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Integrated briefs

“We don't accomplish anything in the world alone...whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.” Sandra Day O'Connor

Firefish and Integration
Firefish Ltd has always taken an holistic and bespoke approach to any client briefs that land at our door. We are not in the business of pigeon-holing or applying compartmental boundaries. For every brief we receive (large or small, complex or relatively simple) we endeavour to explore the objectives from all angles in order to ultimately provide the fullest, most complete, and most accurate presentation of findings at the end of the research process.

As a company made up of a colourful mix of some of the industry’s freshest talent, and many lifelong innovators this approach has always been in our DNA, however our rapid growth and development over recent years has meant that we are now more equipped than ever to deal with briefs requiring an integrated/bespoke approach.

In 2011, Firefish grew beyond its original qualitative roots, to become a complete and multifaceted intelligent research outfit, which has at its disposal a wealth of research expertise from all relevant spheres.

What is our integrated approach all about?
When a new brief arrives at Firefish, regardless of which department it was sent to originally, we will always endeavour to approach all of our internal departments to gather their thoughts, ideas, and potential involvement in putting together a proposal which has considered your research and business objectives from all angles. Our proposals will always seek to provide you with the fullest and most complete answer to your questions.

A fully integrated proposal has potential to offer you any, or all, of the following:

• The vital detail, insight, and strategic recommendations of a qual approach
• The reassuring robustness of a quant element
• The unprecedented access, detailed exploration, and immediacy of interaction of an online component
• The colour, entertainment, and revelatory quality of a film element
• The flexibility, relevance, ease of use, and continual access to your respondents of a mobile app
• And more...The possibilities are endless!

What Does This Mean For You?
With all of the above tools at our disposal, and employing the described approach, we are therefore more than equipped to deal with any briefs you have which would benefit from an integrated approach. Indeed, any research briefs, big or small, Firefish will welcome with open arms and will immediately put to our teams to come up with what we feel the most complete, but at the same time efficient and cost effective approach.

Our Services:
Ever-expanding qualitative research outfit – Currently numbering 35 full time qualitative researchers, Firefish’s award-winning qual department is constantly recruiting the best research talent out there – all of whom bring fresh minds, fresh passion, and a fresh approach to your briefs which we can integrate into our own vision. This department is now equipped to handle any independent briefs, large or small, whilst also providing a vital qualitative element to integrated briefs.

Firefish Quant – A growing team of research experts with wide reaching experience.  Their philosophy is to offer intelligence at every step. They use the methodology and technology that provides the best approach and answer – be that the latest in web tracking technology, mobile platforms or traditional pen and paper – whatever is best for the project. They treat participants as humans, engaging them as much as possible in the research through gamification of surveys and interviewing techniques. They tell stories with the data and give those stories life.

Aquarium™ – Our bespoke online platform with dedicated support team offers blogs, vlogs, forums, vforums, digital co-creative collages, and more. Aquarium™ is a fantastic resource for a host of different projects – from those seeking detailed colour and background exploration of any topic or particular target, to those desiring live, quick-fire feedback on questions and key issues as they arise.
Aquarium™ is also capable of running long term panel-style studies, and has done so recently for a number of our biggest clients, with excellent results.

Firefilms –Firefilms are our in-house film department and for over a decade they have been making award winning films for the research teams at Firefish, filming all over the world with a network of professional cameramen and editors. Capture and communicate are the two main components of their work. Capture is finding effective ways of enabling our researchers to be there at the moment of insight and is an area that sees constant innovation with methodologies like FishEye™, a photographic camera worn by the respondent that takes a picture every 7 seconds to create a flipbook style film of someone’s life, FireFrames™ simple glasses with a built in camera to capture shopper journeys, Periscope™ a 360° camera that gives us a unique perspective on everything from watching the television to eating breakfast.
Communicating insight is just as important as the method of capture and Firefilms are experts at creating engaging films that can bring to life and deliver the most hidden and subtle of insights.

