Cat Clusters Audience Insight
// Audience Insights for Cats Protection Audience Knowledge Centre
We designed a research-led approach to uncover real, human insight from across the Cat Clusters.
By combining quantitative data with rich, human insight, teams now have a far deeper understanding of their audiences.
The challenge
// Bringing an audience segmentation to life
Cats Protection had already developed a detailed audience segmentation model known as "Cat Clusters", supported by extensive quantitative data. They had also invested in our Audience Knowledge Centre—an internal information hub, that we designed and built for Cats Protection, to make audience insight accessible across the organisation.
However, while the data was robust, it lacked the human depth needed to truly connect teams with their audiences. The clusters represented large and diverse groups of people across the UK, but there was a need to better understand their motivations, behaviours and emotional connections to pets and animal charities.
Cats Protection wanted to go beyond data—bringing their audience segmentation to life through real stories, richer insight and engaging content that teams could use in their everyday work.
Our Approach
// Turning data into human insight
We designed a research-led approach to uncover real, human insight from across the Cat Clusters, ensuring the findings would be both meaningful and practical for Cats Protection teams.
Recruiting the right participants
A critical first step was identifying and recruiting the right participants. Using the Cat Clusters segmentation, we carefully targeted individuals across the UK, ensuring a representative mix of age, gender and ethnicity. This included both existing supporters and potential new audiences, helping Cats Protection understand both warm and cold segments. Working within a limited budget, we focused recruitment in geographic areas most likely to yield participants from each cluster, overcoming the challenge of reaching smaller or harder-to-find groups.
Video ethnography
To bring authenticity and depth to the research, we used video ethnography. Participants were asked to capture moments of their daily lives with their pets, using guided self-filming supported by clear instructions and demo content. This approach allowed us to gather rich, natural insight at scale, while keeping costs manageable. The resulting footage added warmth, humour and genuine emotional connection to the research.
Depth interviews and focus groups
We then built on this with a combination of depth interviews and focus groups. These sessions explored attitudes towards animal charities, perceptions of Cats Protection, and a wide range of behaviours and beliefs—from neutering to social media habits. In total, we gathered insight from 57 participants, generating over 30 hours of recordings and 270,000 words of transcribed data.
The outcome
// Making insight accessible and actionable
We transformed this extensive research into engaging, practical content that could be easily used across Cats Protection.
Creating compelling content
From the video ethnography and interviews, we created a series of compelling films and bite-sized content pieces. These highlighted key themes and differences between audience groups, including distinctions between cat owners, dog owners and broader animal lovers—and what this means for how they engage with the charity.
By structuring the outputs into clear, digestible formats, we ensured the insight could be understood and applied by teams in different roles, whether strategic or operational. This was particularly important for Cats Protection’s fully remote workforce, enabling consistent access to insight regardless of location.
We also enhanced the Audience Knowledge Centre with new sections dedicated to the Cat Clusters research. This created a central, accessible hub where teams can explore the insight and use it to inform their work.
BoldLight innovation workshops
Ruth from BoldLight introduced the new Audience Knowledge Centre content at a Cats Protection internal conference, before leading collaborative innovation workshops to show how the insight could be applied to developing new products and services. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and teams are now actively using the resources to inform both strategic planning and day-to-day decision-making.
The impact
// Stronger engagement through deeper understanding
This project helped Cats Protection unlock the full value of their audience segmentation.
By combining quantitative data with rich, human insight, teams now have a far deeper understanding of their audiences—what motivates them, how they think, and how best to engage them.
The work has enabled more informed decision-making, more relevant communications and stronger connections with both existing supporters and new audiences. Crucially, it has embedded audience insight into the organisation’s culture, ensuring it plays a central role in shaping future campaigns, services and strategy.