Marketing for insight agencies, research suppliers and data/tech companies
Every insight agency says it's "specialist." Every platform says it's "AI-powered." If everyone's saying it, it's not a differentiator; it's just noise you've agreed to make along with everyone else. We help you say something only you could say, and make sure the right people hear it.
Recognisable doesn't mean remembered
Our own Insights Awareness Pulse research is blunt about this: recognition in this industry sits overwhelmingly with a small handful of giants: Kantar, Ipsos, Nielsen, Qualtrics while everyone else, however good the work, competes for what's left over.
That's the real barrier for most insight agencies, research suppliers and data/tech companies: not a lack of skill, but a lack of shape. Ask three people to describe your agency, and you'll likely get three different, slightly wrong answers. Ask them to describe Kantar, and they'll all say roughly the same thing. That's not because Kantar is better. It's because Kantar has spent decades being legible, easy to describe, easy to remember, easy to recommend.
Legibility is a marketing problem, not a size problem. It's entirely solvable at your scale. It's just rarely solved by accident.
The three ways agencies and suppliers quietly sabotage themselves
They blend in. Most positioning statements in this industry could be swapped between competitors, and nobody would notice. "Data-driven insights that drive better decisions" describes everyone and therefore no one.
They let "AI-powered" do the talking. Every data and tech supplier in this space now claims some flavour of AI capability. It's stopped being a differentiator and started being the entry price. If your marketing leads with the tech rather than the judgement behind it, you sound exactly like your three nearest competitors.
They wait to be found. Procurement rosters, industry shortlists, analyst radars, award longlists, the places buyers actually go looking, reward agencies who've made the effort to be on them, not just agencies who deserve to be.
None of these is a talent problem. They're visibility problems, and visibility is a discipline you can build, the same way you'd build any other capability.
How we build it: F.A.M.E. applied to your positioning
We run the same F.A.M.E model here as everywhere else in our work: Foundational audits, Audience segmentation, Marketing campaigns, Execution but for agencies and suppliers, the foundational stage almost always starts in the same place: a hard, sometimes uncomfortable look at what you're actually claiming to be different at, and whether it's true, provable, and sayable in one sentence. Everything else PR, content, thought leadership, conference visibility only works once that's sorted.
What that looks like in practice
Positioning for insight agencies in a crowded market — how to find the one true differentiator worth building a whole marketing programme around
Insights vs tech: positioning when "AI-powered" isn't enough — for data and tech suppliers competing on more than the platform
Local specialist vs global generalist — why some buyers deliberately choose the smaller, sharper agency over the household name, and how to be found by them
Getting onto the rosters that matter — procurement panels, analyst lists, industry shortlists, and how agencies get added to them
PR wins for insight and research companies — turning proprietary data and expertise into press coverage, not just case studies nobody reads
AI-accelerated thought leadership without sounding like everyone else — how we use AI to move faster while keeping the judgement human
Proof, not promises
System1
As retained PR agency for the Ad Ratings launch (a database tracking 26,000+ TV ads for long-term brand growth prediction), we mined the data for stories that landed in Campaign, The Drum, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian: 69 pieces of coverage and an online reach of 269 million in six months.
Buzzback
An insights agency doing genuinely innovative work with a low industry profile. We turned their own consumer-trend knowledge into thought leadership and press outreach targeting vertical publications; their CEO and Founder now sits on the Content Advisory Board for VitaFoods, one of Informa's leading titles.
A US-based product innovation agency
A face-to-face positioning workshop with senior leadership, competitor analysis and client-perspective feedback, resulting in a full positioning statement, elevator pitch and creative brief that became the foundation for a new visual identity and website.
Communicating insights training
Beyond individual client work, we run training on communicating insights for the industry itself, including for the MRS and ESOMAR.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
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Your buyers are unusually sceptical of marketing claims, it's literally their job to see through vague or unsupported statements. Positioning that would work for most B2B companies (broad claims, soft superlatives) tends to actively undermine credibility here. Specificity and evidence do the work that enthusiasm does elsewhere.
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Often more. A platform or tool can be demoed; the judgement and expertise behind it usually can't, which is exactly what PR and thought leadership are built to communicate. Without it, "AI-powered" is the only thing left to say, and every competitor is saying it too.
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Rarely by applying cold. It's a combination of visible thought leadership (so panels recognise the name), direct relationship-building with the people who compile these lists, and, honestly, asking, most agencies never do.
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Not head-on. The opportunity isn't to out-market a company with decades of budget behind it; it's to be unmistakably legible in the specific space you actually compete in, so the buyers who want a specialist can find and remember you.
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Before, always. A new logo or website built on unclear positioning just makes the confusion look better designed. Positioning work is cheaper, faster, and it's what makes everything built afterwards, visual identity included, actually land.
Ready to stop sounding like your three nearest competitors?
Whichever side of the table you're on in-house, agency, or supplier the first step is the same… a conversation.