The Unusual Suspects

A case study of how a research project helped disability charity Scope reach beyond its ‘usual suspects’ to engage new and harder to reach audiences, challenge its ideas and redefine its brand and purpose.

*Please note - this Speaker Evening is being held at Twitter UK, London, W1B 5AG

What you’ll learn:

• How to recruit hard to reach consumers and how best to engage this audience through research
• How to ensure that disabled people are supported throughout their participation in any research project
• The experiences of disabled people in the UK today, and the challenges they face in engaging with key sectors like retail, public services and transport
• The three guiding principles that any organisation engaging with disabled people must fulfil in order to empower them to live their lives without feeling defined by their disability
• How to make research and insight central to an organisation’s branding and positioning, including ideas for embedding new insights that are counter to what an organisation has heard before

Disability charity Scope had conducted much research over the years with its community of disabled people, but found it was hearing the same messages and ‘preaching to the converted’.

As part of a rebrand and strategy review, Scope wanted to address this imbalance by reaching beyond the ‘usual suspects’ to find the people who might need its support the most, and who could stretch and challenge its ideas.

Scope tasked BritiainThinks to bring to life the experiences and perspectives of disabled people not currently engaging with Scope or other similar organisations.

Through a programme of online and offline ethnography and co-creative workshops, BritainThinks delivered insight that questioned the starting premise behind Scope’s brand review and helped identify three critical pillars for any organisation seeking to serve disabled people.

Scope took forward these three pillars to refine its branding and purpose. It launched its new brand as part of a major ‘Disability Gamechangers’ campaign in the summer of 2018, using filmed footage to put the respondents themselves front and centre throughout.

About the speakers:

Lucy Morrell is Associate Director at BritainThinks. She is an experienced qualitative researcher whose particular expertise lies in engaging vulnerable audiences for clients including Age UK, Macmillan and the National Trust. She regularly presents at industry conferences, including, most recently, the joint AQR/AURA conference for clientside researchers.

Ceri Smith is Policy and Campaigns Manager at Scope. Ceri leads Scope’s Independent Living policy and campaigns team. She is responsible for influencing to ensure social care better supports disabled people who need it, and for a programme of work on how digital technology can enable disabled people to live the lives they choose. Prior to working at Scope, Ceri worked at a number of leading charities including Age UK, Macmillan and RSPB.

Bookings:

Bookings will open approximately 6 weeks before each event. 

This event is free for MRS members. Non-members are welcome to attend for a fee of £25.00 + VAT, which must be paid in advance.

If you would like to join MRS to enable you to attend this event for free and take advantage of the other benefits of membership please click here.