Q’s First Quarter: We Didn’t Start the Fire, But We Did Win a lot of the Awards
Let’s be honest. Most companies start the year with good intentions, a motivational all-hands meeting, and a PowerPoint about „strategic priorities.“ We started ours by winning awards. Plural. Repeatedly. Almost aggressively.
It’s getting a little embarrassing, frankly.
2026 Called. It Brought Trophies.
You know that colleague who shows up to the office party, wins the raffle, eats the best canapés, and somehow also gets Employee of the Month? That was us. In award form. For an entire quarter.
While a lot of people still figuring out their New Year’s resolutions („Be more data-driven!“ „Leverage synergies!“ „Use the word ‚actionable‘ more!“), Q was busy collecting hardware.
The Impact & Innovation Award at GOR 2026 was the starting point. After Sarah Goto from Klosterfrau and our colleague Oliver Tabino did the pitch presentation on day 1, we had a cheerful second GOR day. It was a true collabo between xelper, horizoom, Klosterfrau and Q. Gosh, that was and it is still great.
By the way, it is GOR award number 2 for the Q Crew.
Then there were the two TOCii Awards, which arrived like unexpected guests who turn out to be the best people at the party. We didn’t plan for them. We were delighted anyway.
And the awards were presented at the succeet2026 in Wiesbaden. You may ask 2 TOCii awards? Yes, we won in two categories: Qualitative Research and Social Media Research. Still unbelievable.
Unbelievable is also the name of the award: TOCii means Top of Class insights industry. Well better than Bambi (Sorry, German insider joke).
What Does One Do With This Many Awards?
Great question. We’ve been asking ourselves the same thing.
Option A: Build a shrine. Tasteful. Minimalist. Probably inspired by a Scandinavian design blog (You know our Social Media Research expertise could also be used for these kind of ideas).
Option B: Use them as paperweights. Practical. Slightly disrespectful to the award committees. But, we respect award committees. And we were delighted by the speeches.
Option C: Feel genuinely, deeply grateful – and use the momentum to keep doing the work that apparently keeps winning things.
We went with Option C (Mostly, shrine is also part of our office now together with the GOR award).
The Secret? We Treat Research Like Art. No, Really.
Here’s the thing nobody tells you about winning awards: it’s rarely an accident. Behind every shiny trophy is an unglamorous amount of thinking, crafting, debating, scrapping, rethinking, and occasionally arguing about details at 11pm.
At Q, we call this Qunst. A very deliberate portmanteau of Kunst (that’s German for art, for our monolingual friends) and Q. Because we genuinely believe that market research, done well, is an art form. Not as a metaphor. Not as a branding exercise. As an actual operating principle.
We curate reality. We create insights that stick. We represent the work with the seriousness and creativity it deserves.
Turns out, people notice. Clients notice. Award juries notice.
So, What’s Next?
More of the same, honestly. More rigorous research. More creative thinking. More partnerships with people who are as obsessed with getting things right as we are.
And if a few more awards happen to show up along the way?
We’ll find shelf space.