2. Page !X
WHO ARE WE?
We go further by treating
the people in our
research as experts and
partners, not just
respondents
We go further by seeking to
experience the research not just
observe and listen
We go further by spending more and
real time with people to get beneath
curated identities and herd opinions.
We are inspired by documentary making
techniques and follow the story
wherever it takes us.
We go further by focusing on
just your project; we only work
on one project at a time
is micro agency staffed by a small experienced team of
researchers, strategists and
FILM MAKERS.
We are obsessed with delivering authentic high quality
work…
Founded by Ian Pierpoint,
3. Page !3
FUCKED
OFF
When you start a company you’ve got to be pissed off
about something.
Me?
The lack of work life balance in the industry and the
lazy reliance on inauthentic approaches.
And, of course, the subsequent average quality of work
caused by the above…
So I started a new agency and called it Further&Further.
So here’s the things that pissed me off enough to start
another research agency…
4. Page !4
Before I started Further&Further I did some research.
Yeah, crazy I know…
Between writing ranting Linkedin posts I talked to a
bunch of clients and I asked them about their biggest
frustrations with research agencies.
And right up there was the 'incredible disappearing
project lead'.
"You get a beautiful proposal with a fantastic team,
lead by someone with experience and gravitas", they
told me.
And then, as soon as the projects commissioned, they
disappear, only popping up again at the debrief where
they present the work with all the authenticity of a
Milli Vanilli tribute band.
Clients want senior people to actually do the work,
not pretend to. Any other model you experience is
the agency putting profit ahead of the product.
And that's bullshit.
DISAPPEARING
C
PROJECT
LESSON #1
THE
C
LEAD
5. Page !5
I once asked a policeman the worst thing about his job
and he said, ‘the fact that no-one is ever pleased to see
me’.
A few years back I began to feel that way as a
researcher.
You’d rock up to do a group or some interviews and you’d
find a bunch bored people silently praying you’d had an
accident on the way there so they could get their $100
and fuck off home.
And then of course once you got into the discussion it
often became pretty clear that they’re not interested,
not interesting and barely even listening.
Too many research sessions became a competition as to who
could look at their watch more discretely – me, or the
seemingly stoned group of incentive mercenaries monging
out over cheap sandwiches.
If you recruit respondents from stale databases, who
don’t care about your research and who may well be
pretending to be someone else, expect bullshit.
INCENTIVE
MERCENARIES
LESSON #2
6. Page !6
Why, when we get asked to go explore fluid issues do we all too
often come back with rigid and static approaches?
The answer to an exploratory question all to often starts with
a matrix of people and places in a proposal which then, like a
caterpillar metamorphosing into a slug, eventually gets turned
into a screener and a fieldwork schedule.
The multi tasking, probably exhausted, researcher then heads
out to explore your issue by talking to a set number of people
for set amount of time in a set number of places.
If an interview is amazing it lasts an hour.
If an interview is utter shit it still lasts an hour.
If an interviewee suggests you talk to someone else, the
researcher does not.
If an interviewee suggests you head somewhere else, the
researcher cannot.
Everything is done inside the box, matching the sample, hitting
the numbers and giving the client what they ‘paid’ for…
And that's bullshit.
RESEARCH
BY
LESSON #3
NUMBERS!
7. Page !7
Being a researcher is awesome. You get to meet
interesting people, go to interesting places,
discover new things, make sense of the world
and be the foundation of every new brand
adventure.
So why do so many research agencies call their
teams Consultants or Planners or Strategists or
Innovators or even fucking Knowledge Ninjas?
Anything but what they actually do, which is
research.
But we do more than just research I hear you
cry.
Do you really though? Writing strategic
research recommendations does not make you a
strategist. Running a workshop does not make
you a consultant. Generating an idea does not
make you an Innovator. Wearing a black roll
neck does however make you a ninja.
Rather than developing new research approaches
most agencies spend their time trying to work
out how to do other ‘added value’ services or
coming up with new ways of repositioning
'research' to their clients.
And that's bullshit.
WE ARE
RESEARCHERS
NOT
LESSON #4
8. Page !8
So this post could be rant about all the awful
travel that research agencies make their teams do…
but it isn’t because researchers mostly love travel
(and if you don’t, you’re in the wrong job).
Nah, it’s Thanksgiving.
I like Thanksgiving; it’s quite nice to say
‘ttthhannks’ through mouthfuls of turkey whilst
arguing about Trump.
So thanks for….
