We worked before but now we work at WeWork.

Excuse the tautology but as you might have guessed we’ve moved to a WeWork. For those not already familiar, they provide ‘co-working’ spaces with a boutique-industrial feel.

A self-described “physical social network”, WeWork prides itself on its community of ‘creators’. Want to test your product? Ask your neighbours. Want a recommendation for a designer? Put it out on the network. Fancy a beer? Help yourself – it’s literally on tap.

Now we’ve been here for a few months and are starting to look beyond the Silicon Valley hype, the handwriting and the excesses of Friday’s WeWork London’s Halloween party, we’re more aware that WeWork is essentially a property company – albeit the hippest one most businesses will ever interact with. Their core product is short-lease office space and it couldn’t be more suited to the ultra-flexible ‘sharing economy’ we’re moving towards. This, more than the community ethos and the  ‘do what you love’ brand, is the real reason for their $15 billion valuation.  Fair play to them.

And that’s also why WeWork is perfect for a research agency like us. While other areas of the economy find themselves flat-footed – ‘disrupted’, even – by this new landscape of uncertainty we in market research have always been enabled and constrained by flexibility.  

Suffice it to say, we’re quite at home at WeWork Waterhouse Square. So drop by and have a beer with us – did we mention it’s on tap?

Clapham Common tube station has this week been overrun by cats. And no, it’s not an army of strays or a mass escape plan from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home- although come to think of it that would be awesome. It is in fact in the form of plastering nearly every single advertising space throughout the station with images of our furry feline friends, with the hashtag #catsnotads.

Powered by “The Citizens Advertising Takeover” (CATS- I like what they did there), the organisation actually behind all of this is called Glimpse. Their manifesto is rooted in making people think a little differently about the world around them, and inspiring a drive for positive change. They want to use creativity for good, as rightly it should be.

Glimpse ran a Kickstarter campaign that swiftly raised over £20,000 to replace a London tube station with something good. But they also needed it to catch people’s attention- and what’s the one thing that the world loves more than ads? Cats of course. The result is an incredibly impressive blanketing of cats throughout the station, that’s seen me witness more than one double take in the last two days, and a whole lot of smiles. I have to admit, it’s much nicer than the usual plethora of insurance, travel and burger joint ads that I usually whizz past on my daily commute.

It also genuinely seems like it’s not just a big publicity stunt that’s masking some big brand with a corporate goal, or even an attempts for Glimpse to gain five minutes of fame themselves. Dig a little deeper into the motives behind the movement, and you’ll find out that a majority of the cats featured are actually from Cat Protection and Battersea Dogs & Cats home, the takeover being used as a way of encouraging people to re-home, or sponsor an animal.

Whilst #catsnotads might seem like a big statement against the establishment, supposedly Glimpse are not against advertising per se, but more about reminding the ad world and all those who are a part of it that the work they do is a powerful, and that maybe such a powerful platform could, and should, be used more creatively, and for doing more good.

And if I’m honest, I have to agree with them.

As a 17 year old, I am considered to be in the heart of the expanding cohort of social media users. Brands have recognized this new platform for advertisement, setting up their own profiles and pages to target the online world. Yet, I think that brands tend to rely far too heavily on the fact that this new advertising opportunity exists, forgetting that just because we have twitter (and all the rest of it), there is no guarantee that we will be exposed to the self-promotion that they release onto these sites: they will have to work a little harder to gain our ‘follow’ and appear on our smartphone screens.

In my view, this has been the failing of this year’s Olympic sponsors. The Games have a range of partners this year who are sponsoring athletes and producing global advertising campaigns to promote both their product, and the Olympics themselves. Proctor and Gamble (P&G) have pushed various such campaigns, as have Samsung and Visa. Each have released lengthy television adverts, and their online presence is strong: the twitter, instagram and facebook profiles of these huge names are entirely alight with Rio-based hashtags, simpering images of elated medallists who they, by contract, have to support. So why is it that no one seems to have any idea that these companies are even part of the Games, suggesting they have failed to ‘exploit’ them in the ways they could?

