Creating Meaningful Futures
Semiotics | Cultural Insight & Analytics | Strategy & Activation
Space Doctors specialises in semiotics, cultural insight and analytics for strategy and activation.
We are a cultural and creative consultancy. We energise brands and organisations by helping them connect and respond to cultural change.
We use thick data and big data to inspire and shape how brands show up in the world. Our insights are unearthed through semiotics, cultural and social analytics, AI and machine learning, ethnography, trends, design and consumer research.
We help solve the toughest questions through thoughtful, provocative conversations that challenge standard ways of thinking, opening up possibility and paths forward.
We help you to…
Build Stronger BrandsAnticipate the FutureActivate with Impact
Break out of category or industry clichés to find powerful new ways for your brand to connect with culture.
Develop: Strategies to build cultural relevance – brand purpose, positioning, vision, brand character • More meaningful brand stories – go beyond cliché, revitalize generic benefits, create cultural change • Distinctive assets (identification, creation & measurement)
Winner: 2017 Nielsen Impact Award.
$58m increase in sales in year after launch.
We identified the the core meanings of the brand (‘cultural assets), explored the emerging codes of ‘subversive luxury’ and defined the brand’s archetypal mix.
Our work led to a re-definition of the brand purpose and key design target, which directly informed bottle design and campaign development.
Understand emerging culture to anticipate the future – and imagine what this means for your business, brand or category.
Harness: Deep cultural understanding that helps frame possible futures • Cultural frameworks for strategic decision making • Future opportunities & innovation white space • Culturally sensitive concept creation and development • Prototyping and speculative design
Global Director of Microsoft Brand Strategy
Our work directly influenced the inspirational ‘Barbie Dream Gap’ campaign which has been widely praised for raising awareness of key issues which limit girls self belief and future success.
We called on masculinity experts, analysed popular culture and communications, and carried out live semiotics in barbershops and family bathrooms to deliver a provocative view on the future of male grooming.
Amplify your brand by building meaningful and impactful activations that cut through the noise.
Optimise: Brand experiences – service, experience design, customer journeys • Activation strategies • New language, visual style & sensory signature • New content creation • Conceptual design – products, pack, environments • Creative briefs and communication guidelines
We delivered fully designed and locally-optimised point-of-sale routes which gave much improved test results in Japan. The design work focused on driving purchase through a better POS user experience and display.
The brand has gone on to launch an experiential retail concession at John Lewis’ flagship Oxford Street store and has recently secured £2m investment from a VC fund.
We looked at how this idea was being expressed in popular culture across four markets before our design semiotics team took the lead, creating the concept and design guidelines which became the blueprint for the new packaging.
We identified four key cultural stories of sleep the brand could tap into. Two powerful insights were supported by ethnographic observation in hotel rooms: the importance of fluid, flexible space and the importance of thresholds.
We then worked with leading designers from outside the sector, to reinvent the hotel room space in a way that uniquely addresses guests’ real unmet needs.
The design has been so successful, in late 2018 it was patented.
Senior Consumer and Market Insight Manager in Unilever Food Solutions
Introducing Cymbol, the world’s first Live Semiotics™ platform.
It allows us to gain a contextual, ethnographic understanding of human experiences globally, access expert communities and influencers, get rapid feedback on cultural phenomena, track long-term evolution of cultural spaces, and co-create and validate concepts with leading-edge, culturally-engaged panels.
Find out more about Cymbol™
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