What Crowd DNA does

Crowd DNA is a privately-held cultural insights and strategy consultancy headquartered in London, founded in June 2008 by a four-person team. Operating across 70+ markets with offices in London, Amsterdam, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Stockholm, and Los Angeles (7 cities), the firm serves enterprise brand clients including Sony Music, Heineken, IKEA, Pernod Ricard, Meta, BBC, NFL, Spotify, Patagonia, Samsung, and Asahi, among others. Its delivery is structured around three integrated workstreams — People & Culture (thought leadership and cultural trend analysis), Brand & Communication (strategy, positioning, campaign development), and Product & Experience (UX research, innovation programmes, purchase journeys) — supported by proprietary tools including the Crowd Context Toolkit (methodology framework), the KIN Network (1,000+ global creators/connectors), Impact DNA (effectiveness measurement), and Crowd Out/In (innovation programmes).

The firm's technology stack blends qualitative research methods (ethnography, semiotics, online communities, narrative journalism) with the Culture At Scale platform, which applies machine learning to unstructured cultural data via the parent STRAT7 group's strat7.ai infrastructure. An in-house Socialise division of writers, videographers, designers, and photographers produces content from research findings. The firm operates a professional services revenue model, delivering project-based engagements and ongoing client relationships through direct enterprise field sales across its global office network. The company became part of the STRAT7 group in November 2020 and is currently led by Global Managing Director Elliot Pigram, appointed in January 2024 following founder Andy Crysell's departure at the end of 2023. Marketing is driven by content-led thought leadership including the City Limits and Club Free editorial series, two published methodology books, and active presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter/X.

Crowd DNA has accumulated multiple industry awards over its 15+ year history, including two MRS Cultural Insights Awards (2014, 2019), an ESOMAR Best Paper Award (2015), and a MediaTel Best Custom Media Project award (2015), positioning it as an established mid-sized specialist in the cultural insights segment of the global market research industry.

Name

Crowd DNA

Legal name

Crowd DNA

Website

https://crowddna.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Crowd DNA is a privately-held cultural insights and strategy consultancy founded in 2008, headquartered in London with 7 global offices. It serves enterprise brand clients across 70+ markets through three workstreams — People & Culture, Brand & Communication, and Product & Experience — combining ethnography, semiotics, trend analysis, and the Culture At Scale AI platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Insights and Strategy Consulting

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310), Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Social & Digital Insights (Social Listening, Online Community Research) (MPAAALAK)

Keywords

• Cultural insights consulting
• Market research services
• Brand strategy consulting
• Consumer research agency
• Trend analysis services

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting Services: Cultural insights and strategy consultancy providing research, strategy, and creative services to global brands across three workstreams: People & Culture, Brand & Communication, and Product & Experience. Revenue generated through project-based engagements and ongoing client relationships.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Crowd DNA is a cultural insights and strategy consultancy that helps global brands understand and act on culture through research, strategy, and creative services. Its work is organised across three workstreams: People & Culture (thought leadership blending ethnography, trends analysis, and investigative journalism), Brand & Communication (purpose, positioning, campaign development, and launch readiness), and Product & Experience (UX research, innovation programmes, and journey mapping). The firm delivers these services through a blended team of trends specialists, researchers, strategists, data analysts, designers, writers and filmmakers, supported by proprietary tools such as the Culture At Scale AI/machine learning platform and the KIN network of 1,000+ global creators.

Product overview

Crowd DNA is a cultural insights and strategy consultancy offering three integrated service workstreams: People & Culture (thought leadership and cultural analysis), Brand & Communication (strategy and campaign development), and Product & Experience (UX and innovation). The firm operates proprietary tools including the Crowd Context Toolkit for culturally-informed research conclusions, the KIN Network (a 1,000+ global creator/connector network for expert insights), and Culture At Scale (an AI/machine learning platform powered by strat7.ai for analyzing unstructured cultural data). Supporting these are content production capabilities through the Socialise division, research methodologies (Crowd Communities, Narrated Galleries, Network Audits, Citizen Journalism), and editorial publications including City Limits and Club Free series. Impact DNA provides effectiveness measurement, while Crowd Out/In products support innovation programmes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KIN: Global network of creators and connectors, over 1,000 global network of experts.
• Socialise
• Crowd Out
• Crowd In
• Impact DNA
• Culture At Scale

