work into three sections.

The first part of the work is used to examine one of the most influential and powerful modes of thinking: rational persuasion. Taking the reader back to the beginning of the 20th Century, Feldwick explores how advertising has often been seen as salesmanship in print: a way to share the benefits of a product or service in order to reason with the consumer. I was really interested to see how whilst this type of persuasion can seem a bit clumsy to contemporary advertisers, rational reasoning is intrinsically linked to modern advertising, not least through the language we use - ‘proposition’ ‘message’, ‘reason why’…  the list goes on.

The second part of the book delves into how advertisers appeal to the emotions of the consumer – ‘seducing the subconscious’. To me this feels like a hot topic in the industry at the moment, with a great deal of energy being spent on studies into behavioural economics and related subjects.  So I was surprised to find that advertising and human psychology have a relationship that long predates the work undertaken today. Here, Feldwick charts the rise and fall of motivation research, plunging into the murky depths of ethics in advertising – I was surprised to learn that the experiment using subliminal messaging in a cinema was a hoax!   

In the final part of his work Feldwick presents some different models for approaching advertising. He examines in turn the merits of salience (getting famous and being top of mind); PR methods or ‘spin’ (playing with our communal constructs of reality); social connections (the myriad ways humans communicate and how this should be considered in advertising) and finally showmanship (the ability to dazzle by being courageous and following your instincts). 

Feldwick points out that of course in real life you’re likely to come across a range of models being employed simultaneously.  Feldwick’s book certainly helped me detangle the different approaches and ideas that advertisers employ, elucidating and clarifying how each works independently as well as how they are interrelated.

Throughout the book I was encouraged to think imaginatively and to show flexibility in my work. Feldwick clearly shows that there’s little to be gained from sticking to one way of thinking, or from ignoring the impressive array of ideas and concepts that have been amassed by so many over the previous decades.

Feldwick isn’t laying down the law or carving principles in stone. Instead, I felt that the whole essence of ‘The Anatomy of Humbug’ inspires us to be reflective, iterative in our thinking and brave in our decision making. Overall, Feldwick puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of gumption and fearlessness. I was left feeling that if I learn all that can be learnt from the vast history of advertising and its influences, I’ll be in an excellent position to follow my instincts and make bold choices, and that this is how successful advertising should work.   

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Sheila Keegan – ‘The Psychology of Fear in Organisations’ Lucy Foylan

 Sheila Keegan’s latest work ‘The Psychology of Fear in Organisations’ is an exploration of the nature of fear and the effects it can have in the workplace. A combination of psychological theory and practical examples, she expertly leads the reader throughout, leaving them with actionable guidance.  The work is clearly divided into three sections. Keegan first gives some background and contextual information before exploring how fear causes problems in large organisations, ending with how we can resolve these problems by harnessing the power of fear.

 In the first section, Keegan looks at some of the ways in which fear is spoken about. Not only does she explore the negative outcomes of feeling fearful, but also the amazing ways in which we can react due to fear. The example of a man who was able to lift a truck off a cyclist trapped underneath during a crash was particularly striking. In this section Keegan also looks at the broader climate of fear in which we live, especially focusing on the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008. In the next part of the work, she covers the ways in which fear can be detrimental to the working environment by inhibiting thoughtful practices, innovation and honesty. She finishes by exploring the ways in which each of us, having recognised these bad habits, traps and processes, can work to combat them in our everyday working world.

 Clearly written and well sectioned, the book manages to cover a lot of ground whilst still feeling targeted, personal and wholly applicable. In one particularly thoughtful section she encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of the focus of a case study and really ‘feel the fear’. How would your body respond? What thoughts would be running through your head? Can you imagine what your reaction would be? Encouraging the reader to understand a fearful reaction in a visceral sense feels like an actively helpful precursor to learning to harness this fear.

 Keegan doesn’t write about combatting or eradicating fear, rather she focuses on harnessing the energy of fear in an active and empowering way. Having illustrated the power that fear can have in the background and context section of her work, she later returns to show how fear can help you to be innovative, imaginative and generous with your ideas in the workplace, turning the role of fear from an inhibitor to a facilitator of positive change.

One of the most important aspects of the book from the stand point of a qualitative researcher is the application of skills and processes from the toolkit of the profession within the work environment. Active listening, good moderation in meetings, not shooting down ideas and encouraging people to share are all keystones of a well-functioning, productive organisation. As researchers, it begs the question as to the extent to which we really use these skills within our own workplaces. Employing them on projects and for clients can be a world away from really applying them internally within our work environment.

