New Agency Launched by Former Quaestor Staff

Ian Rowlands and Damien Flannagan, former employees of the UK's Quaestor Research, have launched a new consumer agency, Gusto Research, based in Leeds. Gusto will provide qual and online quant surveys, and aims to help clients drive their action plans by offering free post-debrief workshops.

The new company will provide consumer research in the financial services, retail, consumer goods and automotive sectors, and plans to launch a new online ad-testing product in the next few months. The latter will allow companies to test up to three concepts, including TV ads, packaging and literature.

Qualitative specialist Rowlands, the company's MD, previously worked for Leeds-based McCallum Layton Research. Prior to that, he was an Associate Director at Quaestor, where he worked for eight years between 1996 and 2004. Flannagan, Director of the new company, worked at Quaestor for two years, following spells at TNS Ireland and Gadd International Research in Canada. Joe Bulger, who has ten years' agency experience in Canada and the US, will be in charge of the company's online surveys.

Rowlands says he is keen to 'do things differently', and sees the post-debrief workshops as one of the company's major selling points. He and Flannagan will visit clients a month after research findings have been delivered, and again after three to six months, to provide a 'health check', focusing on what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. He believes this kind of attention adds real value to research, but that too many agencies simply do not provide this service or 'charge a fortune' for it.

The new company's web site is at www.gustoresearch.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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