sparks & honey Officially Launches Q, Its Trademar

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 07, 2017) - sparks & honey announced today the official launch of Q, a sophisticated, cultural intelligence system that powers much of the work to come out of the New York-based agency known for synchronizing brands with culture. sparks & honey will leverage this proprietary product to deliver services in four main areas for its clients including innovation, cultural intelligence, strategy, and content.

"We have always prided ourselves on being one step ahead -- finding the fringe signals that are just starting to bubble up in culture before they become major cultural and economic shifts. The importance of this is that today, more than ever, brands need a partner to help them make sense of the world at large. To help them be disruptors, and not be the ones getting disrupted. We're able to do that through our one-of-a-kind cultural analysis process that is rooted in a unique man and machine approach. Q is the machine part of that equation," said Terry Young, CEO, sparks & honey.

This public launch of Q expands the breadth of the agency's existing intelligence, insight and foresight capabilities, which have been utilized by top brands including Electronic Arts, Humana and Gerber over the last five years. In addition, Q will also continue to be at the center of The Cortex, a new product that embeds intelligence and foresight at the core of strategy and creative outputs. sparks & honey also recently tapped into the power of Q for the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to examine the growth of terrorism and extremism online, and gather cultural insights to help counter those initiatives.

"The sparks & honey cultural intelligence system is one of the most powerful real-time intelligence systems in the industry. Cultural relevance is a significant driver in today's economy, and Q is critical to developing a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and anticipating key shifts in the marketplace for some of our biggest clients," said Jonathan Nelson, Global CEO Digital, Omnicom.

From expanded data science capabilities and human intelligence to evolved proprietary tools and techniques, sparks & honey has worked to continually evolve its system for uncovering insights as technology has become smarter and more sophisticated. By growing its team of data scientists, the volume and speed at which sparks & honey is able to pull in global cultural signals has increased. The one-of-a-kind Advisory Board made up of niche, industry experts that include TED speakers like neuro-scientist Dr. Vivienne Ming, new media entrepreneur Bing Chen and food eco-system innovator Bryan Janeczko has been built out to include experts across 33 industry verticals. The tool stack has been refined with unique methodologies like patent analysis, cultural forensics and brand elasticity analysis. All of these improvements have allowed Q to become faster and much more comprehensive, which in turn has allowed the team to gain better access to important cultural shifts.

Also known for its in-depth reports on burgeoning trends and areas of culture, the agency will tap into Q to help bolster its content offering and further deliver on the promise to "open minds and create possibilities." The power of the new system will inform sparks & honey's newest report that will look at innovation in the U.S. Heartland, slated to launch in June.

About sparks & honey

sparks & honey (www.sparksandhoney.com) is a New York-based agency with a mission to open minds and create possibilities in the now, next and future for brands. Employing a disruptive cultural intelligence system and cultural newsroom model, sparks & honey leverages proprietary tools, algorithms and human insights to identify emerging cultural trends and engage organizations in relevant and meaningful conversations. sparks & honey leverages the proprietary sparks & honey cultural intelligence system to deliver services in four areas for brands - innovation, cultural intelligence, strategy, and content. Named to Ad Age's 2014 A-List as an "Agency to Watch," sparks & honey is a part of the DAS Group of Companies.

About the DAS Group of Companies

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.