Insites Consulting Buys Join the Dots

Global consumer agency InSites Consulting has acquired UK-based insight community specialist Join the Dots, for an undisclosed sum.

Join the Dots, which was bought out by its management in 2017 and has offices in Manchester, New York and Singapore, combines primary research with psychology, behavioural economics and consumer trend tracking. It also recently launched the Insight Ecosystem, designed as a more flexible online community, incorporating question tools, social intelligence capabilities and ethnography apps.

The firm has a headcount of more than 170, bringing InSites Consulting's group team to over 450 staff. Join the Dots' senior team will assume new positions in the combined firm: CEO Quentin Ashby takes a seat on InSites Consulting' Board of Directors and Executive Committee; Chief Client Officer Graeme Lawrence joins InSites's group of Global Account Management; Divisional Director Andy Cumming becomes MD of the Manchester office; Innovation Director Andy Buckley will supervise the global client solutions portfolio; and CFO Pauline Reeves has been named Global Head of Finance and Accounting.

InSites Consulting has acquired three other businesses since investment firm Mentha Capital acquired a majority stake in it last year: Sydney, Australia-based research, sampling and analysis provider Direction First; South Africa-based consumer agency Columinate; and Paris-based creative crowdsourcing firm eÿeka. InSites says the latest buy will extend its own geographical presence to ten client service offices across five continents. The group will enter the UK, US and Singapore markets under the name Join the Dots | InSites Consulting, while the InSites Consulting brand name will be used across other markets.

Kristof De Wulf, co-founder and CEO of InSites Consulting, comments: 'Join the Dots has long been admired for its progressive work in the qualitative space. We share a highly similar vision on the future of our industry and the responses we need to formulate. We plan on building on each other's strengths and on the incredible expertise Join the Dots brings to the table, to offer our ever-growing list of clients even more benefits and value'.

Web sites: www.insites-consulting.com and www.jointhedotsmr.com .