Less Talk, More Action: Reasons I like working at Magenta

Research Manager, Olly Brown, was interviewed by GuineaPig Fieldwork to find out more about his journey along the research career path and what he loved about being part of the Magenta team. Here are some highlights from the podcast.

HOW I GOT INTO RESEARCH…

“I was very open-minded before I got into research. I studied languages at university, but I wasn’t keen on being a translator or a teacher.

And then I saw a job advert saying, ‘Do you want to spend your days talking about EastEnders with people?’. That caught my attention. It sounded like my perfect job. It was for  a TV and media research agency. I went in, got the job and was super excited as I love popular culture.”

WHAT I THOUGHT WHEN I FIRST STARTED…

“Part of my role involved working with kids, so it did seem a bit like babysitting at times. We were covering a lot of cartoons. It was cool, but when you’re trying to get a bunch of kids to sit down and watch a new cartoon, it’s not that easy.

Kids are the most honest people. They’re not trying to impress you or be polite. They’re just true to themselves.”

BROADENING MY HORIZONS…

“After a while, I wanted to broaden my horizons beyond TV and media and see more of the research world.

“I went to an agency that covered a really broad spectrum of projects. I wanted to gain experience really quickly, and I was given the freedom to do that. The pandemic gave me time to reflect on what I wanted to do next and I moved to Magenta.”

WHY MAGENTA…

“It’s a small team, and everyone has a range of backgrounds. There’s no internal politics, no wasting time on disagreements. Just a core team of people with a range of experience. I find it very reassuring. Everyone has each other’s back.” 

“Small isn’t a bad thing. Magenta is small and mighty. There’s a real benefit to having a core team with a huge range of knowledge and experience.”

THE STORY OF MAGENTA…

“It was founded in 2016 by Dr Sarah Jenkins. Sarah had been working at a senior level in a global insight company and was a bit deflated by the lack of research she got to do. She was handling politics, people and internal stuff rather than actually doing qualitative research.”

“She wanted to get back to the roots of it all. So, she set up a business where she could take the reins and build a nice team of people who were really excited about what they were doing. She wanted to get stuck into the project work and not mess around with internal management.”

 

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT MAGENTA…

“It’s less about the meetings and more about the action.”

“In some agencies, people can stop feeling excited about what they’re doing. For example, people might be talking about a topic like diversity and inclusion and trying to promote that. But if it’s just meeting after meeting with no action, it can become pointless. It takes the power out of it.”

PROJECTS WE CAN GET STUCK INTO…

“We don’t have a specialism at Magenta. We work across commercial, B2B, charities and more. There’s no collective focus on one sector.”

“It’s more about the type of project. We prefer things we can dig our teeth into. We prefer to explore new areas and get stuck into a project. We like to look at how people engage with a certain topic, or why people are interested in certain categories. That’s what I especially like.”

“I really enjoy the charity projects, along with topics like diversity and inclusion and sustainability. You feel like you’re having an impact.”

ABOUT OFFICE LIFE… 

“We don’t have an office. Every three months, we meet up to reflect on how things are going and what we want our plans for the company to be. It’s very collaborative. Everyone’s involved. We try to meet more often as well.”

“So now we have a team of people spread across the country. We get talent from everywhere. We don’t have to restrict ourselves to London. Before the pandemic, the research industry was so London-focused. But now everyone feels they have a bit more flexibility in where they can live.”

WHAT’S NEXT 

“Magenta is growing. We’re bringing new people onto the team. We have a lot of work, we’re very busy, and we want to bring more in-house. “ 

“No month is ever the same in research. I want to continue learning more about people and sharing their stories.”