what we do

Data and Insights

Consultancy and data insights for storytelling

All great stories begin with a killer insight. Using actionable insights is intrinsic to Smoking Gun’s approach. It helps us to lead and strategically advise clients using facts - bespoke research rather than off the cuff hunches. What else would you expect from a data and insights agency?

Our approach to gathering data sets is methodical. It’s catered to the needs of the client and their marketing campaigns’ objectives, using both qual and quant research methods.

These can be from traditional workshops, focus groups and surveys. But we also use technology and tap into the abundance of consumer information available online to build a rounded and robust view.

One of the methods we use is analysis of Google search data. Another is deep algorithm social listening. This allows us to gather data from across the digital landscape pulling insight from forums, social media platforms and reviews. Then there’s your data, too – logging in to Google Analytics dashboards to see what’s working, sometimes in real-time.

Globally-awarded Philips campaign

The data-driven framework that returned Philips to market dominance

“Smoking Gun’s campaign has been a major stake in the ground in the business. The team demonstrated the perfect blend of strategic prowess and creative storytelling to bring us back to the fore - and the commercial results are undeniable.”

233%: growth in market share
23%: brand preference, up from 10%
50%: brand consideration, up from 36%

Creating a measurement framework for Philips

Communications Strategy

Data and Insights

Measurement & Evaluation for PR and Social Media

B2C PR Agency

Retail PR

Are insights driving your campaigns?

Let's get started

We believe success should link to business outcomes – preference, trust, mental availability, penetration, share – not just reach and engagement. Could data and insights be fuelling more commercially focussed PR campaigns for your brand? Let's talk.

How do we do this?

It’s digital marketing supercharged. By using two segmentation algorithms, we uncover topics your target demographic cares about and the opinion leaders they respect. We cluster people based on their shared behaviour – looking at the customer journey and how they interact.

This approach allows us to identify key stakeholders in conversations and individuals who connect communities to a topic or brand. It’s not based on reach, but the position of each stakeholder within a community, who knows them and how committed they are to sharing knowledge. This provides us with invaluable insights, integrating customer data with the user experience. Find out who your audience is and how they interact – which brand manager wouldn’t want to know this?

As a forward-thinking marketing agency, we also use a special algorithm that pinpoints the language central to conversations within online communities. We draw on a range of data sources from social media to your CRM or your website’s analytical cookies. We then cluster conversations which share the same language and reference points. This helps us to map key topics that would otherwise remain uncovered – be they in ecommerce, B2B or whichever industry you’re in.

How does this help our clients?

Supporting brand marketers not to ‘make noise’ but to achieve their organisational goals takes more than great ideas. To really move the dial on improving reputation, growing awareness, changing perceptions or increasing sales, ‘Inspired Insights’ is where it must begin.

This means brands can align content/ messages/ chosen advocates with what is front of mind for the target audience – making it more relevant and thus efficient.

Whatever your KPI, we’ve got the resources and the metrics to back it up. Whether you’re trying to explore what makes your audience tick, who influences your audience, or what your audience is talking about, we can gather robust data and insight that can tell you exactly that.

At Smoking Gun, we follow AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework and have won SEVEN global AMEC Awards for delivering campaigns that truly have impacted business goals.

Looking to uncover the insights that matter and turbocharge marketing communications strategy? Talk to us today.

Other services

Comms Strategy

Meet Smoking Gun’s Intention Unit – delivering research-led insight to craft comms strategies that cut through the noise and drive business impact for clients.

Social Media

Our data-first social media campaigns resonate with precision. Our creative storytelling fosters emotional connection and memorability with social audiences.

Digital PR

Media relations has come a long way. In today’s digital world, we’ve got the power to influence AI LLMs, earn links, assert authority and grab headlines.