Blending primary research, behavioral data and advanced modeling to influence business decisions
Editor’s note: BBC Studios Direct to Consumer is a finalist of the 2026 Best Client-Side Team award, a category in the Quirk’s Awards. The winners of the awards will be announced on November 17 during a virtual celebration. To find out more about the awards, visit QuirksAwards.com.
The BBC Studios Direct to Consumer team is a high-impact group driving growth for BritBox and BBC Select. The team influences key commercial decisions through a blend of primary research, behavioral data and advanced modeling.
The team’s role as strategic partners and thought leaders earned them a spot as a finalist for the Best Client-Side Team award, a category in the Quirk’s Awards that recognizes client-side research teams that consistently execute high-quality research, elevate the role of research and make outstanding contributions to the success of their company.
BBC Studios Direct to Consumer’s research helped unlock BritBox’s next phase of growth by shaping the successful launch of its premium tier. The team also transformed content decision-making through a new content research program, reducing risk and strengthening investment confidence.
They expanded market mix modelling to optimize channel investment and assess promotional incrementality, directly shaping strategy. In collaboration with strategy, they also delivered data-driven pricing and content optimization models.
We sat down with Linda El-Ali, SVP, research and insights, BBC Studios Direct to Consumer to learn more about the team’s approach and impact on the organization.
What is one thing your team does to ensure your insights are influential in your organization’s decision-making?
We involve stakeholders from end-to-end. Every project has a clear sponsor, an agreed brief and, most importantly, clarity upfront on the decisions the research needs to inform.
Stakeholders are part of the process through immersions, regular touchpoints, debriefs and activation workshops, rather than simply receiving a report at the end. This positions us as a trusted partner to the business, not a research support service.
And the project doesn’t end at the debrief.
While every project has a specific stakeholder and business need, we look beyond the original brief to where else the insight can add value. We keep the work alive by connecting and triangulating findings with other projects, data and sources, and sharing what’s relevant across the business. This broadens the influence of the research beyond the original stakeholder and keeps insight present in decisions well beyond the life of an individual project.
Describe a challenge your team has faced in the last year and how you overcame it.
As our work has become more strategic, we’re increasingly partnering with external consultants on projects tackling broader business questions. The challenge is ensuring audience perspective is the starting point, rather than just being an input, to developing commercial opportunities and business modeling.
Our role is to be the audience insight connective tissue. We work closely with internal stakeholders and external partners to ensure assumptions are grounded in a real understanding of our audiences and that the right consumer questions are being asked. We want recommendations that make sense not only on a spreadsheet but in the real world. We keep the audience lens present from the initial framing through to the final recommendation.
We’ve overcome this by being confident about when to challenge and intervene. Where audience evidence has challenged the original hypothesis, we’ve used our experience to reframe the question, pivot the approach and, in some cases, change the direction of the work.
It isn’t always easy. It can mean challenging established thinking or having difficult conversations, but that is part of our role. Rather than simply validating a business recommendation at the end, we ensure audience insight shapes how that recommendation is built. Ultimately leading to stronger, more grounded business decisions.
How has your team’s approach to research changed as the needs of the business have evolved?
When we started the team in late 2021, our focus was on building the foundational research the business needed and putting best practices in place. Since then, we’ve shifted from establishing those foundations and responding to immediate research needs to playing a much more proactive and strategic role across the business.
We are entrepreneurial and able to pivot quickly, which is essential in a fast-moving streaming business. Our responsibility has expanded into creative testing, campaign measurement, data modeling and content research, alongside strategic projects shaping BritBox and BBC Select.
Increasingly, we anticipate what the business will need next rather than waiting to be asked. This proactive approach has built greater appetite for insight from our senior leaders and brought the team closer to the decisions shaping the business.