20+ leading market research companies in the UK for consumer insights

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve some idea of what market research companies in the UK do, and how research is the rocket fuel that powers your most effective campaigns, product developments, and marketing strategies. 

But for the avoidance of doubt and to make sure we’re all on the same page, market research is about gathering and analyzing data on customers, competitors, distributors, and other actors and forces in the marketplace.

That’s important because market research companies take the guesswork out of getting through to audiences. By studying consumers and gathering information on their likes, dislikes and so on, a brand can make evidence-based decisions rather than relying on instinct or experience.

If a business wants to know – really know – what sort of products or services consumers want to buy, through to where, when, and how those products and services should be marketed, then it makes total sense to ask the prospective audience. 

Without the certainty that market research companies provides, a business is basically hoping for the best, and while we salute their optimism, that’s not exactly a reliable strategy for success.

The point is, research matters. To help you take advantage of this, here’s what this blog covers:

1. How to choose the right market research company for you
2. Meet the major players: market research companies in the UK
3. Last words
4. Market research FAQs

How to choose the right market research company for you

Different market research companies are not created equal. Behind the snazzy websites and persuasive pitching, individual research companies can vary pretty dramatically in terms of what they do and how they do it – all of which can radically alter the benefit their service provides. How do you pick the right research partner for you? Some key things to consider are:

1. Does the market research company you’re considering work with or know about your audience?
2. Does the company have expertise in your industry and category?
3. Do they have a history of success with businesses like yours?
4. What’s their capacity? Can they actually do the job you need doing?
5. Does the company conduct the right sort of research to answer your questions? 
6. Are they transparent about where their data comes from and how they ensure quality?
7. Does the company have a track record of providing actionable insights?
8. What’s their process for collecting and analyzing data?
9. How do they communicate with their clients?
10. Will the market research company provide results in a timely manner?
11. Will their work add value for your business? 

While there are hundreds of market research companies in London out there, these questions should help you narrow the field to a handful of promising candidates. On that topic, let’s meet some of the UK’s major players, starting – unashamedly – with us, GWI, but otherwise in no particular order.

Meet the major players 

GWI

The world’s largest ongoing study of online audiences, brought to life in a platform that puts instant, ultra-reliable insights at your fingertips.

Locations: Global, with offices in London, New York, Athens, Prague, and Singapore.

Specialisms: Every business has questions about its audiences; GWI provides the certainty they need to answer them. Our global Core dataset spans 50+ markets and represents the views of nearly 3 billion consumers. Alongside Core, we offer rich add-ons focused on the USA, kids, gaming, sport, alcohol, work, luxury, consumer tech, travel, and automotive.

Need to go further? With custom surveys, you can ask your own questions and link them back to 57,000+ profiling points. For activation, segmentation, and brand tracking, we integrate seamlessly into client workflows.

Clients: Publicis, Google, Spotify, Microsoft, WPP, Amazon, LinkedIn, The Guardian – and hundreds more.

What’s new:

• APIs – Our platform API lets data teams query, filter, and compare at scale, while our Spark API serves up ready-made insights in plain English for instant integration into tools and workflows.
• AI-powered insights – GWI Spark, our AI assistant, delivers fast, trusted insights from 50,000+ profiling points in seconds. GWI Canvas turns those insights into editable, client-ready decks in one click.
• Segmentation and RLD – Build or integrate sophisticated segmentation models, or enrich your CRM with pseudonymous respondent-level data (RLD).
• Certainty at scale – In a world of misinformation, we provide dependable, human-verified data that LLMs and AI can safely build on.

Use cases:

• Marketing strategy – Media planning, brand health, content marketing, targeting.
• Product development – Expansion opportunities, feature innovation, partnership mapping.
• Competitive edge – Market sizing, winning pitches, sponsorships, and client retention.
  
  

If you’re looking for a market research partner in the UK who goes beyond research to deliver certainty, speed, and scale, book a discovery call with GWI today.

Kantar TGI Consumer Data

Relevant and robust data about global and local audiences in an increasingly connected world.

Locations: London, UK ( with additional global as part of Kantar Group)

Specialisms: TGI Consumer Data specializes in media consumption (across print, TV, radio and online), as well as product and brand usage, attitudes, motivations, and beliefs, all under the banner of “connected consumer intelligence”. TGI uses Kantar’s data – they’re a subsidiary after all – based on a representative sample of over 700,000 consumers in 50 markets. Data is collected online, while offline panels of consumers provide detail on what each consumer does and how those activities are connected to each other. 

