MRS Awards 2015 - the winners
08 December 2015

Research and insight sector celebrates achievements at MRS Awards 2015.

In a night which demonstrated the scope and impact of the research sector, StreetInvest were among the big winners at the MRS Awards, taking home the highly coveted President’s Medal, presented by MRS’ President Dame Dianne Thompson DBE, former CEO of Camelot.

StreetInvest (see above) were chosen as this year’s winner for ‘Growing up on the Streets’, a research project that has recruited street children in three African cities to use basic ethnographic methods to give commentary on their lives. StreetInvest led the meeting of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Street Children in June 2014 – presenting their objectives and methodology to help inform others of their experience and improve the lives of young people across the globe. The feedback and support for the project was extensive and really made the submission stand out to the judges.

The other big winners on the night were Lightspeed GMI and BBC Worldwide (see above) who were awarded the sought after Grand Prix Award for Greatest Impact, now in its third year. The Grand Prix was introduced to recognise the submission from across all categories that succeeds in demonstrating the impact that research can have when properly commissioned, delivered, designed and acted upon.

Read the Grand Prix winning case study

>>Tackling the elephant: how innovation helped BBC Worldwide master emotion (PDF) 

This year’s awards held in London played host to over 800 attendees from agencies, in-house teams and client-side marketers, who celebrated the noted impact of the research sector over the past year.

The night saw the Newcomer of the Year award, which recognises the contribution of new talent in the industry, jointly-awarded to two outstanding candidates Laura Gillespieand Sophie Wells. The judges were impressed by the dedication and determination of all of the six young researchers shortlisted, but Laura Gillespie and Sophie Wells particularly stood out for really going the extra mile to fly the flag of the research industry.

A thoughtful submission from the Tesco Insight team helped it scoop the Best In-house Research Team. Its entry really showed how the business is putting research at the heart of its commercial decision making and the value this is creating for the retailer.

Meanwhile, TNS was awarded the Best Innovation Award for its new methods of delivering truly personalised content. By tackling a fundamental challenge that has implications which extend beyond the research sector TNS has find another way of getting even closer to what consumers are thinking. 

In other groups, Flamingo (above) won the award for Best Agency (with turnover over £20 million) while MTM was judged to be the Best Agency with a turnover under £20 million.

Jane Frost CBE, chief executive of MRS, comments: “It has been a delight to have such a fantastic range of examples which showcase the numerous ways that research is helping to inform organisations. From charities, the government, media and business, market research is an industry which has the opportunity to really benefit strategic decision-making and improve understanding for clients and end-users.

“As we approach the 70th anniversary of our society next year, and in a world of constant technological innovations and ever greater access to big data, it is important that we keep true to the fundamental raison d'etre of research – to understand and inform. It is our ability to do this which enables us to positively touch the lives of all sectors in which we operate – and will continue to provide us with a bright future.”

Winners and photos

>>See the full list of winners and finalists.

>>See the full gallery of photos from the night.