The Pineapple Lounge –The Pineapple Lounge is a standalone business unit within Firefish, working exclusively in the kids and family market. The best kids research comes from experts who have an on-going dialogue with this unique consumer group and through the unique position within the Firefish family, The Pineapple Lounge is able to offer a specialist service with access to the wider Firefish resources.
Every project benefits from the added value of up-to-date trend information, theories on how to talk to kids, what makes a cool brand and child development information.

Large full-time dedicated in-house field department. Great recruitment is the foundation of any piece of research. We believe this so passionately that we do not outsource our recruitment to other companies, but rather we have a dedicated and growing team working in the office alongside the research teams. Regular meetings with the field team ensure that they are fully aware of our priorities – indeed some of them started their lives in research and thus bring valuable expertise to the team.

Crowdlab© – Last year, Firefish began a partnership with Crowdlab©, which uses the latest in mobile app technology to allow people to record their thoughts and feelings as they are thinking and feeling them – through survey style interactions, photo, video and audio capture. The app allows us to capture vital insights in-store, in-home or on the go; and to capture these things naturally and unobtrusively; as pre-tasking for qualitative sessions or studies in their own right

Also at our disposal, and regularly employed on our studies are a trusted network of experts in a host of relevant  fields, who both understand the Firefish attitude to research, but are also able to refresh and inspire us to look at your briefs in a new and innovative way.

These fields include:

• Sociology/anthropology
• Semiotics
• Behavioural Economics
• NLP
• Plus a host of other relevant academics

If you have a brief you would like us to look at, or any further questions, then please just get in touch

Kids Briefs

In the mid-2011, we excitedly announced the launch of The Pineapple Lounge; Firefish’s answer to research with kids and families. Since launching in June the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Kids research expert, and popular mummy blogger, Emma Worrollo, is now leading a growing team of specialist researchers into the forefront of how research with this unique market is approached. The Pineapple Lounge has attracted an array of new clients and offered an extended service for existing Firefish clients requiring expertise in this area, Sony, McDonald’s, Wrigley and Everything Everywhere to name a few. All in all it’s an exciting and busy time and here’s why we think the launch has been such a success…

When kids research is done well, it’s insightful, strategic and empowering for brands. Kids imaginations are fantastic places to explore, bursting with honest opinions and colourful ideas. However, if not unlocked in the right way, research with young consumers can be a painful experience for clients and an agency out its depth. The need for the right skills and expertise is clear, but it’s not just about moderation and ‘being good with kids’.
The Pineapple Lounge was founded on three core principles and a vision to shake up the way research is done in this category, which looking back at last year, seems to be meeting and exceeding client needs and delivering impactful results.

First and foremost our roots are grounded in pure qualitative research, which keeps us focussed, and on top of game; we’re plugged into the industry, adapting and creating methodologies that echo the needs of the life stages we work with.  But it’s not just about the methodologies, the values of Firefish echo through our work; we’re definitely not about ‘kids say the funniest things’. We are committed to powerful strategic thinking and have the ability to interpret what happens in research and turn it into something actionable. Our qualitative thinking also extends in to our approach to quant thinking – more of which you can read about here.

Our emphasis on trends and what’s cool is also providing a value-added service for clients keen to understand how to engage with challenging audiences. Our exclusive qual panel and tween consultants ‘miniMDs’ (aged 8 – 16) and our network of opinion leader mums play a valuable role in bringing us this information.

And then there’s our unique position within Firefish, which is giving us a leading edge amongst the competition. We offer a boutique service run by experts but are backed by the resources and the thinking of an award winning larger agency. This means we can manage international projects and have built a growing network of partner agencies who share our expertise. It also means we share desks with some of the best minds in the industry and collaborate to bring clients the best of both worlds.

If you have a brief you would like The Pineapple Lounge to look at, or want to know more, then please just get in touch