Audience Strategy

A major gaming studio were launching a new title that would mark a change in the way games play out in the 21st century. They wanted us to not only test the proposition with people that would be buying it, but also tell them about the next generation of gamers, to learn more about their lives and needs, in partnership with our kids and family agency, The Pineapple Lounge. 

We considered the competitive landscape, the elements of team play and solo missions and more, bringing to life games, gaming and the gamer…now and in the future. We provided clear direction to sharpen the title’s value proposition, including insights to help shape and refine ongoing game development, as well as marketing and strategy efforts. 

Most of Durex’s previous research was based on claimed or reported behaviour and so they came to Firefish to really understand what happens between the sheets in the UK & US, to unlock insights that would inform and help to shape their future comms, product and innovation strategies. 

We found people who would film their sexual encounters, across sexualities, having them record a video diary as they watched it back, to capture the full experience and reactions. Done with the greatest sensitivity, we delivered incredibly candid results that would not have been possible any other way. The global team were amazed at not only the method’s success but also the strategic direction we delivered for them, and the project was shortlisted for 2 research effectiveness awards.

The leading provider of sports media content in North America recognised seismic shifts taking place in how people consume and interact with sports content, and wanted to  remain on top of the cultural shifts to ensure their content reflected and maintained its relevance.  

We helped them understand and plan for this through a robust and forward-thinking exploration of current sports fan behaviours, combined with comprehensive deep-dives into both  existing content and relevant competitor offerings. Through digital diaries & in-home ethnography, plus expert interviews, we delivered a model for understanding the needs met by today’s sports content as well as 3 strategic opportunity spaces for future content development.

In an age of deal switching, our energy client realised that it’s often the most vulnerable customers that don’t take advantage of the most competitive tariffs, and wanted to understand how best to communicate with them in order to support them to switch to better rates.

Speaking to a diverse range of vulnerable customers – from the elderly; people with mental and physical disabilities; to those experiencing financial vulnerability – about sensitive and emotional topics, we went on to deliver a series of personas, backed with a personalised engagement and communication strategy to activate against.

Bonhams Auction House asked us to establish a customer experience tracker to speak directly to a range of their discerning clients, across sellers and buyers. Whilst headline NPS data was provided to gauge high-level brand (and competitor) performance, broader diagnostic metrics were also included, to help them determine key areas of focus so they can reach their customer excellence goals.

Due to the success of the project, we have since been helping the business to dive into specific business functions, providing further targeted insight for development, as well as working on a study to determine pertinent retention levers that can be pulled at will, in line with the incoming CX scores.

Having recently adopted the Jobs to Be Done framework, our financial services client asked us to convene a series of ‘job hunting’ customer immersion sessions with a wide range of entrepreneurs from sole traders to more established small businesses.

Using depth interviews, projective techniques, active listening and rapid workshops, we then worked with key stakeholders to map out a skeleton framework for each Job To Be Done, kick-starting the process of turning customer stories into insights. These were then taken forward into an internal innovation session where initial ideas were generated, which we optimised in future research.

Mondelez came to us to understand how people interact with their chocolate brands at Christmas. We blended lifelogging, blogging & follow up interviews to really look inside people’s whole Christmas period – from build-up, through wrapping and gifting and finally to the aftermath and return to normality over 4 weeks. 

We delivered a rich, detailed view of what consumers actually do at this time of year, supported by a short, engaging film, that was shown to the full sales team so that they could further succeed in their campaign plans at this vital time of year for the business.

A leading pet care brand asked us to help them better understand and segment the different needs of pet owners in the US.  We took a multi-method approach, including a phase of immersing ourselves in the lives of pets and their parents using GoPro cameras to understand the pet-owner relationship from a unique ‘pet-first’ perspective.  

Using a range of innovative and immersive techniques to bring the different pet segments to life, including a series of artefacts & films, our client was truly able to understand the different needs of Pet Parents and their unique relationships with their pets to develop their own unique strategy informing their future brand and communications.