TBA wins the AQR Prosper Riley-Smith Award 2018

4 December 2018

In October, The Behavioural Architects were shortlisted for the prestigious AQR Prosper Riley-Smith Qualitative Excellence Award 2018. In fact, we were the first company to become double finalists with two of our entries making it into the final four for consideration.

Last night, we attended the awards dinner put on by the Marketing Society. Emotions were running high, but we are thrilled to announce that The Behavioural Architects won the award for 2018!

Our work with social enterprise The Big Issue was selected for the award, in the face of tough competition from consumer insights agency Join The Dots, and independent insight consultancy Basis Research.

We worked with The Big Issue to try and address a problem many of you will be familiar with: ‘paying’ for the magazine but not actually taking a copy, a well-meaning gesture with altruistic intentions. It was an interesting challenge; people who give money to Big Issue vendors view not taking a magazine as helpful and rational (they can sell the magazine to someone else later for additional money). Furthermore, present bias means that Big Issue vendors are incentivised to accept the donations which fulfil the short-term goal of monetary gain.

Although this gesture is intended to be altruistic, it undermines the primary mission of The Big Issue, which is to provide ‘a hand up, not a hand out’. In the long run, paying for the magazine whilst also taking a copy is the most beneficial action for the vendors, and by extension the people buying from them.

By conducting in-context qualitative research and exploring this challenge through a behavioural science lens, we were able to understand the motivations of both customer and vendor and, as a result, develop a strategy to address this unique challenge. Using this insight, we developed practical behavioural nudges for re-connecting people with aims of The Big Issue, and the best interests of Big Issue vendors.

Using qualitative research to provide fresh insight into a variety of behavioural challenges is the foundation of what we do here at The Behavioural Architects. We are extremely proud to have our efforts recognised.The judges commented: "This is an excellent example of how good qualitative research can make such a positive impact in modern society.”

This research would not have been possible without the kindness and cooperation of the Big Issue vendors and their customers. We wish them all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing some of our ideas implemented next year.

Visit the AQR website here to learn more about the award and the amazing research of the other finalists.

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