Products and services

• People & Culture Thought leadership and cultural analysis workstream that maps cultural change and tells stories by blending ethnography, trends analysis, and investigative journalism, building a credible wider cultural context for brand clients.
• Brand & Communication Strategic positioning, campaign development, and communication services for brand clients, covering purpose shaping, brand optimisation, launch readiness, and communication/campaign testing across markets.
• Product & Experience User experience research, innovation programmes, and purchase journey mapping that uses in-the-moment methodologies and trends work, complemented by personas and prototyping to identify product and experience opportunities for clients.
• Impact DNA Effectiveness-meets-advocacy tool launched in April 2011 for measuring the commercial and social impact of brand engagements across Crowd DNA's client portfolio.
• Crowd Out and Crowd In Innovation programmes unveiled in January 2014 supporting external ideation (Crowd Out) and internal innovation (Crowd In) processes for client brand teams.
• Socialise Division In-house content production service launched September 2016 providing writers, videographers, designers, and photographers to communicate trends, amplify research findings, and engage client audiences.
• Culture At Scale AI/machine learning platform that combines global data exploration with cultural analysis to identify culturally charged patterns and trends in unstructured data at scale, powered by strat7.ai within the STRAT7 group.

Quantifiable outcome

• MRS Cultural Insights Award December 2019 for Asahi work
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers30 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• SnapchatcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Partnership with Snapchat for Gen Z research. National qualitative and quantitative study of over 3,000 young Australians presented at first annual Snapchat Summit in Sydney, March 2025.
• 10,000 Black InternsminorOthers · 1 October 2022Partnership with charity dedicated to creating opportunities for underrepresented young Black talent. Crowd DNA committed to providing internship opportunities through this program.
• Clear StreamminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2012Strategic partnership #3 established in November 2012 with community/mobile research provider Clear Stream to boost tech credentials.
• China SkinnyminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2012Strategic partnership #2 established in April 2012 with China Skinny in Shanghai to expand capabilities in Chinese market research and insights.
• WPP Agency GreyminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2012Strategic partnership #1 established in January 2012 focused on word of mouth research capabilities.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• WGSN: WGSN is a global trend forecasting and consumer insights platform serving fashion, beauty, food, and consumer brands. It is a direct comparable to Crowd DNA given its shared focus on cultural and consumer trends for enterprise marketing teams and its subscription-plus-consulting revenue model.
• The Future Laboratory: The Future Laboratory is a London-based trend forecasting and consumer insights consultancy serving global brands with foresight, strategy, and cultural research. It is one of the closest direct peers to Crowd DNA, with comparable methodology (qualitative research, trends analysis) and enterprise client base.
• Flamingo (Ipsos): Flamingo is a cultural insights and brand strategy agency now operating within Ipsos, with overlapping offerings in semiotics, cultural strategy, and brand positioning. It is a direct peer because it competes for the same cultural strategy briefs from global brand clients, with the added advantage of Ipsos's quantitative scale.
• Canvas8: Canvas8 is a behavioral insights agency producing research-led content and cultural intelligence for brands. It is a direct peer to Crowd DNA given its focus on synthesizing cultural research into actionable insights for marketing teams, with overlapping methodology (ethnography, semiotics, cultural analysis).
• Foresight Factory: Foresight Factory is a London-based consumer trends consultancy producing foresight and trend analysis for major consumer brands. It directly competes with Crowd DNA's People & Culture and trend forecasting workstreams and shares a similar enterprise client mix (CPG, beverages, retail).
• Box1824: Box1824 is a cultural insights agency headquartered in Barcelona with global reach, focused on youth culture, semiotics, and brand strategy. It is a direct peer to Crowd DNA given its shared ethnographic and semiotic methodologies, though it is somewhat smaller and more youth-segment focused.

Broad incumbents

• Kantar: Kantar is one of the world's largest market research and consumer insights companies, with broad quantitative and qualitative capabilities across brand strategy, innovation, and advertising effectiveness. It is a broad incumbent competitor with overlapping cultural insights offerings (e.g., Kantar Cultural Insights) and substantially deeper scale than Crowd DNA.
• Ipsos: Ipsos is a global market research leader with significant brand, advertising, and cultural insights operations (including Flamingo). It is a broad incumbent competitor with overlapping enterprise client relationships and deeper resources, and is the parent of Crowd DNA's closest direct peer (Flamingo).
• Mintel: Mintel is a global consumer market research firm producing syndicated reports, trend analysis, and consulting for CPG and retail clients. It is a broad incumbent that overlaps with Crowd DNA's consumer brand work, particularly in trend forecasting and product innovation, though it relies more on syndicated quantitative research.

Others

• Mother Design: Mother Design is a creative agency with cultural strategy and brand positioning capabilities serving global brands. It is an adjacent (OTHERS) peer given overlap in brand strategy work but no direct competition on research and insights, making it more of a downstream creative execution partner or collaborator than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CrowdDNA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/crowd-dna
• Instagraminstagram.com/crowddna

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Crowd DNA