Use cases: TGI enables marketing and research teams to enhance strategic planning by segmenting customers and identifying gaps in the market. They help media agencies optimize media planning by identifying the most relevant target audiences against the right advertising activation choices. TGI works with media owners’ sales teams to understand their audience in lifestyle, attitudinal or consumer terms, and uses this to create competitive value.

Nielsen

A global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, Nielsen empowers clients with trusted intelligence.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: For Nielsen, “audience is everything”. They describe themselves as “Connecting clients to audiences, growth and new opportunities”, while “shaping the future of media” so their clients can “stay ahead of media’s evolution with our timely insight” by measuring behavior across different channels and platforms. They’re perhaps best known for their Nielsen ratings, an audience measurement system of television viewership that for many years has been the deciding factor in canceling or renewing television shows.

Use cases: Specific services include audience measurement (including cross media, digital, streaming and TV), media planning (including audience segmentation, competitor intelligence and scenario planning), market optimization (including marketing outcomes and sports/games), and content metadata (covering audio, sports, and video).

YouGov 

A global online community of 24 million people sharing their views daily. Clients can explore public opinion “about anything and everything”.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: YouGov’s mission is to supply a continuous stream of accurate data and insight into what the world thinks, so that companies, governments, and institutions can make informed decisions. Describing what they do as “Living Consumer Intelligence”, YouGov enables some of the world’s most recognised brands, media owners, and agencies to understand their customers using consumer data on 24 million+ registered panel members in 55+ markets.

Use cases: These fall into four buckets: Tracking, by continuously monitoring what an audience thinks about brands, campaigns, and the competition creates a powerful feedback loop for clients. Planning, with over a million data points to help users unlock the most complete profile of their audience and use it to plan marketing campaigns. Exploring, by allowing clients to get answers from their chosen audience using syndicated data products or customized surveys. Activating, enabling advertisers to optimize their ad spend by using research-based audiences to activate ad campaigns.

Attest

Attest pairs the expertise of a research agency with the speed (and price) of a self-serve tool for the best of both worlds.

Locations: London, UK

Specialisms: Attest is a consumer research platform that puts trustworthy insights in more people’s hands to minimize risk, increase decision-making confidence, and grow without guesswork. Based on the views of 125 million people across 58 countries, and combining the best bits of research technology and human expertise, Attest makes it simple for anyone to uncover opportunities with consumer data, continuously, at a global scale. They call it “growth without guesswork”. 

Use cases: Brand tracking (including brand health and performance), consumer profiling (for example finding audiences and building personas), creative testing (in terms of validating creative impact and qualifying campaign uplift), market analysis (like identifying new markets and de-risking expansion), and product development (including innovation and uplift).

GfK

Empowering bold sustainable action, GfK earns the trust of clients around the world by solving critical questions in their decision-making process.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: As GfK puts it, “We specializes in solving critical questions in our clients’ decision-making process. We fuel their growth by providing a complete understanding of their consumers’ buying behavior, and the dynamics impacting their markets, brands and media trends.” With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights – delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms – GfK drives “growth from knowledge”.

Use cases: GfK divides these into 5 areas: Brand and marketing performance (including improving brand strength, optimizing marketing, and driving ROI), Sales and marketing growth, Consumer and shopper intelligence (in terms of consumer and shopper intelligence, and how customers think, act and buy), Media measurement (covering an audience’s media consumption and behavior, and understanding who’s consuming which media, when, how often, and on which platforms and devices).

Fieldwork Hub

Participant recruitment and project management experts, FieldworkHub delivers market research services in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Locations: London, UK

Specialisms: FieldworkHub specialize in both qualitative and quantitative research fieldwork. Their qualitative expertise covers focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographies, online bulletin boards, market research online communities, and user experience testing. FieldworkHub’s quantitative specialisms cover online surveys, telephone interviews, and face-to-face interviews. As their name implies, their ultimate specialism is providing high-quality focus group recruitment as part of the full range of qualitative and quantitative fieldwork services.

Use cases: Recruiting audiences for consumer understanding (to highlight opinions, behaviors, and preferences in relation to a market, product, or service), B2B market research (using a combination of their own panel, specialist databases, social networking, and recruiters), tech professionals and users (focussing on consumers who use particular apps or hardware, and B2B technology decision makers), and healthcare professionals and patients (to provide insights on everything from branding to new product testing).