P&G and all the brands that it owns have made a considerable effort to promote themselves via Rio. Gillette has released a rather dark, intense and three minute long advert with the tag line ‘Perfect isn’t Pretty’. It features various athletes suffering injury, illness and family tension all at the hands of sport, making admirable sacrifices for their discipline and showing impressive resilience. Once or twice during this excessively long video the athletes use a Gillette razor and conduct a fairly cursory shave. Despite the brand reposting this advert with gusto numerous times on their social media, I have not seen it on UK TV, or on billboards or public spaces. Also, the link between shaving and the Olympics is not well established, but translates as being rather forced: surely if ‘perfect’ is not ‘pretty’, the need for shaving in the first place is removed. All in all, the advert is weak, in more ways than one. However, twitter is where I believe P&G to be making all the right choices with regards to their Olympic campaign, even though I do not follow them myself. For one, they make use of Australian singer Sia having produced a song especially for the Gillette advert, by ‘retweeting’ one of her tweets about the collaboration. Although I do not consider celebrity involvement to necessarily make advertising more successful, seeing a familiar name in association with a campaign is effective in making that campaign more memorable. Furthermore, P&G are unique in that they ‘retweet’ the comments of normal consumers, portraying them to be an imminent and personal brand rather than some detached, inaccessible and irrelevant corporation.

Samsung is another name that I was unaware of being affiliated with the Games, despite their highly sentimental advert and use of social media. Again, this advert is more of a mini-film, around 3 minutes long, so one would imagine it to be powerful. Yet, any emotional power is completely undercut by what the advert is aiming to sell. In ‘The Chant’, we see Margret Rumat Rumat Hassan, a 19 year old 400m runner from South Sudan, preparing for the games with her whole community supporting her by chanting her name. The fact that 2016 is South Sudan’s first year in the Olympics, after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 following a long and brutal conflict, gives the advert a definite ‘tug on the heartstrings’ factor as a story of overcoming barriers and achieving victory against all odds. At the end, when we are all appropriately moved and Margret is about to race, she removes from her ears a pair of cordless headphones through which she has been listening to her friends’ motivating chanting. This relatively superfluous product does seem to undercut the impact that this advert could have had, and the minimal coverage of this advert on TV further limits its success. Aside from TV advertising, Samsung has been tweeting almost every day, cheering on its athletes with the obstacle-defeating hashtag, ‘DoWhatYouCant’. With millions of followers on such platforms, Samsung is reaching many with their Olympic campaign, but the wider audience of TV viewers has not been fully tapped into in a similar way to Gillette.

Visa has also created a TV advert, featuring athletes from around the world making a fantastical journey across land and sea to Rio from their respective nations (using their Visa cards to fund it, of course). It showcases Brazil’s incredible landscapes, and defines the Olympics as something fun, exciting and magical. Without a doubt, this is the most successful advert. Although the link between sport and credit cards is again somewhat tedious, it is not quite so inappropriately realised as the two previously discussed, and succeeds in both of an Olympic partner’s objectives: creating enthusiasm and excitement for the product and the Games, not just for the product. But, yet again, this has hardly been on our television screens. With regards to social media, Visa has no official instagram or active facebook, yet every single tweet since the 2^nd of August (3 days before the Olympic start date) has been dedicated to ‘#TeamVisa’, their 30 plus sponsored athletes. Whilst this is an effective way to get their name out there, it focuses entirely on their own athletes whilst other brands have released far more general, inclusive posts encouraging and congratulating the sporting success of all competitors, which is an off-putting and thus limiting aspect of their Olympic inspired self-promotion.

After researching these three major sponsors and their relentless attempts to drive their campaigns, I am surprised by how little knowledge I had of their connection to Rio, and thus how they have failed to achieve their two objectives as a sponsor. The fact that I do not follow any of these companies on twitter and instagram is the main reason for this disconnect, and limited followers is the main barrier to similar businesses being able to effectively use social media to sell themselves. The committed and clever online networking of companies like P&G becomes futile without followers to see it. I know very few people my age, or indeed any age, who follow brands online, unless these brands are offering useful information regarding new discount codes and special offers (in other words, unless they can personally benefit from clicking the follow button). Why would you sacrifice your precious followers to following ratio otherwise? So, social media should not be the main means of promotion to rely on for any promotionary campaigns, with this being the weakness of Gillette, Samsung and Visa. Considering the only brand I knew to be an Olympic partner (Always) was the one I had seen advertised on television and billboards, these platforms strike me as far more vital for targeting the consumer than sites like twitter. Perhaps the message here is that the best advertising techniques have not, as is the modern viewpoint, actually changed as a result of the existence of social media… at least not yet. Until brands start luring in whole nations of online followers with the promise of self-gain, the ‘old-fashioned’, back-to-basics methods of television and posters in public spaces may be the way to go for both Olympic, and small scale, advertising.

After nearly 7 years housed in the grubby but getting better bit of Waterloo Road – we’re off!

