Cultural Intelligence
Helping brands find their place in culture
Culture has become one of marketing’s most talked-about topics. But how well do brands really understand it? And more importantly, what does that understanding allow them to do?
For us, culture is much more than trends, social media moments or the latest popular subculture. It's the behaviours, beliefs, communities and conversations that shape how people think, feel and act.
Understanding these forces helps brands navigate change, build relevance and identify new opportunities for growth.
THE Challenge
Cultural relevance is earned, not bought.
From New Balance, Nike and LEGO to PUIG, Just Eat, PepsiCo and Diageo, we've helped brands understand what it takes to earn cultural relevance, answering some of the most important questions about culture:
What are the cultural forces shaping your category?
Understanding the beliefs, behaviours, tensions and emerging shifts influencing your category and the people within it.
Where does your brand have a right to play in culture?
Identifying the cultural spaces, communities and conversations where your brand has credibility, relevance and permission to participate.
How do you turn cultural insight into organisational advantage?
Building a shared understanding of culture across your organisation, creating the alignment and confidence to make more culturally informed decisions.
OUR APPROACH
Getting up close with culture
Culture can't be understood from a distance. It takes curiosity, immersion and the ability to see beyond what's immediately visible.
Our role is to bring together different perspectives, decode the meanings behind cultural expression and connect the signals that reveal what's changing.
We combine lived experience, cultural expertise, research and strategic thinking to make sense of the world around us.
Our work is built around three principles:
Get closer
We get closer to the people, communities and spaces where culture is lived and shaped.
Through our Culture Counsel, a network of cultural experts, collective founders and community fixers, and a range of participatory research approaches, we bring brands closer to perspectives and experiences they might otherwise miss.
Find the meaning
We look beyond what's visible to understand the meanings, motivations and forces shaping culture.
Through cultural analysis, including semiotics, we decode the symbols, language, narratives and rituals that reveal the deeper meanings and tensions shaping people's worlds.
Make culture count
We turn cultural understanding into a clear direction for how brands show up and participate in culture.
Using our proprietary frameworks and in-house team of creative strategists, we help brands define their role in culture, establish the principles for meaningful engagement and identify new opportunities to build relevance and drive growth.
Together, these principles help brands move beyond following culture to making a meaningful contribution to it.
THE IMPACT
Meaning, value and relevance
Cultural Intelligence done well reveals:
Selected work.
We reject sterile focus groups in favour of real-world places, treating people as expert witnesses in their own lives. Our other offerings:
