The Reality Department is a consumer and B2B research agency that runs commissioned audience, brand and reputation, and content and thought-leadership research. We work with PR and comms agencies that need credible original research for campaigns and media coverage, and with marketing, product and insight teams that need evidence behind a decision. Projects are led end-to-end by the researcher who scopes them, typically run for four to six weeks, and start from £12,000.
In short: we don't sell a methodology or hand you a standard research report. We work backwards from the decision you need to make, choose the right research approach, and turn the findings into something your team can actually use.
What kind of research does The Reality Department do?
Our core work spans audience research, brand and reputation research, and content and thought-leadership research, across both consumer and B2B audiences.
We're methodology-agnostic: qualitative, quantitative, behavioural and desk research, communities, workshops and AI-assisted analysis. The approach is chosen around the question and the decision it needs to support, rather than because it's a methodology we need to sell.
Our panel gives us access to more than 1 million verified business decision-makers across 98 countries, within a wider network of more than 45 million individuals worldwide, segmented in more than 34,000 ways upfront. For consumer and specialist B2B audiences that don't sit neatly inside a standard panel, we recruit directly. More on how we reach people: Audience Research.
Does The Reality Department run consumer as well as B2B research?
Yes. We run research for both consumer and B2B audiences, and for projects that need both in the same study.
How long does a research project take and what does it cost?
Typical project: four to six weeks. Starting from £12,000. Scope, audience and market all affect the final cost and timeline, which is why we start with a conversation about the decision you're trying to make rather than a fixed rate card.
Why does The Reality Department work differently from a typical research agency?
The research agency model we deliberately avoid looks like this:
- A senior person pitches the work.
- A junior team you've never met delivers it.
- The final output is a report built for a shelf, not a meeting.
- Nobody on your side can defend the findings in the room, because nobody on your side understood them past the executive summary.
The problem isn't the quality of the research. It's who's in the room when it gets used.
How is The Reality Department different from a typical research vendor?
The person who scopes the project delivers it
When HSB needed to understand what makes broker and MGA partnerships work, the same team ran the interviews and led the in-person debrief — the session where commercial and insight teams worked through "so what do we do now" together, on the spot. That's where the findings turned into commercial strategy, not after a handoff to someone reading a deck cold.
The decision comes before the questionnaire
A finance accounting tool preparing to enter a new market didn't just get a findings report: we tested the campaign material itself against the target audience before launch, so the messaging going to market was validated, not a best guess. The result was sales in the first month, not the usual slow ramp.
The output is designed around how it will be used
When standard research methods couldn't reach deaf, hard of hearing and non-speaking customers for a financial services brand, we designed a method that could: participants drew their views as artwork. NPS rose 35 points in the same group at the next wave, because the insight was usable, not shelved in a format nobody could act on.
What research has The Reality Department published?
Examples of original research published by The Reality Department include:
- The Business Reality Index: UK operational readiness, 500 senior leaders. Wave One found leaders scoring 37/100 despite 61% confidence in the year ahead.
- The Climate Commitment Gap: 500 sustainability decision-makers across the US and UK. 55% hold a formal net-zero target; only 3% have built what's needed to deliver it.
If you're shortlisting agencies, see how The Reality Department compares with Kantar, Ipsos and other research agencies.
Who founded The Reality Department?
The Reality Department was founded by Jake Pryszlak, a researcher with 10+ years across agency, client-side and SaaS roles.
Reality. Properly understood.