We are delighted to announce that our director of branding Giles Lury has been published in this month’s Admap publication. In his two page article called ‘Probe deeper than in-depth’, Giles argues that the current focus in insight identification is in danger of becoming one-dimensional and puts forward a range of tools and techniques to help overcome this.

To download the full article as a pdf. please click here. Alternatively, you can view the paper here online.

Disney recently reported that the top 5 everyday pleasures were:

1. Finding money
2. Freshly washed bedding
3. Not having to queue
4. Someone smiling at you
5. Helping someone

Obviously we couldn’t take this at face value and decided to conduct our own research in the office – we’re obviously a very happy bunch because this generated a very long list!

So read on to find out what makes Value Engineers tick (and perhaps some will bring a smile to your face too!). Some of these are more ‘free’ than others though…

• Someone offering you a cup of coffee when you are busy
• Random acts of kindness
• Sound of leather on willow on the village green
• Seeing a dog leaning out of a car window, loving the wind in its hair
• The beach
• The first signs of spring – the first snowdrop
• Wafts of other people’s BBQs
• The smell of freshly cut grass
• The perfect picnic spot
• Kicking a pile of leaves
• New born baby
• Eating cheese
• Walking around for fresh air even with a Ferrari in the garage
• The relief that comes after visiting the loo!
• The wind in your hair dinghy sailing on the Thames at Hampton on a beautiful sunny day
• The view from Waterloo bridge at sunset
• The sound of a wine cork popping / beer cap hiss
• Pottering around the garden
• The paper, cappuccino, Andrew Marr’s paper review and porridge with banana in bed on a Sunday
• Cooking anything nostalgic – pancakes, scones, Christmas cake, sponge cake
• The sensation of Life!
• The cold side of the pillow
• The Today programme on Radio 4
• The smell of rain on warm concrete
• The taste of a cold beer to quench a thirst, (‘free’ if someone else is buying. A perfect ‘Ice cold in Alex’ moment)
• The sound of waves exiting a pebble beach
• The sight of the first migrant spring arrivals
• The four seasons of the year: The colours of autumn, the joy of people in summer, the first signs of spring and the first snow of winter
• Fresh and pure air
• A nice dawn at the beach
• To enjoy a good dance
• The smile of child
• To meet and old friend and realise that nothing has changed between each other
• Your first kiss
• To fall in love
• To laugh
• To love someone and being loved
• The first smell of the day of coffee brewing
• Stepping on a perfectly crunchy leaf
• Unexpectedly bumping into an old friend
• Coming into a warm house from the cold outside
• A hug
• Your head touching the pillow after a really long day
• Taking off a pair of killer heels
• Being the first person down a freshly pisted or snowy run
• Reading a book by a log fire
• The first waft of a glass of heavy, red wine
• A freshly brewed cup of tea 

As any follower of our Blog will have seen The Value Engineers has recently added another string to its bow with the launch of its very first dedicated Kids practice. This obviously represents exciting times for all at The Value Engineers as we begin to reminisce over our favourite kids brands (mine being Merlin Premier League Football Stickers).

No wonder then it was with the Kids practice that sprung to mind as soon as I saw these whilst on holiday in Austria last week:

Spar is the brand bringing these to market, which I can only imagine are positioned as such to get children to eat eggs from a young age. What made the discovery more polarizing was the fact that a friend in my ski party is an adamant egg-hater, he can’t even bare to touch them! When asked why he doesn’t like them his only explanation is as follows…”never had them when I was younger”. This little discovery took me full circle.

If it is upon this consumer insight that the brand made a decision to to engage young targets with egg eating then I salute them. And to be honest even if they didn’t and just decided to paint the eggs and stick a cartoon bunny on the pack to tempt the little ones then I salute them as well because really they’re just a lovely, fun product.