Gracious Economics

“There are vanishingly few people in this world I would trust to represent the business I run to our past, present, and potential future clients. Brian is one of them. This year he carried out a series of interviews with marketing directors and CMOs to understand the state of market mix modelling, what people need from suppliers, and the burning questions they hope to address. The findings were fascinating, the interviewing professional, the communication faultless, and the final report insightful. On top of that Brian freely gave of his own wisdom and connections. It was a collaboration that will absolutely benefit my team and I for years to come.”

Dr Grace Kite, Managing Director, Gracious Economics

Kantar Media

Kantar Media commissioned Brian Jacobs and Associates to work with them on a multi-market media research initiative over 2016/2017. BJ&A’s involvement included assisting with the research’s design through to drafting various outputs summarising the findings.

“We found BJ&A to be efficient and timely throughout the project’s six months duration. Brian worked as an integral part of our global team throughout, contributing across a range of issues as they arose.

We would certainly consider using BJ&A for future assignments.”

Anna Reeves, Chief Marketing Officer, Kantar Media

The7stars

Founded in 2005, the7stars is the UK’s largest and most successful independent media agency with over £230m in billings

“The7stars has used Brian Jacobs and Associates for two important qualitative studies. The first involved interviewing a selection of our clients on their future needs from a media agency, and on how well the7stars is positioned to meet those needs.

The second consisted of a series of depth interviews with media owners, creative agencies and media consultants on the future of media trading.

We found working with Brian and Sarah very rewarding. As you can imagine, this sort of work is sensitive, and to an extent how the interviews are conducted reflects directly on us as an organisation.

The research was conducted professionally, and both studies revealed a mixture of anticipated feedback and some very unexpected insights. The insights emerging from both studies were presented back with complete clarity and openness, and have been of direct relevance and benefit to us as an agency management team.”

Jenny Biggam, Founder, the7stars

Suzuki

Suzuki manufacture quality small cars – including the Alto, the Swift and the Grand Vitara ranges.

“Suzuki GB has used Brian on a number of initiatives involving our agencies over the last three years. Examples have included advising us on fees and related matters, on agency team structures and on general relationship matters.

Brian's background and his experience have meant that he has proved to be a valuable partner for us on a number of occasions, and we have found him to be both committed and efficient.”

Tammy Charnley,
General Manager Marketing, Automobile Division, Suzuki GB

TAM Ireland

TAM Ireland is responsible for every aspect of the measurement of TV audiences in Ireland

“We invited Brian Jacobs to chair TAM Ireland's 2016 ‘Switched On’ conference. This was an important event for us, bringing together as it did agencies, advertisers and broadcasters for the launch of our cross-platform audience measurement strategy.

Brian helped us in the planning of the event, and built a rapport with our speakers ahead of time. On the day he pulled the whole event together in a relaxed and efficient fashion.

We were delighted with the whole event; feedback from those attending was overwhelmingly positive.”

Jill McGrath, CEO, TAM Ireland

Hiscox

Hiscox provides a range of insurance products to individuals and businesses. Hiscox exists to make good in time of loss.

“Hiscox commissioned Brian Jacobs and Associates initially to benchmark the fees paid to our creative agency, and then to extend this into a review of the structure of our fee arrangements. We were pleased with the work done, and have since implemented several of the recommendations made. We were particularly impressed with the way that Brian handled what was inevitably a sensitive topic with our agency partner so that both parties felt satisfied with the outcome.”

Annabel Venner, Global Brand Director, Hiscox

ISBA

ISBA is the sole representative body for advertisers in the UK. BJ&A authored the ISBA’s Guide to Understanding and Working with Market Research Agencies & Suppliers.

“Throughout, Brian was a calming, pragmatic and unflappable influence. From a logistical point of view, he was an absolute dream to work with, deadlines were always met and attention to detail was faultless considering the amount of content produced. We at ISBA are incredibly grateful for all the hard work, effort and time Brian and Louise invested.”

