6 Mar 2012: Three of the UK’s most experienced data and insight professionals have joined forces to create a new agency, Adroit Data & Insight.  Nigel Magson, previously Chairman of Tangible Data, Julian Foxon (ex Insight Partner at Tangible UK) and David Dipple (previously Consultancy Partner at Tangible UK), have founded the agency to combine "best-of-breed analytics techniques and real data expertise with a passion for delivering actionable insights for their clients".

"We had picked up, from many organisations that we know, a lack of applicable insights from much of the research or data work they had commissioned their agencies to undertake," explained Magson. "Frequently the results were based on shaky analysis, rarely included measures of ROI, or quite simply couldn’t be put into practice. We felt the only way to tackle this was to have an agency focused specifically on making sense of data, generating positive independent results that our clients could trust, and sitting with them to help them apply them to their campaigns and marketing.”

Adroit works with some of the UK’s leading charities and is looking to engage further within this sector, calling on their not-for-profit expertise across several decades. David Dipple recently appeared on the Guardian’s interactive online panel into ROI in Fundraising, and is one of the most recognised faces in the charity analytics world, whilst Nigel founded the Insight Special Interest Group in the sector.

The agency has already added two senior client-side marketers - Katherine Purse from Hays and Harjit Sandhu from Calor. Foxon commented: "This gives us a uniquely strategic dimension, enhancing the core offering of data and analytics with their huge experience in planning, proposition development, research and marketing implementation, in both commercial and charity sectors. Working across a variety of datasets – transactions, attitudes, web activity and email behaviours – we can cut through the data deluge to pull out the key strategic recommendations for our clients and implement across multiple channels”.

A further recruit this coming month will add significant experience in building single customer views and delivering campaign management systems.  “For us”, Magson says, “the ability to harness all pots of customer data, and drive out targeted campaigns across traditional and digital channels, is a key requirement for our clients.”

Adroit offers Apteco’s Faststats as an analytics solution, and have their first implementation almost complete.

A related brand, Adroit Planning, is being led by Katherine Purse, previously client-side at Hays, Visa and NatWest, and agency-side at Rapp. She commeted: “We have years of experience working with clients and as clients. That means we understand the complexities and conundrums clients face on a daily basis.  So we can not only build simpler solutions, such as customer typology development to bring your customers ‘to life’, but also more complex strategic development requiring organisational change or a shift in consumer and staff behaviour”.