Statista

Statista is a leading provider of market and consumer data, constantly developing successful new products and business models.

Locations: Global (18+ offices)

Specialisms: Statista divides its offer into four specialisms: content and design focuses on research and information design, eCommerce insights provides market analyses, benchmarking and lead generation, consumer Insights analyzes consumer behavior and media usage on and offline, based on the data of 1,700,000 consumers from 56 countries, while market insights covers market sizing and forecasts.

Use cases: Market insights (covering a broad range of topics, from consumer goods to technology to automobiles), consumer insights (highlighting consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide), company insights (providing business information on 70m+ public and private companies), and eCommerce insights (offering detailed information for 39,000+ online stores and marketplaces).

Gartner 

Delivering actionable, objective insights to executives and their teams to help them make faster, smarter decisions.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: From benchmarks to frameworks to rankings, Gartner provides the practical solutions that transform mission-critical priorities into measurable business results. Benchmarking leverages their best-in-class diagnostics to excel where it matters most, budget smarter, and make function more effective. Cost Optimisation identifies where to reduce, protect and invest to drive growth and efficiency, while Strategic Planning creates a clear and streamlined road map to meet business goals.

Use cases: Audit and risk, customer service and support, finance, human resources, information technology, legal and compliance, marketing and communications, product management, sales, strategy, and supply chain.

Dynata 

The world’s largest first-party data company, covering 70 million consumers and professionals, fully permissioned with billions of verified data points.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: Dynata divides its specialisms into two broad categories: data and insight solutions, uncovering accurate and actionable insights to drive smarter decision-making, and advertising solutions designed to measure & optimize your cross-channel campaigns to improve your marketing ROI.

Use cases: Dynata’s use cases cover a broad sweep of market research tasks, including finding and selecting your ideal audience, building surveys to get you closer to your consumers, connecting data across silos, audience and campaign activation to drive better campaign results, creative testing to produce memorable adverts that maximize ROI, and sharing reports and analytics.

Comscore

A pioneering audience measurement company, accurately measuring audiences in an increasingly cross-platform world.

Locations: London, UK (with additional global offices)

Specialisms: Automotive, FMCG, retail and travel (planning, transacting, and evaluating advertising across platforms to increase engagement and ROI), digital (accurate measurement across all platforms), financial (comprehensive reporting of competitive performance across acquisition and retention KPIs), pharma (privacy-focused, holistic measurement of campaign outcomes), and tech (understanding emerging consumer trends, device usage, and platforms). 

Use cases: Advertising (measuring and evaluating effectiveness across platforms), marketing impact (maximizing effectiveness), programmatic targeting (for cross platform audiences), TV audiences (measuring size and makeup), digital audiences (measuring all content types), movies (measuring global box office performance), social (understanding value of social audiences).

Streetbees

The world’s first “human intelligence platform”, Streetbees captures real life moments, at scale, and in people’s own words.

Locations: London and Lisbon

Specialisms: Streetbees currently has two flagship solutions that reflect their area of specialization. Streetbees GO captures and communicates the context and emotion of 4.5m lives so brands can make the right growth decisions in terms of demand spaces, category development, market trends and brand growth. Its Cost of Living Monitor helps brands create winning strategies to combat inflation by observing how consumers’ spending is changing in their category.

Use cases: Observing the moment of truth, by capturing real life behavior at the moment a consumer makes a decision. Never rely on claims again. Getting closer to consumers at scale, by accessing rich data with photos and videos from millions of consumers around the world. Growth through AI also allows you to spot hidden growth opportunities by applying AI to millions of real life observations from real consumers.

Mintel

One of the most trusted names in syndicated market intelligence, Mintel equips brands with deep insights into consumer trends, market dynamics, and emerging product innovation.

Locations: Global - headquartered in London, with offices in Chicago, Mumbai, Shanghai, Seoul, and São Paulo.

Specialisms: Consumer and market research across FMCG, beauty, technology, and more, product launches and innovation tracking via the Global New Products Database, trend forecasting, competitive and business intelligence, market sizing and expansion.

Use cases: Teams use Mintel reports to validate strategy, benchmark competitor activity, spot market gaps, and forecast growth. Mintel Leap - an AI-powered, closed-loop intelligence assistant - offers instant, high-quality strategic insights to accelerate decision-making.

Savanta

Savanta fuses research, data, and strategic consulting into one integrated offering, ideal for teams wanting intelligence that doesn’t just guide, but inspires.

