Consulting with Children

Finding out what kids think means getting down to their level, and knowing what to listen for. Children will often be keen to give the right answers - but these are not necessarily the true answers!

That's why we run focus groups to help form strategy, evaluate ideas, and glean feedback. Very often these sessions give vital details which would be otherwise missed and can even tangibly affect a project's success.

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CASE STUDIES:

11MILLION
(The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England)
As a representative voice for all England's children, 11MILLION has high standards for communication with young people. Paperhorse has undertaken consulting work on behalf of the organisation with children and youth in the North of England, helping capture ideas and input on publicity material.

IKEA
Small Picture Audit
'Children are the most important people in the world' reads one of IKEA's straplines. Our brief was to look at the Swedish flatpack giant's existing activity with children, and identify five specific areas for improvement. Initial research was carried out at IKEA's flagship London store, which alone had around 3.2 million child visits every year. The first two phases of the project included an audit of IKEA's current activity for children within its stores globally, an examination of the child experience in store, interviews with children and parents, and a consultant's report with recommended actions that would make IKEA more child and family-friendly.

Send a Cow
Cowforce site analysis
During the development and beta-testing stages of the award-winning Cowforce web initiative, a local school IT suite was used to test the site and gain feedback from young users. Observation and questions were used and the testing resulted in a number of adjustments to the interface and menu, to make them better suit the child user.

IKEA
Food and Menu Report
Paperhorse produced a specific dietician's report on the menu in IKEA restaurants, as well as an assessment of the family experience there. This included conducting interviews and behavioural observations in store, and proposals to bring the menu in line with impending guidelines.

Send a Cow
Education Programme Scoping
Paperhorse has had a long and fruitful relationship with the Africa farming charity Send a Cow, helping the charity develop and co-ordinate its strategy for child and youth communication across all media. Working across Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, our aim has been to establish SAC as the 'children's charity of choice' in the UK. At the outset of the project, focus groups were run to evaluate characters and content, and to check that our proposed solutions were being understood by the children they were aimed at.

Cadburys/
Bath & North East Somerset Youth Services
Cadburys Time Out Centre
After Cadburys had invested in a youth drop-in centre in the South West, Paperhorse were asked to advise on marketing the centre and setting creative projects in motion with those 11 - 18 year olds who regularly attended. This involved spending time liaising with youth, evaluating their interests and potential skills and drawing up a list of attainable projects that they could become involved in. A set of proposals based upon our findings was drawn up to be passed to B&NES Youth Services and Cadburys.

Hayesfield School
Visual Branding and Uniform Consultation
Putting together Year 7 and 8 students with fashion and graphic designers, we captured thoughts and feelings on the current uniform and proposed its replacement with a seasonal wardrobe that was functional and branded but could also be personalised.