♾️ The $40,000 research mistake

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Poor survey design or ineffective distribution are not the only reasons research projects fail.

The people side of the equation is where the uncertainty comes from. These projects fail because of misaligned expectations and unclear ownership.

I recently spoke with Megan Morreale, two-time head of content (Reddit and Taboola), about her experience leading a $40,000 research project that eventually fell flat, and it all came down to “marketing by committee.”

Her story shows us why so many research initiatives miss the mark—and how to prevent it from happening to you.

The research project that was meant to be

When Megan was working at a mid-sized SaaS company (~1,000 employees), she was tasked with creating an industry research report. The primary goal was straightforward: generate press coverage and backlinks to support top-of-funnel awareness.

The budget was significant—$40,000 for research and writing—with additional resources allocated for design and distribution. The company knew what they wanted, but the project soon went haywire.

The early warning signs…

The research planning meetings ballooned to include executives, PR, product marketing, field marketing, and occasionally sales representatives. And that’s when things began to unravel. 

The company was spending significant resources on the project—so every department saw an opportunity to add their own questions to the survey. What was intended to be industry research for press coverage gradually morphed into product-focused customer research.

Despite coming up with open-ended and industry-focused questions that would get them newsworthy insights, Megan and her PR partner faced a lot of resistance. 

Those involved didn’t understand how PR works, which meant they wanted every question to relate to the product.

The contract with the research vendor already limited them, so they could only include a specific number of questions. The report’s PR potential was reduced as more product-focused questions were added to the survey.

How internal politics derails projects 

As a senior manager sitting in meetings with directors and VPs, Megan felt limited in her ability to steer the project back on course.

The marketing leaders were focused on getting stats they could use in sales decks, not on what would generate press coverage. We’ve all been there. 

No matter how much you push back, your leadership or clients want what they want. And if you’re unable to make your case, you ultimately lose that battle.

At the end of it, the project wasn’t a complete failure. Megan and her PR colleagues were able to do the research and create the whitepaper. They even received some coverage and put some stats back into sales decks.

But was it worth the $40,000 investment? No.

Even the distribution phase fizzled out because journalists weren’t interested in company-focused data. 

How can content marketers protect their projects from derailing?

When I asked Megan what she’d do differently in the future, she mentioned these five things:

1. Leverage budget ownership as power: If your team is paying for the project, you need to take complete ownership. You can invite people to offer feedback—but whoever holds the purse strings gets the final say.

2. Make stakeholders pay to play: If other teams want to be fully involved and serve their OKRs, make them pay for it. This applies more to larger organizations where different teams have set budgets, but you get the gist.

3. Create a stronger narrative before starting: Internal marketing IS one of the hardest parts of content marketing. Don’t just say, “We’re doing a research project for PR.” Add more depth and pitch the narrative. For example, “We’re creating this research report because we need to get more of a foothold with this audience in the US. We’re targeting these trades and need to develop this type of story to grow our business this way.”

4. Get executive sign-off on the specific goals: Create a project brief with your goals and objectives and make sure it’s signed off by leadership. Why? So, it gives air cover when too many teams get involved later.

5. Know the goals inside and out—especially if you’re junior: There’s only so much you can do when you’re starting out. But that doesn’t mean you become an order taker. If you want to show initiative, it starts by knowing the project’s goal and reverse engineering your project to meet it.

Even if you’re not working for larger organizations, the principles still apply. Next time you spend time on a research project (or any cross-functional project), ask yourself:

• Who truly owns the project goals? Is there a single decision-maker?

• Have you communicated the purpose to all stakeholders?

• Are your questions/goals designed for your audience or your sales deck?

• Do you have mechanisms to resist scope creep from other departments?

• Is everyone aligned on what success looks like?

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