 From the title it could be assumed that the practises raised in this work are to be applied from the top down. Quite the opposite, Keegan provides guidance and examples that can be applied by anyone working anywhere tomorrow. It might take courage, but ‘The Psychology of Fear in Organisations’ should provide readers with the motivation they need to start making positive changes from the moment they put down the book.  

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THE ELECTION:

ON A NIGHT OF MANY LOSERS, WAS MARKET RESEARCH ONE OF THEM? David Alterman

We all knew there was trouble at 10.00pm on 7th May.

Either every opinion poll over the preceding 48 hours was wrong, or the Exit Poll was spectacularly adrift. As quickly became clear and was confirmed by ‘Nuneaton’, the Exit Poll was right.

Having explained at length over the days leading up to the election to non-researcher friends how the research industry had ‘solved the problem’ of Opinion Polls now following the debacle of 1992, I was one of the many millions struck dumb by the reality of what was happening. What was extraordinary this time around was the consensus across the polls, irrespective of methodology or polling company’s preferred question. And it was this more than any other factor that led us to overlook the possibility that every poll was equally flawed.

There is a comprehensive Market Research industry review underway, once again, to offer us definitive advice on where we went wrong. But to me it looks pretty clear where to start. There seems to be a fundamental truth this time around. Political opinion polls ask about voting intention and that is a different question from voting behaviour.

In a simple binary Red vs. Blue world the differences might not matter, but in our new multi-brand multi-layered political world we have to reflect on what voting intention means, especially in the toxic environment of this last election where every choice in England & Wales seems to come with baggage - UKIP are BNP in disguise, Tories are posh bankers, Labour would break everything again, Greens are off with the fairies and Liberals lied to us. If I vote Green will I let the Tories in, if I vote UKIP will that help or hinder The Conservatives? Who would volunteer any of those options, and why would that necessarily reflect behaviour?

So choices are likely to be passive (who do I dislike least or trust a touch more) rather than being based on conviction. If you ask people about likely behaviour when they don't actively care for the brands in question the chances of their choice reflecting behaviour are slim. The only party that represented an active opt-in in 2015 was SNP and funnily enough the Scottish polls were spot on.

In a situation like this the gap between claimed intention and actual behaviour starts to veer wildly out of control.  System 1 and System 2 decision making dilemmas kick in more strongly than ever – pollsters hammer away at a System 2 response, and yet, and yet, in that polling booth fear, anxiety, familiarity, caution, inspiration, aspiration, anger and optimism flip us straight back into System 1..

As brand researchers we recognise the difference between exploring attitudes to brands and brand purchase or usage behaviour. Our job is to understand these relationships - what the brand means, how close people feel to it, the sense of brand momentum and the profile of brand users. All things that get to the heart of the brand relationship and help us diagnose why people behave the way they do. And more than ever these things matter for political brands where policy has now been supplanted by personality and motion superseded by emotion.

Send for the brand researchers.

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Progress vs. the environment  Lucy Foylan

A few weeks ago I spent a sunny weekend in Paris visiting various places and wandering around eating crepes. One of the highlights of my trips was brunch (see below!) followed by an exhibition at a gallery/café called Le Bal in Pigalle.

The exhibition, Mark Lewis: Above and Below, showcased a number of works by the Canadian filmmaker which explore different spaces and how people behave within them. The eponymous work Above and Below the Minhocão is an 11 minute film of the Minhocão elevated motorway in São Paulo. The road, officially called La Via Elevada Presidente Costa e Silva, is closed to motor traffic between 9:30pm and 6:30am on weekdays and all day on Sundays. The film shows the Minhocão on a Sunday, when pedestrians and cyclists are free to meander down the 2.2mile length of road, sitting around on the central reservation to chat with friends or pausing to stretch out during a run.

The work aims to explore the tension between progress and environment which is central to experience in the developing and developed world alike. Completed in 1970, the road was originally constructed to relieve traffic congestion in the city centre. Nowadays, traffic volume on the Minhocão exceeds 80,000 vehicles a day and at points passes within 4.6m of apartment windows. The road was built in order to allow Brazil to continue to grow and flourish. Meanwhile, it needs tight controls in order to limit the serious detrimental effects it can have on those living nearby.

