Verve ignite success in Manchester

In under 12 months, the team, based in the iconic Express Building in Ancoats, has grown to 20 and following the launch of Ignite, has seen the business working with a range of new brands including the BBC, Screwfix, EON Next, Sky Business, News Corp and AfterPay.

Verve founder and CEO, Andrew Cooper, comments: “Something that has always been central to our approach at Verve is our focus on applying multiple lenses to the research process to create more rounded insights. This year we further diversified this through our Ignite proposition, which has helped us win projects in territories we’d not previously competed in, and against competition we’d not previously engaged with – resulting in organic growth within our existing accounts, alongside developing new client relationships.”

Kelly McKnight, executive director and Ignite lead

Ignite@VERVE blends traditional research with innovative methodologies to ‘supercharge insight’ for strategy and innovation. Taking Verve’s proven heritage in communities and smart digital research, Ignite combines research specialisms and smart tools to meet the demand for powerful, future-proofed consumer insight. The Ignite team is comprised of strategists, semioticians, cultural analysts, behavioural scientists, anthropologists and UX analysts, with the aim of delivering a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour in the context of changing culture.

Early 2023 will see the team formally launching ‘Ignite AI’ – an AI-powered consultancy offer which will 'unlock the power of unstructured datasets and create new value for clients'. Taking content from any source, from social media feeds to campaign creatives, Ignite AI scans and summarises data sets to uncover implicit emotions, patterns and cultural codes. Ignite experts build on the machine learning to deliver powerful commercial insights for clients.

Executive director and Ignite lead, Kelly McKnight, says: “2022 has been an incredible first year for Ignite and the Manchester-based team. We are all buoyed by the positive response we’ve had from clients and proud of the work we’ve done. I’m excited to build on the successes of this year and looking forward to launching Ignite AI – and even more growth in 2023!”