Our decision to move has been protracted but was rapidly accelerated by a need for a space with um, more space, more flexibility and more Itsu’s.

And then we met WeWork. If you haven’t cruised past one of their 12 London (and many more worldwide spaces) yet then you will soon. Lofty exposed ceilings? Tick. Funky art and beer on tap? Tick. Office dogs? Tick. Hoards of hipsters on Macs plotting the next tech revolution? Double Tick.

What we love already about our personal slice of WeWork space is all of the above and more. It heralds our shift into being more focused on what’s going on outside of research than what’s in it. We want to take the company’s lead by collaborating with other WeWork members and finding newer, cleverer ways of doing what we do. If we need instance videographers, we can find them. If we need to find an App developer, there they are. If we reach out to those new challenger brands and work with them, they’re right where we are.

It’s time Razor had an office as grown up as we are. This is a grown up space full of grown up people. Grown ups who are entrepreneurial, collaborative, nimble and clever. That’s us.

Come and visit us…and if you don’t fancy taking part in Wednesday Yoga or Thursday Lunch and Learns…at least have a go on the swanky coffee machine.

Our new address is:

Razor Research

WeWork Waterhouse Square

3 Waterhouse Square

138 Holborn

EC1N 2SW

I’ve been reading a whole load of stuff about virtual reality this morning which no doubt most of you have come across – it’s just fascinating!

More and more brands are trying out virtual reality as part of their marketing strategy. Studies have shown that consumers have a greater affinity towards brands using VR, and the explosion of Pokemon Go simply validates this!

VR solves a huge problems marketers have around engagement and awareness for the following reasons:

• Immersive – users wearing a headset are completely immersed in the content meaning fewer distractions and more attention on the message.
• Impactful – the intensity of a VR experience is greater than traditional media generating strong emotions in its users which are linked to real behaviour change.
• Memorable – our brains are built to remember events linked to locations, this means that VR experiences have a longer trace in the audience’s memory.
• Novel – with high media and public interest in VR early adopters can benefit from favourable media exposure.

Here are a few examples of brands using VR in marketing…

North Face – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfkE4emoBE

Volvo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=Wuln2bJkp1k

The Marriott hotel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf1aC6aebq8

It will be interesting to see how this rise in technology is shaping the future of qualitative research. Does this mean moving away from traditional focus groups towards much more immersive and engaging online social communication? I know this requires technology and expertise but can we challenge ourselves to think more creatively about (feasible!) methodologies we could adopt, like we’ve done with our WhatsApp chats…now that we’ve killed several Drowzee’s – what’s next?

Last week I was lucky enough to grab a ticket to the Grazia Google Food for Thought event, in which a number of influential women who have recently taken the food industry by storm shared their thoughts and experiences on how digital has transformed the way we cook, eat and create food brands and businesses in 2016. Food, technology, awesome speakers, bubbles AND a chance to hang out at Google? What’s not to love about that!

The panel line up was impressive, and Google’s Head of Marketing Nishma Robb clearly took delight in sharing the stage with Grazia’s Deputy Editor Caroline Barrett before introducing our fabulous foodies Madeline Shaw, Uyeen Luu and Romina Chiappa who were being put through their paces by Sky TV’s Sarah-Jane Mee. A stage full of inspirational women who are each running successful businesses built around their genuine passion for making great food, and who have used the ever-evolving technological landscape to their advantage to grow and nourish a loyal fanbase which most brands would sell their grannies for.

There’s no denying it, they all agreed, that today’s dinner table has changed- from the food and drink we place on it, to the way in which we behave when we’re sat there. We seek recipe inspiration online not only in the form of typical lists and instructions, but photos, vlogs and video tutorials guide us through the process like a digital sous chef. We take photos of the food we eat, and swiftly upload to a multiple of online channels (after a heavy dose of cropping, filtering and hashtagging). We even painstakingly input every crumb we consume into our meal tracker apps and record our calorie consumption on our fitbits.

From TV, to apps, to blogs, to social media to YouTube Channels, these ladies have truly harnessed the power of all things digital. They’re helping to lead the way and define the forefront of what’s ‘in’ when it comes to what and how we eat, educating and inspiring the masses with their accessible and personal approaches to delicious food. Technology has propelled them into the limelight, and given them the opportunity to share their recipes, techniques and of course photos of their daily offering of #whatIatetoday with the world.

