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Unique challenges deserve smarter science
The challenges organisations face today aren’t simple. They’re shaped by human behaviour, unpredictable, emotional, and sometimes irrational. Generic market research only scratches the surface.
That’s where Mindlab comes in.
We use behavioural science to help you understand how people really think, feel and choose, turning that knowledge into evidence you can act on.
For over 20 years, we’ve helped global brands de-risk launches, refine designs and test communications in markets around the world.
Science that inspires creativity
Behavioural science is at the heart of what we do, but we use it to move ideas forward, not weigh them down.
Our approach is simple:
Decode →
the instinctive, emotional drivers behind people’s decisions
Translate →
those findings into a clear creative and strategic direction
Elevate →
ideas so teams can act with confidence.
Solving real problems with smarter tools
Traditional research asks people what they think. We uncover the instinctive and emotional responses that sit beneath those answers.
By combining behavioural science and implicit measurement, we capture the fast, instinctive responses that shape behaviour, closing the gap between what people say and what they do.
We keep the science visible but digestible: clear visuals, short summaries and psychological framing that explain not just what worked, but why it worked.
The result is insight designed to be used by strategists, creatives and brand teams alike.
Designed around you
Every project runs on our custom-built testing platform.
It’s flexible enough for a single-market pilot or a global programme. It adapts to your needs, learning and evolving as you use it, so results become sharper over time.
Behind the scenes, we’re constantly upgrading our tools: automating analysis, building custom web apps, and using AI to accelerate insight delivery, so you spend less time managing research and more time applying it.
Mindlab provides majorly credible and trusted studies to validate our packaging designs. They understand our business and the analysis we need. Their process is more consultative; it is great that we can work collaboratively together. We have a real understanding of their processes and we trust the methodology used to test consumers.
Senior Consumer Planning Manager, Diageo Taiwan
Our Story
Mindlab was founded by Dr David Lewis, a neuroscientist, psychologist and author who has spent his career exploring how people really think, feel and behave.
In the 1980s, while researching the brain’s response to stress, David became fascinated by how little of human decision-making is truly rational. That curiosity led him to apply neuroscience and psychology beyond the lab, helping brands understand the instinctive, emotional forces that shape consumer behaviour.
In 2007, he founded Mindlab to bring that thinking into marketing and design. Early work took place in a physical lab, using EEG, eye-tracking and skin-conductance measures to uncover what people couldn’t always articulate.
By 2012, we had developed our own online platform for measuring non-conscious decision-making at scale, turning lab experiments into fast, scalable behavioural insight.
In 2016, Diageo appointed Mindlab as their global best-practice agency for quantitative pack testing, and the team grew rapidly. Today, all our tools are built in-house, combining the rigour of science with the agility of modern research.
In 2021, we won the MRS Applications of Research Award for our work applying behavioural science in commercial contexts.
In 2022, we were named Innovative Team of the Year at the Business Brilliance Awards and received Best Place to Work at the UK Business Awards, recognising both our innovation and culture. That same year, our Operations Manager, Marilena Adamidou was recognised individually, winning Young Employee of the Year at the UK Business Awards.
In 2025, our Development Team Lead, Emma Vaughan, was shortlisted for Future Talent of the Year at both the Sussex and Brighton Business Awards, as well as being named to the Greenbook Future List celebrating emerging leaders shaping the future of consumer insight.
From EEG headsets to online implicit testing, one thing hasn’t changed: our mission to make the hidden drivers of human behaviour visible, so your decisions can be made with confidence.
Seen what we do but wonder who we do it for?
We thought you might like to see some of the clients we work with...
Better than being a carbon neutral company, we’re climate positive.
We plant trees and fund the world’s best climate crisis solutions.
Human driven climate change is now a problem which can no longer be ignored. We believe that our business and the insight industry in general, have a key role to play in the transformations of business and society that are needed to create a sustainable future.
That’s why, as an MRS Accredited Company Partner, we’ve signed up to the Market Research Society’s Net Zero Pledge which shows our commitment in four key areas:
1. Making our business net zero by 2026.
2. Tracking and publishing our carbon emissions, working to reduce and offset those emissions and publishing these figures annually in the Industry Report.
3. Collaborating across our sector and beyond, to share learnings and best practice to achieve the above goals.
4. Supporting and encouraging conversations and call outs by our employees, partners and clients about environmental concerns and viewpoints.
The team at Mindlab were really responsive and supportive and communications were great. The story was really clear in the report and feedback was actioned really quickly and effectively. We had a great working relationship and we are really happy with the results.
Insight Manager - Bath, Body, Hair & Cosmetics at Walgreens Boots Alliance
Meet The Directors
We’re all scientists from a diverse range of backgrounds. We have a vision where all decisions are good decisions and we are passionately committed to helping you make the right ones.
Duncan Smith
Managing Director
Duncan is a pioneer of Neuromarketing with 15 years in the decision science industry having worked with a range of multinational clients in politics, product development, behaviour change and advertising.
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Joe Hilling
Director of Innovation
Joe Hilling has been with Mindlab for 15 years. With a background in theoretical physics and mathematics, he specialises in the design and implementation of new technologies within the field of neuromarketing.
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Juliane Beard
Director of Research
Juliane Beard is the Director of Research at Mindlab, and has extensive experience designing, conducting and overseeing quantitative implicit research.
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Accreditations
Mindlab International is an MRS Company Partner. All MRS Company Partners and their employees agree to adhere to the MRS Code of Conduct and MRS Company Partner Quality Commitment whilst undertaking research