Traci Dunne, Consultancy Manager, ISBA

Suzuki

Suzuki manufacture quality small cars – including the Alto, the Swift and the Grand Vitara ranges.

“Suzuki Autos used Brian Jacobs and Associates as an intermediary during our creative and media agency review process. We were pleased with the service Brian provided throughout the creative part of the review, a service that included proposing long and short lists of agencies, managing all logistics alongside our team, ensuring we had a system in place to score the final pitches, and recommending and helping us negotiate remuneration terms with the winning agency. We wanted to ensure that, from the start the media and creative agency reviews ran on parallel paths, something that was achieved by Brian working closely throughout with our media auditors, who were running the media agency selection process.”

Dale Wyatt, Marketing and Sales Director, Suzuki Autos

Initiative

Initiative is a global media agency, part of the Interpublic Group (IPG).

“We experienced a great collaboration with Brian. His contribution and commitment much appreciated. His versatility and adaptability extremely welcome. His integrity clear. Brian's model for doing business a perfect fit for contemporary marketing requirements.”

Janet Fitzpatrick, President, Worldwide Clients, Initiative

Whitevector

Whitevector is a Helsinki-based buzz monitoring service keen to expand its offering to the UK and continental Europe.

“For the previous twelve months, Brian Jacobs and Associates has been helping Whitevector enter the UK market. We chose Brian because of his senior level experience in the media industry and good connections to the media agency community.

“Brian's help in getting touch with the right people and gearing our product offering for the UK market has been critical. London is a market where you need local expertise; we have been very happy with the results so far and are looking forward to continuing our co-operation into the future.”

Tommi Lehtonen, CEO, Whitevector Oy

Qustodian

An Anglo-Spanish start-up, Qustodian is developing cutting edge technology to transform the mobile phone into an engaging marketing and sales channel.

“We were introduced by a mutual business contact to BJ&A as a group to help us to really understand the advertising and media industries and provide high level, qualified introductions into the industry.

“Brian has not only delivered this, but has gone way beyond in his contribution to our organisation, its strategy and many of our day-to-day activities. The assistance with which we have been provided to help us set up and manage market research trials in London for our new mobile marketing and sales service has been excellent.

“In short, Brian has become an invaluable member of our team.”

John Roberts, Director and Co-Founder, Qustodian

Altamira

Altamira is a Connecticut-based full-service advertising agency.

“As part of a new market launch for Boyden Interim Management, a subsidiary of Boyden Worldwide, we needed a media expert in the UK who could extend our reach globally AND do it in record speed!

Brian Jacobs & Associates was the perfect fit, and hit the ground running!

By providing out-of-the-box strategic planning, top-notch negotiation and buying expertise, and a comprehensive post-buy analysis, Brian Jacobs & Associates quickly helped establish BIM as a market leader in the UK and mainland Europe. The campaign was so successful that BIM extended media efforts for a second year.”

Chris Swee, VP, Managing Partner, Altamira

Thomas Pink

Thomas Pink sells beautiful men’s and women’s shirts. The Company is part of the French-headquarted luxury goods business, LVMH.

“BJ&A dealt on our behalf with our fieldwork agency, Facts International, and liaised with our media agency, Team UK Media, reporting directly to me.

“As well as contributing to the efficient running of the research programme – and suggesting and implementing additional questions designed to aid future media planning decisions – BJ&A also helped us set targets for key metrics at the post stage, based on pre-advertising scores. These targets proved to be accurate.

“We found BJ&A to be efficient and committed in their work and timely in the final delivery of the report summarising the findings of the research.”

Liz Sowden, Head of Marketing, Thomas Pink

Creandum

Creandum is a Swedish Venture Capital firm. The firm was considering an investment in a Swedish market research business looking to launch in the UK. We undertook a deep-dive investigation into the UK market research market to help them arrive at a decision.

“We were very satisfied with the work done by Brian and his associates. The quality of the analysis, the industry insight and the senior level contacts they provided were very impressive.”

Staffan Helgesson, Managing General Partner, Creandum