Locations: London HQ; also present in the US, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Brussels, and beyond.

Specialisms: B2B & B2C research across sectors like financial services and FMCG, standard and bespoke solutions including panel-based surveys, segmentation, brand tracking, dashboards, and eye-tracking tools, products like BrandVue, MarketVue, and MillionaireVue.

Use cases: Organizations deploy Savanta for end-to-end programs that demand a single partner for design, fieldwork, analysis, and stakeholder-ready storytelling.

Toluna

Toluna stands out for combining a vast managed panel with agile survey technology, allowing brands to move from question to answer at speed.

Locations: London, UK

Specialisms: Rapid concept and creative testing, pricing and claims testing, audience feasibility at speed, integrated panel and survey platform.

Use cases: Fast iteration cycles for creatives, messaging, and product ideas that require overnight or short-field results.

BVA BDRC

Imagine a consultancy that blends behavioral science, sharp data skills, and clear visuals to help clients make smarter decisions, and also genuinely wants you to be better at what you do.

Locations: Headquartered in London, part of the Ipsos-acquired BVA Family with offices worldwide across at least 11 countries and over 20 locations.

Specialisms: Deep domain know-how in sectors like tourism, finance, retail, hospitality, media, and transportation. Combines behavioural science, data science, and visual design to deliver market and customer strategy, CX, brand and reputation insight, benchmarking, and UX testing. 

Use cases: Great for complex briefs where you need sector-savvy frameworks or behavioral nudges to shape strategy, whether refining hospitality services or benchmarking retail customer experience.

Opinium

Smart, creative, and a little fearless - Opinium makes data talk. Their sweet spot is mixing evidence with storytelling, often in ways that spark headlines.

Locations: London HQ, with offices in New York, Amsterdam, and Cape Town.

Specialisms: Brand and communications research, stakeholder mapping, thought leadership, social and political polling, and product development. Known for accurate election polling and standout questionnaire design.

Use cases: When you need research that shapes conversations - like a PR campaign with data-backed bite, a thought leadership study that lands in the press, or political polling that actually gets it right.

System1

System1 is the behavioral science specialist that predicts which ads and innovations will succeed - not in theory, but in the real world.

Locations: Global presence, with offices in London, the US, and beyond.

Specialisms: Tools like Test Your Ad (measuring emotional impact and fluency), Fluent Innovation (predicting innovation success), and Predictive Markets (forecasting real consumer reactions).

Use cases: Pre-flight creative testing to see if ads will land, innovation screening to filter which concepts feel fresh but familiar, and long-term strategy guidance through consistency and brand-building metrics.

Walnut Unlimited

Walnut Unlimited calls itself the “human understanding agency,” and for good reason. It uses neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to dig beneath surface-level responses.

Locations: UK-based.

Specialisms: Neuromarketing tools (like TrueLiking for emotional response), qual-quant methods, packaging optimization, and applied behavioral science workshops.

Use cases: Perfect for uncovering subconscious reactions - whether refining ad creative, optimizing packaging, or designing CX improvements. Walnut helps brands act on the emotions customers can’t always put into words.

Verve

Verve blends human insight with AI and cultural expertise, building branded research communities that feel more like collaboration than one-off projects.

Locations: London-based, with a global footprint.

Specialisms: Insight communities, AI-powered personas (VIPs), longitudinal qualitative and quantitative research, co-creation workshops, and cultural decoding.

Use cases: Continuous customer collaboration to refine products and content, predictive personas that cut survey fatigue, and cultural insight programs that help brands track and shape consumer behavior shifts.

Kadence International

Kadence brings boutique service to a global scale, blending personalized research thinking with consistent execution across multiple markets.

Locations: London-based, with a worldwide presence through flexible partner networks.

Specialisms: Kadence focuses on multi-market qualitative and quantitative research, B2B insight, market entry studies, and audience segmentation. Their expertise includes fieldwork and analytics for large consultancy-led projects, cultural localization for international campaigns, product innovation testing (including packaging and concept studies), and advanced segmentation models that identify growth audiences. 

Use cases: Ideal when you need centralized control over design but local nuance - like running consistent global campaigns, segmenting audiences for international product launches, or aligning strategy across diverse markets.

Harris Interactive

Fast, agile, and tech-forward, Harris Interactive delivers slick, data-driven market research that stays on pace with modern marketing demands.

Locations: UK and broader Europe.