The exhibition made me think about a couple of advertising campaigns I’ve seen recently that for me highlight this tension between promoting progress and protecting environment.

The first is a Turkish Airlines TV ad from 2014, rated by Brainjuicer as the most emotive ad of that year on their Feel More Top 50 scale.

‘Dreams’ directed by Bahadir Karatas for Lowe Istanbul, follows the story of some children living in a remote Turkish village who really want the aeroplanes that they see passing high in the air overhead to land in their vicinity. In the end, their dreams come true when a Turkish Airlines plane lands within a few miles of their home. A new airport has been constructed. The implication is that Turkish Airlines is supporting Turkey by promoting quick and easy travel throughout the country and abroad. It feels like one of the reasons this ad is so emotive is that for Turkish viewers the underlying message is: Turkish Airlines are helping to bring wealth and prosperity to the farthest corners of the country.  

Meanwhile in the UK, Gatwick Airport is doing a really good job of convincing people to support their bid to build the new runway, instead of constructing it at Heathrow, using pretty much the exact opposite argument in their print advertising. 

Building at Gatwick will affect less people, they argue, the air is already really polluted over Heathrow where population density is much greater, why not build at Gatwick where it’ll be more hidden and out of the way? We don’t want another runway in an area where large numbers of people want to live without having increasing numbers of aeroplanes passing over them. This argument is also incredibly emotive and difficult to ignore. (Not to say that I’ve been convinced, but maybe that’s a topic for another day…)   

So which is more important? Progress that helps a country develop economically and allows more and more people access to experiences that would otherwise be out of reach? Or protecting and nurturing an environment in which people can feel safe and comfortable? Can people ultimately feel safe and comfortable without economic development - the product of industrial progress?  I’m still unsure where I stand, but what is clear to me is that striking the right balance is becoming increasingly difficult.  

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The best way to spend a sunny day...

Well for once the sun was out in London and everyone in sight was off to spend their evening in a beer garden…but we do things differently at The Nursery. This Tuesday we spent these precious hours of sunlight at the APG Noisy Thinking event ‘The future’s bright…’

Was it worth it? We think so!

After the rather awkward ‘ticket debacle’ as it will forever be known (turning up to an event without the tickets is not a good start!), we made our way through the rather swanky Google offices to grab a cheeky glass of wine before the first speaker.  

And then the talks began…

Each speaker was a junior planner and had an open brief to discuss the future of planning. The theme of the talks fell into two schools of thought: Is the future a big, new, fancy idea to get your brand seen (or a Fucking Big Idea as Enri-Kukka Tuomala from Saatchi and Saatchi put it!) or is it just a question of altering current practices to suit the age we live in?

The second idea may seem like a cop-out but there is interesting reasoning behind it: People will always be people. Insightful I know!!

The way we address our needs may change over time but they fulfil the same function as expressed in the example from Hannah Mckenzie (Adam & Eve) “social media has replaced the garden fence”. Before the age of the internet people would talk and gossip over the garden fence, nowadays we fulfil that need online. The future of planning is simply about making sure your brand is seen in the areas your target market frequents.  There is no point inventing a whole new platform of interaction if your consumers are not willing to engage with it.

A Fucking Big Idea is always something to strive towards but in creating that idea you cannot ignore the fact that in essence people don’t change. It is about finding an inventive way to reach the consumer within the bounds of reality. It is time to stop talking about the ‘marketplace’ and start talking about what happens in the ‘real world’.

Essentially, until the next generation of social media/TV/digital advertising (or whatever comes next) is created we must continue to reach people through the channels they currently use in new and exciting ways. The truth is consumers aren't sat by the computer waiting for your brands new ad or viral campaign to be released; you have to go to them with engaging content. People are exposed to more advertising than ever before these days through a variety of platforms so standing out is always going to be difficult, but this doesn't mean it’s impossible.

Over the years Dove has created a series of ads for their ‘Real Beauty’ campaign which have all gone viral. Their latest ‘Choose Beautiful’ video has had over 5 and a half million views since its release last week. Did they have a Fucking Big Idea? I don’t think so. They chose a human truth (which has never changed) and built a campaign around it which people want to see and share with others.