It’s easy to question whether, in the age of all things digital, something more traditional like a paperback cookbook even has a place anymore? It was a firm YES from our panel, “I’m buying more cookbooks than I’ve ever bought before” exclaimed Sarah-Jane; and she’s right. There’s something very satisfying about a physical curation of beautiful and exciting cookbooks organised elegantly on a shelf, showcasing the breadth of your knowledge and discernment when it comes to food- because let’s face it, even if it’s not digital, it’s still all about social currency right?

Our tech savvy ladies had some advice for brands, and other entrepreneurs seeking to harness the power of technology to reach out to the world- regardless of whether your mission is food focused or not:

• “Each social media platform speaks a different language”, videos on Instagram SHOULD be different to videos on Youtube, as each serves a specific purpose and demographic so content needs to be developed with this in mind.
• “Be truthful to your original values”, people see straight through you, and will quickly discard you if it doesn’t seem genuine, staying true to a purpose/ message/ idea is vital and whilst growth is important, retaining authenticity is more so.
• “Plan carefully where and when to post”, who are you trying to speak to? What will they be doing right now? When are they most receptive, and in what arena? These are the questions you need to know the answers to.
• “Connect with your audience”, you exist at the mercy of those who read your posts. Be understanding and receptive of their comments, and interact on a personal level to
• “Never stop seeking inspiration yourself”, our panellists all had a plethora of other inspirational digital foodies who they aspire to be like themselves. They’re certainly not resting on their laurels, and they very clearly LOVE what they do, and continue to find ways to grow individually.

Technology has drastically changed the way in which people can (and do!) pursue success. It’s created a multitude of platforms for “the average joe” to communicate their thoughts and ideas far and wide, gaining traction with a captivated audience far quicker than in the past. Last year saw infamous YouTuber PewDiePie appear on the Forbes Rich List, and I’m sure the names of more riders of the digital wave will join him as time goes on.

We’re often under pressure from our clients to produce visually sophisticated, inspiring, outputs. We also internally push ourselves to produce work that is visually impressive, contemporary and will stand out against other agencies. So, attending a Breakfast Bites on the art of infographics was a no brainer.

The course was run by Rachel Cox, Senior Research Manager at Relish and infographic expert. The purpose of the session was to help us learn to think in a more visual way and ultimately discover the essence of a good infographic…I’m told this is information represented in a way that can be quickly and clearly understood without getting bogged down in all the detail! Rachel taught us three key elements to keep in mind when creating an infographic – design, data and story all of which must always be of equal measure.

We were shown some examples of creatively engaging infographics – whilst extremely inspired I did have doubts as to how I could feasible replicate something of this level design. We all know that time is a luxury when it comes to chart writing. After an analysis session we head straight to our default device, so Powerpoint in my case, where we mess around with the shapes in the hope of being inspired to create a slide that’s visually pleasing whilst clearly illustrating the insights.

According to Rachel, it’s unsurprising we struggle to come up with visual narratives that genuinely bring to life the points we are trying to make. Instead, we should be starting our creative journey with pencil to paper – it is the creative evolution through drawing that allows you to craft a powerful infographic. It is at this point you turn to Powerpoint to exemplify the idea …no wonder it’s felt like hard work up until now!

We put the idea to the test and I can tell you first hand it really works! In groups we were given a topic, in my case Wedding suits, along with several charts abstracted from a debrief deck. Using the slides we were tasked to condense the findings into one simple essence – a visual metaphor. Although harder than anticipated – coming up with ideas as a group is a productive method. It got me thinking, in our analysis sessions we should be challenging each other and working together as a team to sum up ideas visually more often. This way we can help train our minds to think in a more visual way.

But do we challenge ourselves enough – are we always crafting the most engaging and relevant work through incorporating a more visual narrative? We are already good at providing clients with fancy one-pager take aways but could we be doing more to condense our findings through the power of infographics. Not only will this push us to decipher what the most important insights are but will also help us tell a clear and coherent story. This way we can step out of the PowerPoint comfort zone and use stand alone infographic pieces to actively engage our clients.

I love it when Steve (my Razor co-founder) surprises me.  Over one of our Monday morning coffees last year he suggested it was time to launch a new website and alongside it, relaunch our positioning.  Jiminy.  8 months later, it’s happened.  Launched, bedded in and now we’re all on board with Sharper Thinking.

It sounds SO obvious right?  We’re called Razor, of course Sharper Thinking is what we stand for.  I look back now at the various punning stories we’ve woven into what we deliver – cutting through, cutting edge, cutting to the chase and wonder why it took us so long to narrow our philosophy down to two snappy words.

