Firefish shortlisted for 3 MRS Awards in 2016

We are not ones to blow our own trumpet too hard here at Firefish but we are always proud of the fact that the industry bodies recognises the great work that we do with our clients with award shortlists. For almost every year since 2003, Firefish has been shortlisted for at least one award, with our bumper shortlist in 2014 for no less than 6 MRS Awards, the most any agency has ever been shortlisted for. This year sees us up for two awards for our already double award-winning work with PayPal on their global brand positioning – Best International and Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insight. This work was a deeply complex and strategic global project, getting under the skin of what money means to people that feel “underserved” by traditional financial institutions, using a mix of autoethnographic, passive lifelogging and in-depth interviews, as well as partnering with experts in a variety of fields to add the extra layer of thinking that really helped bring the new global positioning together to deliver a strong, resonant purpose. This work, as you may have already read about, has had a serious impact on the global PayPal business, and has already won the ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award and a Masters of Marketing award in the research & insight category.

Our third and final shortlist, due to be announced on 5th December at the annual MRS Awards dinner, is in the Applications of Research category, for our work with Marks & Spencer on understanding the suit buying experience in-store. As with all Firefish projects, we provide a series of clear, impactful recommendations that deliver against the brand or business objectives, helping the team move forward with confidence, and this one is no different. The Applications of Research award goes to those that made a significant impact on their client’s business, helping shape the future of the brand and delivering findings that can be used to make significant changes almost immediately after the debrief. In this instance, Firefish applied its usual level of deep, strategic thinking while utilising a new and innovative approach that allowed the M&S team to really understand the in-store experience and journey, giving increased confidence in our recommendations, really driving forward change in the department.

As always, we look forward to the MRS Awards with baited breath to hopefully take home another gong for our already-heavily-adorned awards shelf.

All that is left to say is we wish all the other finalists the best of luck and, if you are attending the awards, then please do stop by our table to say hello. As Bob Hoskins once said, “It’s good to talk”.