Join the Dots bought by Belgian insights firm

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Manchester consumer insights agency Join the Dots has been bought by Belgium-based InSites Consulting for an undisclosed sum.

Join the Dots, which was founded in 1998 and has offices in Manchester, New York and Singapore, focuses on online insight communities and cultural trends forecasting. It has a staff of more than 170.

InSites Consulting has revenue of more than €50M, almost 300 staff and is aiming to become the “ultimate next-generation insight agency”.

The group will enter the UK, USA and Singapore markets under the name Join the Dots | InSites Consulting, while the InSites Consulting brand name will be used across other markets.

Join the Dots CEO Quentin Ashby joins the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Graeme Lawrence, Chief Client Officer at Join the Dots, joins InSites Consulting’s group of Global Account Management.

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Andy Cumming, Divisional Director at Join the Dots, becomes Managing Director of the Manchester office. Andy Buckley, Innovation Director at Join the Dots, will supervise the global client solutions portfolio. Pauline Reeves, CFO at Join the Dots, will take on the responsibility of global head of finance and accounting. 

Kristof De Wulf, co-founder and CEO of InSites Consulting, said: “Join the Dots has long been admired for their progressive work in the qualitative space. As global markets are shifting towards the reality of having more open and ongoing connections with consumers, we’re eager to leverage the wealth of expertise Join the Dots brings to the table.

“By joining forces, we are taking a giant leap forward in becoming the market leader in online insight communities and in shaping the future of ongoing consumer dialogues,” 

The purchase of Join the Dots marks the insight agency’s fourth acquisition in just 18 months, after Australia’s Direction First, South-Africa-based Columinate, and creative crowdsourcing agency eÿeka, headquartered in Paris.

“We are very enthusiastic to benefit from a more global dimension, not only gaining access to the InSites Consulting Global Community Moderator Network, but also being able to service our existing clients better, and from various different markets,” added Ashby, CEO of Join the Dots. 

“This larger-scale workforce will allow us to accelerate the development of our unique technology suite, and certainly aid us in enhancing our insight ecosystem. We are looking forward to an exciting journey together, combining our complementary strengths to shape the future of the industry together.”

Join the Dots underwent a management buy-out in 2017

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