… the clients who’ve jumped on Further&Further in
our first few weeks, talking to people in research
who actually give a fuck, our new little office in
NYC, heading to the fringes, loving fieldwork
again, writing for a living, thinking for a living,
avoiding 2 way mirrors, hanging out in the best
strange places, worrying about treatments not
discussion guides, a team who love it and live it,
telling the truth, subjects not respondents,
following the story, focusing on the work, loving
research again…
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours
x
PLANES
TRAINS
AND
LESSON #5
AUTOMOBILES
9. Page !9
Now don’t get me wrong, we love a good documentary at
Further&Further; even our approach to fieldwork is inspired by
documentary filmmaking techniques.
So why do I hate the ‘research documentary’?
The best human story documentaries tend to focus on a small number of
people, probably just one. They tend to follow that person for a
while as they go on their journey so we get to know them and care
what happens. They provoke emotion and beautifully inform us.
By way of contrast, the research documentary, desperate to prove the
robustness of the sample, chops from one talking head to the next,
like an executioner late for his dinner.
The research documentary is a wonky mirror of the debrief, the words
babbling out, sort of telling the client what to do, but not quite.
The research documentary has the narrative arc of a discussion guide.
The research documentary stands alone in the corner at parties; no
real purpose, no role and nothing unique to say.
The research documentary makes editors and filmmakers cry into their
pillows about their careers.
And that makes them bullshit.
THE
RESEARCH
DOC
LESSON #6
10. Page !10
We had our first ever company meeting last week (we like
skulls so we called it Skullduggery…). Of course we talked
about how we can continue to do research in a more authentic
and human way. Of course we talked about taking research
documentary film making to the next level.
Of course we stayed up too late.
But we spent the most time talking about respect and how its
a key value of Further&Further.
Too many agencies don’t mind when 'leaders' shout and scream.
Too many agencies ignore bullying when the stress levels
rise.
Too many agencies see their team as a resource rather than
actual fucking people.
Too many agencies create a culture where burnout is
inevitable
And thats worse than bullshit
LESSON #7
BURNOUT…
BULLIES
&
11. Page !11
Research agencies exist to make sense of culture, to understand
people and to show brands the way forward.
So you’d think they spend all their time thinking about brands,
culture and people.
And you’d imagine they’d really understand how their own clients
feel and what they want.
And, of course, they’d be amazing at marketing themselves and have
really compelling, coherent and dynamic brands.
Hmm.
Most of them spend all their time thinking about new business,
sales tactics and how to hit their quarterly targets.
Most of them rarely spend time sharing stories and thinking about
what’s happening in the world.
Few of them ever do any research with their own clients.
Most of them only think about their own brand when they refresh
their website.
If research agencies spent as much time thinking about culture,
people and their own brand as they do trying to sell shit, they
wouldn’t have to spend as much time thinking about how to sell
shit. Of course, thats bullshit.
LESSON #8
MARKETERS
THE
WORST
EVER!
12. Page !12
So, if what you mean by ‘in home
ethnography’ is a longitudinal
observational study where an experienced
ethnographer lives in a home and observes
natural behaviour, then we’re good.
If, however, you mean a researcher
interviewing someone in their front room
for an hour whilst the TV is on and kids
walk around complaining about being
hungry, then we’re not so good. Asking a
respondent, at the end of a short
disrupted and distracted interview, about
a family photo on the wall is not ‘in
home ethnography’.
Most ‘in home ethnography’ as sold to you
by research agencies, is just an in-depth
interview done in an uncontrolled
environment.
And that makes them bullshit..
IN HOME
ETHNOGRAPHY
LESSON #9
SUCKS
13. Page !13
BORING
CORPORATE
LESSON #10
BASTARDS
Do you know anyone who’s not kind of fucked up?
Someone who’s got all their shit together, perfect
life, no issues, no skeletons in the cupboard, no
hidden struggles?
Because I don’t think i do.
Which should make every research debrief feel like a
Mike Leigh movie.
But they don’t because most agencies are too scared to
ask about the truth let alone report it.
Most research debriefs are like the quickly tidied up
front room of an in home ethnography where all the
interesting shit is stuffed down the back of the sofa
(or hiding in the kitchen pissed off their dinner
isn’t ready).
Most research agencies are too safe, too corporate
and too boring to tell the truth.
And thats bullshit…
14. Call us when you want
to go Further&Further
✓A strategic high profile project that
requires a genuinely senior team
✓A contextual question that requires a
creative approach to get to fresh insight
✓Want to design or innovate against a niche
target
✓Want to bring to life your consumer and need
the actual truth, warts and all
✓Want to develop a brand positioning and in
depth early stage exploration is required
✓Need to immerse your organization in the
consumer or category, and are prepared to
show it as really is…
!14
