Exclusive Interview with Suzy’s Matt Britton

Suzy™ is a pioneering force in transforming how businesses comprehend and engage with consumers. Founded in 2018 by CEO Matt Britton, drawing on his extensive experience in the advertising industry, Suzy™ was conceived to shift brands away from guesswork-based decisions to data-driven insights.

Garnering accolades like Forbes’ Best Startup Employers and Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces multiple times, Suzy™ has secured over $100 million in venture capital from prominent investors, affirming its vision to reshape consumer-centric strategies for tomorrow’s leading brands.

Join us as we chat with CEO Matt Britton and learn more about the pioneering company, Suzy.

World Future Awards: Congratulations on Suzy winning the World Future Award for Best Consumer Insights Platform in 2023. What factors do you believe contributed the most to Suzy’s recognition and success?

Matt Britton: Thank you for your kind words and for recognizing Suzy’s achievement in winning the World Future Award for Best Consumer Insights Platform in 2023. We are incredibly proud of this honor. The key to our success has been our unwavering commitment to innovation and delivering actionable insights for our clients at the speed of culture. At Suzy, we understand that in today’s fast-paced business environment, companies need access to real-time consumer insights to make informed decisions. Our platform is designed to deliver just that—rapid, reliable, and relevant consumer insights at the click of a button.

WFA: Could you share the genesis behind the idea of Suzy? What inspired you to create a platform specifically focused on consumer-centricity and insights-driven decision-making?

MB: Over two decades ago, I built one of the first social media and youth marketing agencies. The whole purpose of that company was to help brands create value for consumers through meaningful content and transformative ideas. This venture taught me about the needs of major brands and the immense power of the consumer. Companies that prioritize customer-centricity are more likely to succeed. However, research is sluggish and inefficient, hindering quick decision-making in tune with market dynamics. That’s why we built Suzy. It’s a solution that empowers top brands with rapid consumer insights, enabling them to act promptly and adapt to evolving behaviors in real-time.

WFA: Suzy’s integrated research cloud is touted as a game-changer in the industry. How does the platform streamline the integration of quantitative and qualitative research for businesses, and what benefits does it offer compared to traditional market research tools?

MB: Our platform facilitates consumer-centricity by integrating quant, qual, and high-quality audiences into a single connected research cloud. Gone are the days when brands had to rely on multiple expensive tools or agencies for conducting research. With Suzy, you can do it all in one place, engaging with the same consumers repeatedly to gain deeper insights. Empowered with a continuous platform, brands enjoy enhanced cost savings, efficiency, and flexibility, enabling every business decision to be informed by a comprehensive understanding of the consumer.

WFA: In just five years, Suzy has achieved remarkable growth with over 400 enterprise customers across 22 verticals. What strategies or approaches have been pivotal in Suzy’s rapid ascent to market dominance?

MB: From the very beginning, our focus has been on disrupting the industry. Market research, a $100 billion industry, has long been fragmented, slow, and costly. We recognized the opportunity to revolutionize this space by developing a software tool that democratizes insights, granting access to people across the enterprise, whether they work in insights, marketing, or another area of the business.

I don’t come from a market research background, so I recognized how important it was to hire the people who did to help us build a quality, robust platform. Our research is spearheaded by industry veterans who boast extensive experience and have held prominent positions at leading agencies. This ensures that every insight we provide is backed by the rigor our clients have come to expect.

Our proprietary panel, consisting of a vast network of over a million US consumers, is a key differentiator in our industry. Through a gamified app, Suzy motivates consumers from all walks of life to answer brand-related questions, delivering valuable insights within hours. With Suzy, modern enterprises can conduct extensive testing across various use cases while staying within budget and timelines, enabling them to keep up with consumer demands.

WFA: Could you highlight some of the groundbreaking products Suzy has launched, such as TURF, Data Explorer, and Showreels?

MB: Our clients have come to expect Suzy’s unparalleled iterative research capabilities across a range of use cases. As a result, we are continually developing and enhancing our products to empower them on our platform. This involves the integration of advanced methodologies such as TURF analysis and MaxDiff. With our comprehensive end-to-end platform, Suzy clients can seamlessly execute surveys, gain valuable insights, target TURF back to the same consumers, gather further insights, and repeat the process. They can even create custom surveys for their own proprietary audiences with Public Link and perform data analysis directly within the platform with Data Explorer.

And of course, we understand the importance of showcasing results. That’s why we offer a wide range of C-suite-ready deliverables that seamlessly transition from our platform to the boardroom. Showreels, for instance, allow users to create captivating videos featuring insights from video-open ends, putting the voice of the consumer front and center. There’s nothing more powerful than hearing real consumers articulate why they choose a brand’s product in their own words.

