Winners of 2 MRS Awards 2016

It is with great pride that we announce two more award wins for our incredible work with PayPal that led to the creation of their global brand positioning. Adding to our 2 wins earlier in the year (the ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award and a Masters of Marketing Award in the research & insight category) we are delighted to have won both the Best International and Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insight categories at this year’s MRS Awards, held at Supernova London on 5th December.

As with the other two award wins, the prizes go to those projects that deliver a clear ROI and strategic direction for the client. However, what sets the MRS Award wins apart are that the key criteria for the categories. Firefish runs global projects for its clients every day of the year – it is one of our specialities and why our clients return to us project after project – and to have the following said of the work in the Best International category is a boon:

“The [paper] won for many reasons, but the chief was that it demonstrated a brilliant use of research to define and develop a new international strategy and positioning for PayPal”

The judges also said that the paper “used the latest technology to really understand the role of money in real people’s lives today, and what could be done to improve how money ‘serves’ everybody”. In actuality, Firefish has been using lifelogging as a fundamental part of ethnographic phases and projects to get to the heart of real behaviour since 2009, when it also scooped the Best Innovation award at 2010 MRS Awards. We pioneered its use as a research tool and is an established part of our toolkit. Combined with our strategic thinking and a range of other approaches, including documentary-style filmmaking, it adds that extra real-world depth that so many clients value so much. You can see what it might bring to your project by watching this short film.

In addition to the Best International award win, we are also delighted with also taking home the Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insight. The MRS say that the key to winning this award is in highlighting how cultural analysis can provide powerful new insights that address client challenges, leading to innovative solutions and commercial results for business and that the focus must be on original and innovative work that is rooted in a demonstrably rigorous technique. The judges said,

“This project deconstructs and recreates a new concept of money to help the underserved. Astounding!”

Enough said.

If you are an MRS member, you can log in and read the case study for yourself to get a little more depth and you can see the Book of the Night here.

If you want to know how Firefish could bring game-changing insight to your business and brand, then please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.