Research from CDS has found that 67% of people have experienced a problem accessing the communications they’ve received from a range of organisations, both public and private sector. The behavioural insights agency will enable brands to analyse where and how it targets comms campaigns to improve accessibility.

Clare Gledhill, CDS operations director, says “Our new behavioural insight agency will help organisations to understand the needs of their audiences so that they can build and deliver experiences and communications that are truly authentic and empathic in nature.”

The launch of the division points towards continued investment in research consultancy, SimpleUsability, which was acquired by CDS in October 2020. CDS has invested heavily in access to research tools and tech to improve the end-to-end service proposition and provide quantitative data to back up its research arm.

"With nine million functionally illiterate adults (The Guardian), 1.9 million households with no access to the internet (Good Things Foundation), almost a million people whose first language isn’t English (ONS) and the average reading age in Britain being the equivalent to that of a nine-year-old – we mustn’t forget them as we enter the ‘recovery phase’ from the pandemic,” adds Gledhill.

The expansion will also include the recruitment of new team members and internal promotions. CDS operations director, Clare Gledhill, will oversee the management and strategic development of the new behavioural insight agency. Lucy Beldon is the new planning and performance lead, Fiona Harwood moves into the role of head of service design, Susie Spencer will run the behavioural research team, and Martin Gittins leads on user experience design.

The facility is based in Marshall’s Mill in Leeds and offers insight services to support strategic communications.