We don’t just ‘do quant’, we culturally charge it. Our Numbers Director, Ed Bird on how to fuse the best of quant rigour with cultural strategy…
When you think about cultural research and strategy, I bet you think about ethnography, observations, trend forecasting, and semiotics – methods that bring you as close to people’s lives as possible. And quite possibly, quant is the last method you think of.
But, since 2017, we’ve been asking ourselves the question: “How do you understand and unpack real human stories that dictate culture when speaking to thousands rather than tens of people?”.
Thinking about how to culturally-charge data allows our global Crowd Numbers team to steadily fly high, tackling some of the biggest challenges from the biggest brands around the world. We’d like to tell you more about how we do it and what this approach can bring to your brand challenges.
How We Culturally-charge Data
Our quantitative work is blended. We feel the very best quant works in tandem with our other research methods. We can unpick complex topics about people and culture through a variety of specialists. This helps us produce clear, human storytelling, and back it all by understanding people at scale.
Our blended approach doesn’t just stop in house. As part of STRAT7 we partner with our sister agency Bonamy Finch when we need to enhance our analytics and data science capabilities. And we use STRAT7 Audiences, the group’s global centre of excellence for data collection.
Read more about STRAT7 Audiences here.
We’re ad-hoc: Why would we use a fixed template when culture (and your objectives) aren’t static? So, at Crowd Numbers we start from scratch. We approach each brief with creativity and an open mind: questioning everything and experimenting with traditional methods to tailor these to your very specific goals.
We don’t do filler: Forget about long PowerPoints filled with charts, we collaborate with our editorial team and of course our qual research team to produce reports that inspire, not overwhelm.
We’re human: Our aim is to replicate real world thinking and interactions, but at scale. Just look at our questionnaires that strike the balance between the rigour of academic quant research with the flow of real conversations.
But what have we achieved so far? Well, in short, quite a lot. It’s been quite a road, but let’s go a bit deeper and show you how we combine the best of quant rigour with cultural strategy…
(left) Blended, human and no filler, as shown from our Resetting the Dancefloor for Ballantine’s report
People & Context
When brands need powerful narratives to lead conversations, culturally charged data can help clients to confidently lead the way on how culture is evolving, and showcase brand knowledge in certain categories, sectors, or topics.
Case study: Paramount x On Screen Representation
Take our work with Paramount in both 2021 and 2023. They wanted our help to unpack attitudes to on-screen representation to push this important conversation forward. We devised a 15-market survey that unpacked real human understanding of both societal views and deeper personal emotional impacts. But we went further, speaking to experts globally to produce a market leading narrative for our very public facing findings. Read more here.
Brand & Comms
We don’t just use data to size, prioritise and validate (though we do that too), but we love to use it to demonstrate how brands can tactically and strategically lean into culture.
Case Study: Amazon Ads x Culture
Our partnership with Amazon has yielded some fantastic projects, none more so than unpacking the relationship between advertising and our evolving culture. Big questions, need big solutions so we brought in trends, qual, and semiotics wrapping it all up in a global survey that captured our evolving relationships with advertising and the role Amazon can play. This storytelling was launched at Cannes Lion in 2024. Read more here.
Product & Experience
Culture is messy, but we can find your space and help you execute a role in culture. We provide executional guidance across consumer journeys and touchpoints but always through the lens of culture – something quant testing often misses.
Case Study: Ballantines x True Music DEI
We did this with Ballantine’s. Following our work Resetting The Dancefloor, it was all about helping them with the next step in progressing DEI within live music and clubbing spaces. So, we tested ideas and hypotheses and through culturally charged data, we found meaningful ways the brand could make a difference. Not just based on metrics, but on human understanding. Read more here.
We’re very proud to have developed global quantitative capabilities with a focus on both storytelling and the analytical challenges. We love what we do, and we think you would too. If you’d like to know more, drop us a line at hello@crowddna.com and we’d be happy to discuss.