The truth is, like many brands, you get stuck in your own initial ‘reason to believe’ and you don’t always take the time to introspect.  We had our 5 core values, our mission, our vision. We spend time each year discussing these with the team and making sure they are embedded in everything we do.  But in our 8 years of business and residual love for our first website we never quite got around to challenging the over-arching expression of ourselves.  

The agency we selected (Big Brand Ideas – they’re ace) not only designed our beautiful website and evolved our logo but they challenged us from the start.  They were briefed to evolve us, not just our look and feel.  They took the time to understand our business (even before we commissioned them), they immersed themselves in our world and they helped us craft the new expressions of ourselves.  I’m not convinced we would have worked so hard or so effectively, without them.

To the outsider, our new website is probably ‘just a website’.  Our evolved logo is ‘just a bit different’.  The response from our clients and friends has been positive and we look back at our old ‘us’ and think it all looks so old-fashioned – overnight.  We feel instantly more grown up, more professional and more in tune with what our clients really want.   The process and the results have provided us with a whack of oxygen, a reason to talk about ourselves more confidently and a new impetus to get out there and talk Razor.  We’ve always delivered it but now we really believe we look the part.  That’s Sharper Thinking.

A few weeks ago it was the Voxburner Youth Marketing Conference and unsurprisingly, a number of speakers referenced social media and the way in which Gen Y and Gen Z use different social platforms. After digesting everything that was spoken about, something that’s really stuck with me is an idea that brands should be following behaviours, not platforms.

Teens and young adults no longer use written words or text as a means of expressing themselves; instead it’s all about images. So it’s not that Facebook was disliked overnight, or that there was a sudden rebellion against it, it’s just that it doesn’t represent their current behaviour. This highlights the importance for brands to keep a watchful eye on how these age groups express themselves, and use platforms that reflect these means of communication.

Just as importantly, brands need to understand HOW teens are using different forms of social media in order to create tailored strategies for each platform. Simply placing the same piece of content across social platforms is seen by this age group as lazy and lacks any impact. If brands want to achieve success socially, then they need to mirror the way this audience communicate and ensure the content is relevant to the chosen platform.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the ‘Engaging Youth – Hot Trends & Insights’ Conference at the Museum of London Docklands and it certainly lived up to it’s name.  A jam packed day full of largely client side speakers from the likes of Twitter, BBC, Cancer Research and News UK to name a few, sharing their experiences and work they have done with teens and young adults. Each and every paper was fascinating, with the stats and stories they shared reminding me how important it is that we recognise the differences between this group and those who have been before. Whilst debated amongst speakers whether we can really call Gen Z ‘digital natives’, (with some arguing only children today are true ‘digital natives’) it was most certainly agreed that this is an audience, that as challenging as they may be, brands need to win over.

At Razor, we’ve been doing lots of work with this age group, talking everything from soft drinks to Vlogging so it was great to hear directly from clients the challenges and struggles they’ve face and to be given examples of how they’ve found success. What was apparent across talks, and a real ‘PHEW!’ moment as a market researcher, was a consensus that for brands to successfully talk to teens and young adults, they haveto engage with them and spend time in their worlds. Dan Walsh, Head of Marketing at the BBC, addressed this issue head on when he said we must ‘quit making marketing for marketers and make campaigns that build and develop the real dreams and ambitions of your audience’ – he described how BBC 1Xtra listened to and spent time with young adults, understanding their worlds in order to make campaigns that inspire them and importantly, give something back to them.

Tariq Slim (Head of Tech and Telco at Twitter) gave some good examples of how brands can give back by engaging in two way conversations, listening and responding to what young people want in real time. He confirmed what we hear from a lot of the young people we’ve spoken to, that brands need to be having these honest, ‘live’ conversations and talking to them on their platforms and at the times they are online, because if they aren’t, someone else will be. And when it comes to platforms, trends are changing faster than ever before, ‘social media’ can no longer just be bundled into one bucket so brands need to understand the different purposes different social media sites fill – Ben Whitelaw from News UK boldly claimed that “Facebook is now a graveyard, used to arrange events” and “video is no longer a 16:9 media format that you just ‘play’, it’s become something that’s experienced” – this is clearly apparent in the rise of platforms like SnapChat, Vines, YouTube and Periscope and I wonder whether brands could be doing more in their comms to reflect the tone and content that Gen Z are watching

I left the conference with my brain working overtime thinking of all the new facts, figures and ideas I’d learnt, Gen Z are certainly a savvy bunch who very much want to know what brands can do for them and I for one will be keeping a close eye on this important generation.