I personally think the key take-out from the talks was: don’t forget the people you are talking to are just like you. A ‘market place’ is just a group of people going about their daily lives in the same way we do. I’m sure they too would sneak a few biscuits out of the Google office when no one was looking if they got the chance…

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'Insight as Art' - hosted by The Sound

On Thursday 12th February some of the team headedto Clerkenwell for an event held by fellow research agency The Sound. The evening, entitled ‘Insight as Art’, comprised of drinks and a photo exhibition as well as a lively panel debate. 

Before the debate we were able to take a look at the photography, an exploration of ‘Generation Edge’ in which young people were asked to submit images that represent their world. In case you’re wondering ‘Generation Edge’  comprises of those born between 1995 and 2015 and follows on from the Millennials generation who are now aged 21 to 34. 

Generation Edge (or Generation Z as it’s also known) is thought to be savvy, cynical and independent. They’ll expect less support financially and emotionally from their Gen X parents than Millennials did from the Baby Boomer generation, and are prepared to fight for their place in society. They have grown up alongside global fears of terrorism and climate change, but are also expected to become adults during a period of renewal.

These characteristics were very much reflected in the exhibition, with photos depicting loneliness, exuberance, cityscapes, landscapes, technology, friendship and violence. The fact that photography was submitted from the UK, India, Canada, and the US also added an interesting perspective to the work, illustrating the ways in which many of the concerns and aspirations that Gen Edge face are widespread, whilst others differ greatly.

After exploring the exhibition, we  were invited to watch a panel debate on the ‘Insight as Art’theme. Topics raised included:

·         The concern that use of video as research output might encourage ‘style over substance’

·         The extent to which clients should be able to draw their own insights from outputs rather than being told them by the researcher

·         How big data can be used usefully and creatively, perhaps alongside ethnography

·         The role of research in exploring the disparity between how people present themselves online and how they really are, and whether this disparity is growing

Comparisons were also drawn between documentary film makers and researchers:  In both cases the aim is to present a certain perspective in order to provoke and inspire rather than remaining clinically objective.

Thanks to The Sound for inviting us to an evening that was both fun and thought provoking!  

[nurserynosey]

Bonding over a couple of Martinis...

What better way to brighten up a grey and rainy January than to attend the annual AQR Not the Christmas Party?  The Nursery sent a happy cohort along to the James Bond themed event ‘From London with Love’, which took place on the 007 January at the National Theatre’s roof venue, The Deck.

Guests were greeted with a choice of martini (what else?) either traditional or lemon gin, before joining the other spies and villains against the fantastic backdrop of London’s (only slightly drizzly) skyline.

  Party goers could try their luck at the blackjack table, where guests were risking much (paper money) for the chance to win all (the admiration they could hope for). Some gambled better than others, with one spy in particular requiring a little too much help from the dealer, but it’s fair to say that none of us will be leaving research to win a fortune at the tables of Monte Carlo any time soon...

  A handwriting specialist was in attendance, ready to reveal the secrets of our souls and the potential impact these could have on our spying abilities. James, with a forceful script and strong middle section was revealed as opinionated and unafraid to speak his mind whilst Tom’s writing exposed his rebellious nature. Jared's untidy scrawl indicted that he doesn't enjoy writing, which is presumably  okay for a spy. Lucy chose to forego this particular activity, some may say suspiciously; maybe we had a real Mi5 operative in our midst?

  As a memento of the evening, guests could use the spies and villains photo booth complete with inflatable guns, fake moustaches and a Daniel Craig mask. The booth recommended a maximum of 4 guests per photo...

....but as you can see we managed to fit in a few more thanks to our lovely friends at Discovery and Relish...

A brilliant night was had by all. There was no prize for the best James Bond but we think we know who would have won…

  (It's Tom by the way... not the strange guy on the right who wasn't even a quallie!)

Thank you to the AQR for adding a bit of glamour to our New Year!  

[nurserynosey]

The Nursery Christmas Party 2014

With Christmas 2014 quickly becoming a distant memory, we thought it was high time for some festive reminiscing. T'was the morning before Christmas Eve and The Nursery gathered in Soho for the annual yuletide lunch...

Celebrations started early with a traditional game of charades (well the 'Heads Up!' App on iPhone) before the End of Year Meeting. As we waited for our esteemed guests - the merry men and women of Hampton Court (Safari Research to you and I...) terse discussions about the difficulty of acting out 'Merry Christmas' in charades were carried over a few glasses of bubbly. 

With the Secret Santa sack packed and a sleigh-full of secret party games planned (courtesy of Kat and Jared) we headed to Bocca Di Lupo on Archer Street. As befitting the name, food was wolfed down over several courses whilst free-flowing reds and whites meant everybody was more than ready for a Nursery themed quiz.

