Tom Goodwin Email & Phone Number

London, United Kingdom

X marks the spot is an idea development research agency focusing on helping clients develop brand, product and communications ideas.I set up X marks the spot because I was frustrated by the way that the qual research industry is fixated on the wrong thing. They do not keep their eyes on the prize: a great idea that has tremendous emotional power. Instead they tend to rationally test ideas because it is hard to get people to articulate their emotional response in a traditional group setting (in my experience it is unrealistic to expect emotional articulacy in a room full of eight strangers under test conditions). The problem with this approach is that ignoring how brand, advertising and product ideas makes people feel means missing the emotional impact of that idea. I believe that this emotional impact is the key to understanding the quality of an idea, so in essence traditional research often misses the most important effect of an idea.So X marks the spot has a different approach – one that focuses on uncovering the emotional impact of an idea. I have developed lots of techniques for bringing out an emotional response from research to balance the rational one. I believe this approach helps brands develop better ideas because it provides more meaningful results that improve the quality of ideas by boosting their emotional impact.

For the eight years I worked at Fallon I helped clients develop ideas for products, brands and advertising. I was lucky enough to be involved in some great ideas including SONY BRAVIA, Glass and a Half Full Productions, Skoda and Wispa. Many of these ideas owe their existence to the good use of research. This time helped hone my creative judgement and belief in the business value of emotionally powerful ideas. I also got plenty of exposure to developing products both from a physical creation and positioning point of view.

My initial focus was on developing Internet based products and services for clients, but as the agency evolved that grew to include the world of brands and communications. We used research extensively to understand peoples usage of the Internet and find the fertile ground to build new ideas on. Over the seven years I spent at the agency I developed a fantastic grasp of digital and its unique ability to glue together a campaign.

London, United Kingdom

I started life working in product development. I was lucky enough to not only conduct the research myself, but also responsible for idea generation and development. This time gave me a unique insight into the relationship between research and idea generation and the value of plugging research directly into the idea creation and development process.