About BrandSpark International
Insights That Reflect How Consumers Really Think, Shop, and Decide
BrandSpark International is a privately held, Canadian-owned market research firm, founded in Toronto in 2001 by Robert Levy. We help brands grow by turning primary research into clear, board-ready strategic action, and we train client teams to use AI in their research and marketing work.
Our Story
Built From Inside a Multi-Brand Portfolio
BrandSpark traces its roots to a simple insight: brand decisions made without rigorous consumer data cost more than the research would have. Our founder, Robert Levy, built the first centralized branding department at Cara International, bringing fact-based marketing decisions to a complex multi-brand portfolio.
That inside-the-brand experience shapes how we work. Brand managers and CMOs need a clear answer to the one question that changes the strategy, and we scope research around that question.
Over 25 years we have built proprietary trust datasets, shopper studies and consumer award programs that give our clients context no single custom study can provide.
The BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, the Best New Product Awards and the WorthIt! Awards are operated by Best New Product Awards Inc., a sister company of BrandSpark International under common ownership. BrandSpark International designs and runs the research behind all three.
2001
Founded in Toronto, Canada
25
Years of continuous consumer research
888
Brand trust categories measured in 2026 (363 Canada, 359 USA, 166 UK)
1,000+
Research projects delivered since 2001
1M+
Consumer voices captured across interviews and surveys
Vision
To be North America's authority on how trust, innovation, and value shape consumer purchase decisions.
Mission
To help our clients grow through insights that reflect how consumers really think, shop, and decide. We turn those insights into clear action.
How We Work
Our Values
Quality
High standards of research design and execution. The decisions that follow depend on the method.
Client Focus
Research scoped to solve real business challenges, at the size the decision needs.
Passion
We find consumer psychology fascinating, and it shows in how we interpret and present data.
Innovation
Continuously evolving methods, including AI-assisted open-end analysis, conjoint design and advanced segmentation.
Why BrandSpark
What Makes Us Different
Continuous brand tracking since 2009, 12 years of category-level trust norms, and a senior team that writes for the boardroom.
Deep brand trust experience
12 years measuring what builds and breaks consumer trust across Canada, the USA and the UK. That experience sharpens every engagement, even when trust is not the primary focus of the study.
Category-level rigour
Consumer drivers are category-specific. A signal that resonates in packaged goods often falls flat in premium services, so our research design starts from the category and its competitive set.
Board-ready deliverables
We write for decision-makers. Findings are framed as strategic choices with clear rationale, and clients use our work directly in board decks and executive presentations.
Longitudinal depth
Our longest-running brand tracker has run continuously since 2009, and several clients have worked with us for 15 or more years. That history gives us benchmarks no single study can replicate.
Specialist in high-consideration categories
Our deepest expertise is in categories where trust is the primary purchase lever: powersports, financial services, food and health, and premium consumer goods.
Integrated primary and proprietary data
Custom research is read against our brand trust database: 888 categories measured across three countries in 2026 and 4,000+ brand-category profiles with full trust attributes.
Our People
The Team Behind the Research
The senior researchers who design each BrandSpark study stay accountable through fieldwork, analysis and the final presentation.
Leadership
Robert Levy
Founder and President
Robert Levy founded BrandSpark International in 2001, after building the first centralized branding department at Cara International. He leads the consumer award programs BrandSpark researches: the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, the Best New Product Awards and the WorthIt! Awards.
Scott Boyer
Executive Vice President and Partner
Scott Boyer heads BrandSpark's research and consulting practice and leads its largest client accounts, with 25 years at the firm. He completed professional research coursework, including advanced analytics, through the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA). Scott designed BrandSpark's AI-assisted research systems and leads its AI training programs for client teams.
Denis Hancock
Vice President, Strategy
Denis Hancock leads BrandSpark's trust and strategy work and has 15 years at the firm, after earlier work in research and strategy consulting. He owns BrandSpark's internal research design and analysis curriculum, facilitates client workshops, and speaks on brand trust and insight storytelling.
Philip Scrutton
Vice President, Insights
Philip Scrutton leads the research behind the Best New Product Awards and the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, and BrandSpark's consumer packaged goods clients, with 16 years at the firm. He holds methodological accountability for award results that brands advertise on, and leads BrandSpark's syndicated shopper studies.
Mike Bone
Vice President, Client Service
Mike Bone has led more than 10 brand health, campaign and sponsorship tracking programs for major Canadian brands, with more than 10 years at BrandSpark and earlier roles at Toronto research agencies. His sector depth is in technology and luxury goods.
See What the Trust Data Says About Your Category
We can walk you through what drives trust in your category and where the gaps are.