A game of Guess Who?  involved the revelation of facts of an embarrassing, improbable or bizarre nature about each member of the Nursery. Teams were asked to guess which fact belonged to whom. The quiz went down to a tie-breaker, whilst the trophy (a yard of Jaffa Cakes) lay in wait for the victor. Nas eventually took home the prize but the question on everyone's lips as the main course was served was 'Which Supermodel did Pete Canning once kiss?' Mr. Canning, unfortunately, was not available for comment.

  It wouldn't be a party without a bit of Pass the Parcel. Despite the sound system's best efforts to scupper the flow of the prize around the room we soldiered on. Prizes won included everything from fake moustaches, inflatable snowmen and reindeer antlers (prizes) to strange accents, sing-a-longs and certain members of the team lining up in height order (forfeits).

By this time everyone was suitably merry, and the moment for Secret Santa to deliver his gifts had arrived. Top presents included a snowman onesie, a stick on mullet, a magazine extolling the virtues of Wiltshire and copious amounts of chocolate. Top marks, however, go to Lucy’s Secret Santa: a donation to Unicef along with an uncanny rendering of the recipient as a young Diane Keating in Annie Hall :

  After a few hours chatting and merry making, most of the team returned to the office where the fun and frivolity continued. A music quiz followed by a 12 person game of Cards Against Humanity ensued. We also got to see Nas sporting her snowman onesie (no picture unfortunately). At the end of the evening, all went home thoroughly prepared for Christmas and full of festive spirit.

  We hope you had a fantastic break too, and Happy New Year! 

[nurserynosey]

A Nosey into the Future – Visuals, Brands and Why We Buy - Sarah Brookes

As market researchers, we spend our days delving into the minds of others. So when the APG organised an evening of neuro- multi-sensory -delight, we got involved.

Phil Barden set up the evening with some sturdy knowledge introducing cognitive fluency – an extension to Daniel Kahneman’s theory; that isn’t based on a rational or emotional response (at this point I was extremely grateful for the free book!). ‘No brainer’ puzzles followed that demonstrated our system 1 thinking and the explanation of framing brands was very interesting too. However my favourite bit was the golden nugget of insight into why we buy, which was both illuminating and amusing!

When the net value between reward and pain is the same = WE BUY!

So if you’ve ever toiled over buying something crazy expensive you might have experienced this more consciously? For example, see below:

He also explored lots of other neuro-sciencey gems that explained how brand perceptions and experiences directly influence our purchase decisions, which is all very useful and relevant in our research practice and something we will consider taking back to the table.

So before moving on, we would highly recommend you checking out his book ‘Decoded’.

Next up was Sam Bompas, co-founder of Bompas & Parr; the Kings of all things fine, English and jelly. The self-confessed ‘poor man’s Heston Blumenthal’ also creates spectacular culinary events.

He wowed us not just with his choice of trouser, but also multi-sensory fireworks, flavoured retail units, cocktail organs, and last but not least - a bottle of snake oil lube!

He also frazzled a gherkin to demonstrate his ‘crap lightbulb’ idea, which he made an entire chandelier from. They contain just enough water to conduct electricity and resulted in creating a glowing, veggie-like LED. Cool huh?!

He goes on to convince us “isn't the world a marvellous place!”

Indeed it is. Bompas wonderfully complimented Barden by reinforcing the importance of the multi-sensory – sound, shape, colour and smell and the impact it can have on our perceptions and senses.

The evening was finished-off with some ‘guess-the-flavour-of-the-jelly’ tasting…and of course some delicious Google snacks.

Here’s Jared and James tucking in…

[nurserynosey]

The power of Kenny Rogers...?

Waiting for a bus in Brixton the other day, I noted it was 15 minutes late, yet no-one was tutting, complaining or getting agitated.. as one might expect.  Instead, the group in unison were swaying along with the dulcet tones of Kenny Rogers booming out of a music hut nearby.  The power of the legend known as Kenny Rogers? Or an even greater sign of the gentrification of Brixton? You Decide

.

[nurserynosey]

So long Alice...

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to a member of our lovely team. However, we understand she needs to shoot for the stars and pursue her dreams of meeting Edward Cullen.. currently on the way to Forks via Dollywood. Alice, Good luck. We'll miss you...