Hotspex is the leading emotional brand building insights consultancy that works with dozens of Fortune 1000 brands to uncover emotional drivers of behavior that when executed correctly can increase global profits by over 10%. As timelines tightened and research demands grew more complex, Hotspex partnered with Alchemer to scale agile, emotion-led research without added cost—accelerating turnaround times, reducing reliance on external programming, gaining greater control over study design, while unlocking the flexibility to build proprietary tools that deliver confident, high-impact insights for brands around the world.
“Cost, integrations, and an incredible team to work with—I can’t say enough good things about Alchemer. The team stepped up when we really needed help, and thanks to them we got the data we needed and met a very important deadline.”
— Shane Skillen, CEO Hotspex
Hotspex is a global brand-building consultancy working at the intersection of market research, digital creativity, and AI. With teams across Canada, England , and APAC, they help major brands understand the emotions and motivations that drive and predict consumer behavior. They specialize in consumer goods, pack and shelf testing, and emotional mapping, blending traditional research with digital marketing and AI. Hotspex follows its clients into markets around the world, using data, psychology, and smart technology to show brands not just what people do, but why they do it.
To keep pace with rapidly changing consumer expectations and shrinking timelines to deliver results, Hotspex needed a survey platform that could do more than just field questionnaires. They needed automation, advanced logic, custom infrastructure, and a partner who could move as fast as their clients.
Hotspex needed a way to:
In short, they needed power and flexibility, but they also needed practicality: a tool that would work for complex thinking, not just complex coding.
A platform that grew with them
Hotspex first adopted Alchemer nearly a decade ago as a tool managed by their CTO. But as the business evolved, so did their use of the platform. Over time, it evolved into the core platform powering their most critical use cases. Today, Alchemer is woven into programming, sampling, operations, and innovation.
The appeal started with the fundamentals: cost-effective pricing, JSON-based flexibility, and an API that let them script, customize, and build what they needed.
Additionally, the collaboration between Hotspex and the Alchemer support team helped refine workflows and unlock new functionality. What began as a technical solution became a strategic advantage.
Speed is essential in modern research, and Hotspex uses Alchemer to keep up with the pace of the market.
They’ve built a 90% standardized template that powers agile, repeatable surveys. The technical team sets the foundation, and project managers and researchers can easily adjust questions, update quotas, and make small logic changes without needing a programmer. This reduces bottlenecks and keeps projects moving.
Alchemer’s advanced functionality—such as question logic, display rules, quota controls, scripting, and custom code—supports the sophisticated research Hotspex is known for. While extremely complex quota structures still run on other systems, Alchemer handles a wide range of high-volume, high-speed work.
The team also uses Alchemer as the engine behind several internal tools, prototypes, and R&D efforts. Because everything is templated, they can run quick reads on concepts, emotional responses, or hypotheses in just a few days. These fast snapshots are invaluable at the proposal stage, helping validate direction before a client invests in a full study.
And they don’t just use Alchemer for client insights. Employee satisfaction checks, internal product tests, and rapid brand pulse checks all run through the same streamlined system.
Hotspex uses Alchemer to power standardized and quicker surveys that are:
That means fewer bottlenecks, less custom programming for every project, and faster turnaround for clients.
Hotspex doesn’t just run surveys in Alchemer—they build on it. Hotspex Ideate is a proprietary advertising-testing tool built on top of Alchemer. It combines Hotspex’s emotional mapping framework, the Hotspex Map, with custom survey logic and analysis to help brands predict how well their advertising will perform. In practice, Ideate gives clients a fast, reliable read on advertising effectiveness, brand-building potential, the emotions and motivations their creative triggers, and how consumers are likely to respond before major investment decisions are made.
Alchemer powers the survey and data collection behind this tool, while Hotspex layers on its own IP, analytics, and emotional frameworks.
One example of Ideate in action: Hotspex helped a major bank evaluate and refine its advertising before launch.
Alchemer isn’t just for client-facing work. Hotspex also uses it internally for:
To support all this work, Hotspex leverages Alchemer’s panel services to access high-quality, exclusive audiences. This setup brings together the right respondents, the right technology, and the right methodology, without having to stitch everything together manually every time.
For example, before recommending a large-brand initiative, Hotspex might run a fast, Alchemer study to:
Because these tools are fully templated, they can get a snapshot of reality in just a few days, which is invaluable at the proposal and business development stage.
Hotspex uses Alchemer to bring more work in-house and reduce reliance on traditional “do-it-all” suppliers. Because so much of Hotspex’s work in Alchemer is templated and standardized, training is manageable and resilient. New team members can start by making simple edits, without building from scratch.
That has translated into:
“Alchemer allowed us to do things internally with the tools that otherwise would have taken longer and been more expensive.”
— Peggy Simonneau
Director of Supplier Ops & PMO COE, Hotspex
Most importantly, it gives them a partner who evolves with them, so they can keep evolving for their clients.
Ready to see how Alchemer can partner with you and your business? Reach out to our team today and get a demo.
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