New UK agency hits publicity jackpot

24/May/2001

As reported here back in October, before Everyday Lives began life as an independent entity, it represents a 50-50 partnership between Siamack Salari, its Chief Executive, and Peter Cooper, head of CRAM International. Salari, former head of the Culture Laboratory at advertising agency BMP DDB, approached several research companies, including Taylor Nelson Sofres, with his ideas, but only Cooper agreed to equality of ownership.

The reason for the Wall Street Journal's sudden and close attention this month is that it hit upon the fact that the mighty Procter & Gamble company has been using Salari's services for some time, beginning well before Everyday Lives was installed in its own offices in the London suburb of Twickenham in January.

The kind of thing that intrigued the Journal was the video-recording made inside a Thai mother's kitchen by a researcher working for Salari and showing that the woman cooks with one hand while holding her baby with the other and occasionally looking at a television programme.

As the newspaper's reporter, Emily Nelson, wrote after talking to P&G executives in Cincinnati, "the behaviours that consumers don't talk about - such as multitasking while feeding a baby - could inspire product and package design in ways that give the company an edge over rivals."

Salari, using sub-contracted researchers, has done ad hoc observational studies in places as far afield as the US, China and Mexico as well as Thailand. However, his company's main offering at present is a continuous, syndicated study of consumer behaviour in five European countries, namely the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Poland.

In each of the five there is a panel of 20 households to which Everyday Lives sends its researchers (staff or sub-contracted) to video-record family activities for several days at a time. Material from these recordings is accessible to clients via the Everyday Lives website. This currently contains about 150 video clips but the number is planned to reach 30,000 in the near future.

Price? Salari is cagey on this subject, saying that it depends on the nature of each contract. But he does add that one day's fieldwork costs about £500 for syndicated studies and at least three times as much for an ad hoc job.

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