Specialisms: Agile concept and ad testing, brand and usage studies, customer and employee experience programs, corporate reputation tracking, and automated dashboards. Harris blends traditional rigor with tech-enabled approaches like mobile-first surveys, online communities, and cross-channel campaign analysis. 

Use cases: Perfect for time-sensitive testing programs where marketers need fast, reliable evidence to green-light creative or product moves.

MetrixLab

MetrixLab blends digital-first insight with AI smarts, helping brands validate copy, test ads, and measure performance faster - and with more predictive power.

Locations: Global (HQ in Rotterdam, London, and beyond).

Specialisms: Copy testing, brand lift measurement, ad and campaign evaluation, packaging optimization, and creative pre-testing. Their strength lies in digital-first approaches, supported by AI-powered creative pre-testing tools such as ACT Instant and predictive modeling for brand impact.

Use cases: Great for digital and cross-channel campaigns needing fast validation - think social-video optimization, early-stage concept testing, and AI-driven ad performance forecasts.

Differentology

Differentology tosses the traditional rules of market research out the window by fusing data, creativity, technology, and agile thinking to uncover the heart behind human behavior.

Locations: UK-based - rooted in Newcastle upon Tyne, with London ties.

Specialisms: Differentology specializes in qualitative exploration and cultural insight, underpinned by quantitative validation to ground findings in evidence. Their work includes brand strategy development, communications testing, and creative research that decodes how people emotionally connect with content. The agency is also known for large-scale media and cultural projects,

Use cases: Differentology is often engaged at the early stages of strategy and creative development, when brands need to anchor decisions in real human stories and cultural meaning. For advertisers and media owners, their absorption metrics provide a richer lens on creative effectiveness than simple reach numbers.

Spark Emotions

Spark Emotions brings the science of human behavior into the heart of shopping eye-level decisions. 

Locations: Based in Lichfield with an office in London, UK.

Specialisms: Spark Emotions employs consumer psychologists, behavioral science methods like facial coding and static eye-tracking, and immersive in-store research to pinpoint what truly motivates shopper actions. Their expertise spans immersive shelf-testing, shopper journey mapping, and applying academic psychology to business. 

Use cases: This is the agency for brands that want to know not just which packaging stands out, but why. Teams use Spark Emotions when optimizing in-store activation, testing new shelf formats, or refining visuals to be memorable - not just seen. 

Relish Research

Relish Research takes a refreshingly human approach to insight - blending qualitative dialogue, quantitative rigor, and commercial smarts to guide strategies that stick. They’re especially solid in sectors like retail, utilities, gaming, and subscription models.

Locations: Based in London, UK.

Specialisms: Relish brings together conversational qual (think real talk with real shoppers) and quantitative methods to unlock truths behind subscription behavior, media engagement, and retail trends. Their insight blends curiosity with commercial relevance, helping clients navigate recurring revenue models and craft user-focused strategies. 

Use cases: Perfect for businesses with growth ambition that needs grounded insight. Think streaming platforms wanting to reduce churn, retailers testing new propositions, or media owners building audience loyalty. 

Mustard

Mustard is the agency that delivers insight that actually gets used - not just presented. Think sharp, actionable thinking wrapped in strong CX, brand, and innovation foundations.

Locations: Manchester-based.

Specialisms: Mustard mixes methodology - qual, quant, and hybrid - with storytelling and stakeholder workshops. Their focus areas include segmentation, brand performance, customer experience measurement, and service design. They don’t just hand over slides; they co-create insight activation frameworks with teams to drive real change. 

Use cases: Teams working with challenger brands, public services, or financial products rely on Mustard to surface insight that lands in boardrooms and frontline strategy alike. 

Basis

Basis is the creatively strategic consultancy you turn to when insight needs to spark change. They fuse storytelling, behavioral science, design, and big data - and now even public policy.

Locations: Offices in the UK and the US, with projects spanning more than 60 countries globally.

Specialisms: Recent innovations include AI-powered social listening via their Ideas.AI platform, as well as a public-policy-focused wing called Basis Social. Their approach is creative, collaborative, and impact-oriented. 

Use cases: When organizations confront high-stakes strategic questions - like refining brand architecture, informing cultural shifts, or designing effective services - Basis equips teams with insight that resonates. Innovation teams use Ideas.AI to process social chatter, public-sector clients turn to Basis Social for transformation insights grounded in human insight.

Last words

28 different market research companies, with 28 different ways to help brands by taking the gut feel out of decision-making. 

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