Certus Insights

Company Description

Certus Insights provides actionable insights through surveys, focus groups and social listening to understand audiences, explore market opportunities, address reputational challenges and build effective communications campaigns.

Applied research to meet complex challenges

We provided our clients with deep insights into target audiences, messaging, reputation, white-space opportunities, thought leadership, influencer/decision makers and member/employee engagement. We’re industry leaders in counseling clients on making informed, data-driven decisions at both the strategic and tactical levels. We carefully analyze research results, develop action-oriented insights and empower clients to build winning communication, advocacy, public affairs, public relations and marketing campaigns. Ron Faucheux, a nationally respected public opinion analyst and nonpartisan expert, brings his extensive experience as our chief analyst.

Independent firm that works with organizations big and small

We are an independent firm that provides customized, hands-on attention and consulting. We have worked with major brands and organizations to solve complex communication challenges. Our clients include AAMCO, Abbott, the American Psychiatric Association, Forbes Tate Partners, Help Heal Veterans, International Finance Corporate (IFC), Publicis Groupe and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Cutting edge, custom research

Our key differentiator is innovation grounded in methodological rigor and analytical depth. We deploy cutting-edge research methodologies to ensure cost-effective and accurate results, including mixed mode surveys, asynchronous focus groups, and social listening analysis based on machine learning. Certus Insights also knows how to recruit hard-to-reach audiences, including stakeholders and influencers, health care professionals and geographically defined audiences.

Full service

We seamlessly manage all stages of research projects for our clients, allowing them to focus on the bigger picture. We manage project scoping, questionnaire and discussion guide development, programming, fielding, data analysis and report development. Our senior leadership, like president Andrew Rugg, roll up their sleeves to provide hands-on attention and consulting.

Expertise in stakeholder audiences 

We are the industry leaders in recruiting hard-to-reach elite audiences through our established network of respondent databases, careful screening of respondents and cutting-edge recruiting techniques. Develop a go-to-market communications strategy that maximizes campaign effectiveness to convince and persuade influencers on issues small and large. We specialize in engaging a variety of elite audiences, including:

• DC elites (policy, defense, health policy, cybersecurity, etc.)
• Business elites (business and purchase decision makers, industry executives)
• Health/medical elites (health care professionals, hospital and health care decision makers)
• Opinion makers (civic opinion elites, local policy elites, household purchase decision makers)

Powerful message development

Know the precise words, phrases and arguments to control the conversation through our message development surveys and focus groups. Certus Insights deploys a comprehensive, multi-modal research process for developing actionable key messages that integrate multiple data sources to provide an empirical basis for finding the right messages to use in a communications campaign. Our approach allows clients to frame their strengths, inoculate against weaknesses, answer questions and attacks, create continuity and target specific audiences.

Precise reputation measurement and tracking

Certus Insights provides a comprehensive reputation assessment solution that measures a client’s key brand attributes across four analytical tiers of up to 22 individual factors. We provide an overall reputation score and sub-index scores for each individual factor, allowing clients to pinpoint strengths and current weaknesses. Our assessments are targetable to specific markets and audiences, multi-dimensional to provide a comprehensive assessment, multi-modal to utilize multiple data sources, trackable and actionable.

Strategic social listening and media analytics 

Our media analytic reports provide actionable intelligence on the social and news media landscape by reviewing news media, blogs and social media through full data stream capture and sampling of publicly available media data to identify conversation trends, key topics and strategic imperatives. We provide insight into the current media landscape around an issue, industry, brand or individual, allowing clients to identify white space opportunities, key thought leaders and other significant media insights.