Mention research in the pub, and people look impressed before they understand what I actually do. When they realise I’m not studying marine biology in Antarctica, they change the subject.
So what do I do? It’s easy not to care. Especially when everyone assumes HR already ‘knows’ how people think. But let’s lift the lid. Brands fail when they guess, and win when they use rationale.
Welcome to employer branding research.
The best employer brands don’t start with creativity. They start with the truth, which we can find through the pursuit of employer brand research. An early direction for strategy, an instruction manual for creative.
Let me talk on behalf of my team.
Research: What it is; All it can be.
We cut through noise to find what matters: how people think, feel, and act at work. That’s the insight that builds brands. The kind that shapes employer brands and campaigns that change how talent feel, think, and act.
Most research starts with what’s easy. We start with what matters.
We begin outside your brand. Because relevance lives in the world your audience wakes up in. We map what people value, what competitors are missing, and where your brand can lead with meaning.
Then we hit the desk.
Analysing whitepapers, research journals, or highly opinionated reddit threads written by angry pajamaed individuals at 2AM. Signals can come from anywhere, and sometimes the fringes are where the truths hide.
After, it’s time to explore the real employee experience. By asking, and listening. Not just to what’s said, but to what’s really felt. Through engagement surveys, focus groups and 1:1 interviews. We create a space for honesty, protected by confidentiality. When employees feel safe, they speak openly.
Finally, you may think the next step is a simple case of compiling a deck and looking smart in a meeting room. But that would result in a whisper when we need a hammer. We need a verdict, guilty or not. An analysis. An interpretation that draws to a meaningful conclusion. We need insights.
Insight sharpens the strategy. Strategy sharpens the creative.
An insight is when you turn a finding into an engaging story. Which can then be refined and advanced by our creative. To put it lightly, it’s the why behind the what.
Great insights give creative credibility, winning the trust of our clients, seeing the thinking, not just execution, ultimately providing more justification for our work.
One of our own quotes: “Creative without a purpose is art, but we [creative agencies] don’t sell art. We sell solutions to problems.” And he’s right. Because we aren’t an art agency.
The main goal of our insights is to create restraints for our teams, the main catalyst for creativity and birthplace of ideas. Providing our creatives with a box, putting them in it, and watching them get out.
Reading Tromp & Bear’s paper, people may feel more creative without limits, but the best ideas often come when boundaries are in place. Eliminating the ‘paralysis of choice’, provided they’re not too tight. Think Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold. Just right.
Our research insights create a focusing nature. We provide specific concepts as starting points over offering exclusionary constraints. That difference? It’s what turns blank pages into real ideas. I don’t usually specify something to be avoided, with the exception of your boss after Thursday night drinks.
We’re humble enough to admit we don’t know everything. But, smart enough to start with research. We gather insights, set sharp constraints, and ground every idea in fact. That’s how the best work happens.
You can’t argue with the truth. That’s why we start with research.
