A cultural insight, foresight and strategy consultancy.
Protein AGENCY has been helping globally recognised brands make sense of the world around them since 1997. Our approach has always been rooted in our proximity to culture and leveraging the collective knowledge of SEED CLUB - our decentralised research community.
Every brief demands a different combination of tools - from expert interviews and cultural analysis to semiotics, ethnography, quantitative research and forecasting. But the principle remains the same: start with context, get close to people, understand culture as it’s actually lived, and turn those observations into opportunities for growth and cultural relevance.
Delivers a sharp cultural and category context brief for the work.
Review the cultural and category context surrounding a brief. Desk research, existing data, talking with experts, using our own SEED CLUB. We make sure there’s no wastage from previous research and sharpen our focus for any subsequent stages.
Delivers a curated group of real people to speak with — not professional respondents.
We cast over recruit. No professional respondents, just people best placed to articulate the answers to the questions we’re asking; people that have the ability to inspire teams internally because they actually have something they want to say. People we find via SEED CLUB and via our own global scouting network.
Delivers a picture of real behaviour in context, captured remotely over a week.
Work with a carefully cast large group remotely. Use remote ethnographic techniques - diaries, journalistic creative tasks - and build a picture of behaviour in context (typically across a week). We keep moderation to a minimum, giving participants the space to express themselves naturally.
Delivers first-hand ethnographic understanding of the most interesting people.
Identify the most interesting people and spend time with them (in their home, work, or exploring their city). Use ethnography to observe behaviour first-hand, explore the role of place, relationships and routines, and build the trust needed to uncover deeper insights.
Delivers insight translated into strategy, outputs and activation the whole business can use.
Bring everything together through collaborative analysis, identifying key patterns, opportunities and implications from the research. Then focus on how those insights are shared across the business, using the right mix of outputs, content and experiences to ensure it’s all understood and applied.
Recent clients, grouped by sector:
“Protein are flexible, mega experts who are very easy to work with and super professional.”
“Seamless experience from ideation to final deliverables! Super happy with the team leading this project and looking forward to working together again.”
“The quality of insights were incredibly strong. You got the balance perfect between being interesting and provocative and also giving us material that we can practically apply on projects. Look forward to collaborating again!”
“We found the final deliverable to be at the right level of detail, and the storytelling was well done to create the narrative. You were also easy to work with and professional, delivering on time and with good communication.”
Protein AGENCY is a cultural insight, foresight and strategy consultancy. We help brands stay relevant by decoding the behaviours, tensions and cultural shifts that shape how people think and act, and turning that understanding into brand strategy, positioning and activation. We have been doing this since 1997.
We work across sport, beauty, drinks, technology and platforms, and culture and media, partnering with global brands including Nike, Chanel and Pernod Ricard. Our work spans consumer research, brand strategy and cultural foresight for organisations that need to understand fast-moving culture.
They're all parts of Protein GROUP:
Together they combine research, community, physical space and human first technology under one brand. In short: XYZ reads culture. AGENCY interprets it. STUDIOS embodies it. OS connects it all together.
Protein AGENCY is based in Protein STUDIOS in Shoreditch, London, and works with clients internationally.
Our approach follows five stages: Scan, Cast, Observe, Immerse and Apply. We scan for emerging signals in culture, cast a network of experts and communities to interrogate them, observe real behaviour in context, immerse ourselves in the spaces where culture is made, and apply the resulting insight to brand strategy and activation. The difference is that we combine broad cultural scanning with our community of on-the-ground experts (see below), rather than relying on desk research alone.
SEED CLUB is our decentralised research community of 450+ handpicked independent strategists, journalists, and curators who identify, analyse and decode global cultural signals. If you are interested in joining, you can apply here.
We work with global consumer brands that need to stay culturally relevant, including Nike, Chanel and Pernod Ricard, across sport, beauty, drinks, technology and platforms, and culture and media. Engagements range from cultural insight and foresight projects to brand strategy and activation.
You can get in touch through the contact form on this page or by emailing hello@proteinagency.com. Tell us a little about your brand and the challenge you are working on, and we will get back to you to discuss how we can help.
Protein AGENCY is part of Protein GROUP — an independent network of businesses that help brands stay close to culture:
Tell us a little about the brief, the brand or the question you need help answering — we’ll come back with thoughts, references and a suggested next step.
