InSites Consulting, a global consumer insight and collaboration agency, announced the acquisition of Gongos, Inc., a U.S. customer-centricity consultancy. With over 30 years of experience, Gongos is the reference agency across the U.S. in enabling consumer-centric growth through building consumer understanding and transforming organizational behavior. InSites Consulting further strengthens its global footprint through the collaboration, and takes a big step towards achieving its goal to be recognized as the global leader in helping brands become more consumer-centric.
Gongos launched in Metro Detroit in 1991, focusing on consumer research within the automotive industry and gradually branching out to retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, and healthcare. When founder John Gongos unexpectedly passed away in 2012, Camille Nicita took over as owner and was appointed president & CEO, steering the agency’s focus towards making customer centricity its leading objective.
Today, Gongos unites 125 employees, boasts an impressive Fortune-500 client list across multiple industries, including Coca-Cola, Mars Petcare, Kellogg’s, U.S. Bank, UnitedHealthcare, and General Motors, and was recognized as a ‘Small Giant’ in Forbes’ 2020 List of America’s Best Small Companies.
The acquisition of Gongos marks a major milestone for InSites Consulting’s buy-and-build strategy. With Gongos ranked #47 among the U.S. largest market research organizations, InSites Consulting significantly reinforces its position on the U.S. market next to its existing New York presence since 2012. It also turbocharges its path towards becoming the leading consumer-centricity agency, with Gongos’ well-developed practice in helping Fortune-500 companies become more customer-centric.
Kristof De Wulf, co-founder and CEO of InSites Consulting commented, “There is so much to be excited about as we are joining forces with Gongos. As we aim to be a truly global agency supporting brands all around the world, having a solid presence in the U.S. market is a necessary condition for success. We could not have wished for a better cultural and strategic fit, with Gongos sharing a similar set of values, embracing insight communities as one of their leading methods, and setting the customer-centricity agenda for large brands and organizations. It is great to be able to bring together like-minded agencies and leaders from around the world to create something truly special.”
With Gongos now part of InSites Consulting, it can offer its clients access to InSites Consulting’s award-winning Square (an insight community technology), its creative crowdsourcing capability eÿeka, and its cultural insight, trends & brand transformation practice that was reinforced by the recent acquisition of Space Doctors. Gongos also brings impressive assets to the mix, such as the patent-pending Value Exchange (Vex) Model. Vex identifies pathways for customer-centric growth by linking customer goals with business outcomes driven by Customer Performance Indicators (CPIs). In October 2021, Gongos announced the first annual Vex Awards at the North American Customer Centricity Awards.
Camille Nicita, president & CEO of Gongos, Inc: “Gongos’ customer-centric mission is to empower brands to build reciprocal value exchange with consumers, ultimately driving profitability and growth for corporations through the fulfillment of customer needs. We can now take that ambition to a global scale, and our clients will greatly benefit from this cross-fertilization. We are eager to start this next chapter in our growth journey together with InSites Consulting.”
Camille becomes the group’s Managing Director North America and, as a shareholder of InSites Consulting, will contribute to the global strategy formulation process by joining its global Partner Board. Building on the experience Gongos has built over the years, she will also play an instrumental role in setting up a global expert team around internal transformation, intended to inspire, engage and activate business stakeholders around consumers. With Gongos joining, InSites Consulting now has +800 people across 20 locations, generating € +100M in revenues.
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