WFA: Suzy’s core values, including people-centricity, collaboration, and continuous validation, drive its innovative approach. How do these values permeate through the company culture and influence decision-making processes?

MB: The core of every decision, strategy, and innovation lies in placing human understanding at the forefront. In today’s era of big data and algorithms, we propose a return to genuine, human understanding. We value the unique perspectives and emotions of real people, capturing the authentic voice of the consumer on a large scale.

We also strongly believe that brands must keep pace with culture. This philosophy permeates everything we’ve built. Our platform was designed to empower users with iterative research, delivering results in hours or days, not weeks or months. We understand that consumers are constantly evolving, and we’re all about giving them a voice. From Product to Customer Success, Sales to Marketing, and even our People and Finance teams, our focus is on providing brands with the necessary tools to prioritize consumers. We constantly validate our own assumptions, just as we encourage brands to do the same. This means we rigorously test what we bring to the market, and we wholeheartedly stand behind our own offerings.

WFA: Could you walk us through how Suzy’s Research Cloud empowers organizations across different functions, such as Insights, Innovation, Creative, and Shopper, to leverage consumer insights effectively?

MB: Every team in the enterprise that relies on consumer insights can access them with Suzy. Marketing no longer has to wait for quarterly presentations from the Insights team to learn about consumer behavior. By then, it’s already too late. Instead, teams across today’s top brands can simultaneously test.

The Suzy platform plays a crucial role in the enterprise, serving as a throughline that keeps the entire brand focused on the consumer and constantly learning from them. Insights teams profile consumers, identify trends, and understand the path to purchase. Product teams can test and refine innovations, including claims and packaging. Marketing plans campaigns and tests messaging, while Shopper performs competitive analysis and dives into market performance. These areas can inform each other or stand alone, creating a well-coordinated and consumer-centric approach throughout the organization.

WFA: The imminent introduction of AI-integrated solutions sounds intriguing. How do you envision these advancements will shape the future of consumer insights, and what opportunities do they unlock for businesses?

MB: AI will not only revolutionize the future of market research but also transform global business practices. When it comes to consumer insights, AI has the potential to swiftly uncover evolving consumer behavior. By automating laborious tasks like data analysis and survey creation, AI streamlines the work of market researchers, allowing them to be more strategic and effective at their jobs.

We’re also committed to prioritizing the enterprise’s safety and took steps to develop responsibly-built AI tools. We’re building AI tools that are reliable, authoritative, and industry-leading. We leverage our expertise, use precise language, and present concise information to deliver valuable insights. By identifying current trends and forecasting future ones, we stay ahead of the curve, ensuring our clients remain at the forefront of their industries.

WFA: With a suite of AI-powered tools and a vast audience of diverse consumers, how does Suzy ensure data quality and security while maintaining agility and speed in research processes?

MB: At Suzy, the goal was never to be the first AI-powered market research tools available, but rather to set the gold standard in what it means to have enterprise-grade AI. Our tools needed to be like we’ve built everything else – game-changing, prioritizing efficiency and accuracy, and built with compliance and transparency in mind.

To tackle a pervasive industry issue–survey bots–we’re taking decisive action. With the rise of AI, detecting survey bots has become increasingly challenging, impacting the quality of market research data for brands. That’s why we’re fighting back with our very own AI solution–Biotic. This groundbreaking tool, backed by a pending patent, proactively intercepts bots before they can taint survey data. Biotic ensures brands not only receive rapid insights but also high-quality ones, setting a gold standard for the entire industry.

WFA: Looking ahead, as the industry continues to evolve towards consumer-centricity, what are Suzy’s long-term visions or goals in shaping the landscape of consumer insights and fostering meaningful connections between businesses and their customers?

MB: We strive to position ourselves as the ultimate “insights platform of record” for our valued customers. Many clients are consolidating their tools with Suzy given we offer what many point solutions options do in one place. Suzy will serve as the central hub, allowing users to effortlessly visualize data, share compelling stories and insights, and conduct research, all within a single, user-friendly interface. Enterprise brands can stay ahead of the curve with our trend identification and forecasting capabilities, propelling their business forward. We are also constantly innovating and have some very exciting updates that will be rolled out later this year. So keep a look out! We would be thrilled to demonstrate how our platform works and how it can elevate your business. 

Thank you for spending time with us today, Mr. Britton!

Visit https://suzy.com/ to learn more about Suzy today!