Analytical Masterminds

Debbie is Hook Research’s kids and youth specialist. She has been a pioneer in qualitative market research for 20 years, and her experience is regularly called upon by leading children’s programming providers.

Debbie’s experience with kids and youth culture has helped develop successful programming for brands such as Turner, Disney, and CBBC. Her research has directly helped create award-winning content in broadcast and in print, and she has a highly successful track record with all of the major publishers.

She particularly loves helping companies to understand their brands. She is a Guardian small business network research expert, as well as a resident research expert at Lewisham and Southwark College. Her work has helped to map out competitive landscapes to show where brands fit and identify potential for growth.

Debbie is also an accomplished public speaker and trainer in qualitative research techniques – she has recently been invited to run training sessions for the BBC, MEC, and MRG – as well as being a qualified teacher and humanistic counsellor, regularly working with disenfranchised kids and young offenders.

Nick has been helping media brands – both client and agency side – for over 20 years. He is particularly interested in getting to know respondents’ real worlds by developing methods to gain deeper, more useful insights.

His real passion is for agency life, having worked for a number of the biggest independent media and brand strategy agencies in the UK before co-founding Hook.

Nick has worked client side for diverse media owners from the BBC in the UK to CTC Media in Russia. Throughout his career Nick has completed content development and branding projects for many of the biggest media players in the UK. This covers: TV (BBC, ITV, C4 and Sky); Print (News UK, The Guardian and IPC media); Digital (Ofcom, Turner, BBC.com and lastminute.com) and New Media (The Guardian, ShortList media, and Sky).
Recently, Nick has been the driving force behind Hook Research’s use of panel software and research apps to get closer to what respondents really think. He believes that it’s really important to not only know a product’s audience, but to realise the worth of an audience to advertisers as well.

Nick also leads Hook Research’s international projects. In recent months he has led projects across Europe, America and Asia. Recently, he completed a pan-Russian project for Viacom exploring how to re-launch MTV Russia. He is fluent in Russian – which helped.

With a background in content development and marketing strategy, Sam leads the insights & engagement team at Hook Research.

Bringing together designers, videographers, and copywriters, this team ensures that each of Hook’s outputs is produced with design in mind.

Sam’s enduring fascination with internet-culture, video listicles, and political podcasts means that he also spearheads Hook’s work in the new media space.

He loves shedding light on the dynamic contours of digital landscapes and getting to the heart of how brands can produce content and marketing that resonates with modern, tech-savvy audiences around the globe.

Raaheel has worked on both Quant and Qual projects for some of the biggest brands in the UK and abroad. From short and long term online communities to in-home interviews, focus groups, shop-alongs and workshops, Raaheel has vast experience with many different methodologies.

Driven by a desire to understand human motivations, Raaheel is particularly interested in how Culture, Media and Entertainment can shape and influence our behaviours and habits. He is also a keen linguist with a degree in Hispanic Studies and native fluency in Hindi and Urdu which has helped him lead projects across Europe, Asia and the US.

Annwen is Hook’s Office Manager. She has a keen interest and Diploma in Digital Marketing and also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. She has a number of years of experience as an Executive Assistant in the risk management sector in South Africa and brings logical structure to the everyday running of the office.

As a graduate of German and Russian, Olly possesses a broad understanding of cultures and languages. With a background in digital marketing and a keen interest in all things media, he works on spotting trends, investigating consumers habits and creating content for a host of brands across the media landscape.

Rob is an award winning multi-disciplinary designer with over 3 years agency experience, specialising in illustration, digital design, branding and marketing. He’s able to offer aesthetic and on-brand solutions to a variety of creative challenges.

Since graduating from university, Rob has remained an active member of the arts community, creating and exhibiting work for a number of pop up galleries and shows throughout London. His work is predominantly an exploration of the figure however he also touches upon political and social issues.

Lucy has worked on qualitative research projects for large media and technology companies both nationally and internationally. Lucy is a graduate of sociology and anthropology with a masters in cultural sociology. She uses this along with her background in market research and television development to understand the deeper cultural meaning behind consumer behaviour.