Competitive Intelligence
Know the whole board. Move before they do.
Two drones on one programme: one flies close on the competitors you name, one flies high on the market itself. We run the tools and the sources, and hand you the so-what, not another dashboard. Always-on, tool-agnostic, and honest about where the line is.
In short
Intelligence you can act on, not a data dump.
Most competitive tools are self-serve: they arm your team with signals and leave the reading to you. We are the layer on top, running the leading platforms across every public signal, from websites, pricing and ads to social, reviews, hiring and the AI answers, and handing back owned analysis and a recommendation.
Two lenses, one programme: a Competitive Drone that benchmarks the rivals you name, and a Market Drone that watches trends, regulation and threats from outside your usual set. Always-on, tool-agnostic, and worked from public sources within a clear code of ethics.
Most tools hand your team signals and leave the reading to you. We are the layer on top: we run the platforms across every public signal and hand back owned analysis and a recommendation. Two lenses, one programme, a Competitive Drone on your named rivals and a Market Drone on the market. Always-on, tool-agnostic, public sources only.
Why it matters in 2026
The board changed. Now a machine sits between you and the buyer.
The answer picks the shortlist
Published 2026 buyer research puts about 94% of professional buyers using AI in their most recent purchase, and many change their shortlist based on what it says. Whether a model names you or a rival is a competitive fact you can now measure.
Always-on, or behind
Competitive intelligence has gone from an occasional check to a standing programme. The 2026 research is blunt: teams that share intelligence weekly report business impact around 79% of the time, against roughly 41% for those who look once a quarter.
Decisions in days
AI now collects and drafts the analysis, so the honest expectation has shifted from a report in weeks to a decision in days. The edge is no longer having the data. It is the owned judgement on what it means.
Market figures from published 2026 research, including Forrester buyer studies and the annual State of Competitive Intelligence. Cited by source, in the FAQ.
Who it is for
Built for brands in a real contest.
Categories where competitors move fast and buyers compare hard: regulated sectors, crowded consumer markets, and any business where deals are won and lost on positioning. If a rival's next move, or a shift in the market, would change what you do this quarter, this is built for you. Usually it lands on one of these desks:
Categories where competitors move fast and buyers compare hard. If a rival's next move, or a market shift, would change what you do this quarter, this is built for you. Usually it lands on one of these desks:
- The CEO or founder, for an honest, owned read on where you stand before a raise, a launch or a pivot.
- The Sales or Revenue director, to walk into deals against named rivals and win the comparison with current battlecards.
- The Marketing or Brand director, to defend share of voice, and now share of the AI answer, against the competition.
- The Product or Strategy lead, to plan the next move against a live competitor set and a shifting market.
- Corporate strategy and M&A, for market, trend and adjacent-threat reads before a big decision.
The two drones
Every signal, one owned view.
The category is split into silos that never combine: one tool for web traffic, another for premium content, a human firm for interviews. We fly across all of it and return one picture.
Competitive Drone
Deep, continuous comparison of the rivals you name, on product, pricing, positioning, campaigns and the moves that decide deals. You, benchmarked against them.
Market Drone
The high view: trends, regulation, demand and the adjacent players and new entrants a competitor-only lens misses. You, benchmarked against where the category is going.
One knowledge base
Both lenses feed a knowledge base we maintain on your market, so a new question is answered in days, not started from scratch.
- Signals from every public surface, from pricing and ads to hiring and tech-stack changes.
- Close to real time, on real data, so the market view is current, not a snapshot from last quarter.
- Deduplicated and scored together, so one competitor move is tracked wherever it shows up.
From data to decision
Signals are cheap. The so-what is the work.
Anyone can pull a competitor's pricing page. The value is in the reading: what it means, what to do, and by when.
Continuous, near real time
Always-on tracking on real data, refreshed close to real time, with alerts the moment something moves: a launch, a price change, a hire that signals a pivot. The quarterly snapshot that served a few years ago no longer keeps pace with how fast markets and rivals move.
Recognised methods
Comparative benchmarking, Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, war-gaming and win-loss analysis, applied by people, so the output is a judgement, not a feed.
Owned recommendation
Every brief ends with the so-what and the move. We draw the conclusion and put our name to it, rather than handing you a dashboard and wishing you luck.
How we run it
A programme on a cycle, not a one-off report.
We run the classic intelligence cycle as a standing service: plan the questions that matter, collect from public and open sources, analyse with recognised methods, and disseminate what teams actually use. Then it feeds back and runs again. The deliverables are practical, and they land where your people already work.
Start with a read
Name three competitors. We will show you where you actually stand.
Independent by design
Your analysts, not a licence.
An agency that runs the tools for you, owns the analysis, and works to a clear ethical line is a different thing from a piece of software.
The best of every platform
Crayon, Klue, Contify, AlphaSense and the web-data tools, orchestrated by us for the question at hand, not one licence you are locked inside and left to operate.
Public sources only
Open-source signals and interviews with full disclosure, following the recognised industry code of ethics. No pretexting, no unlawful access, no paying for secrets. The line is deception, and we stay behind it.
We say what it cannot do
Estimated web data has error bars, and we tell you where. Intelligence reduces risk, it does not remove it. We give you owned judgement with its confidence stated, not false certainty.
Proof
Eight years reading markets for real decisions.
Benchmarking, monitoring and market work for brands in regulated and fast-moving sectors, where a competitor move or a market shift carries real money.
A major bank
An always-on competitive and market read across rivals and category trends, feeding product and campaign decisions, with an AI share-of-voice track added as the buyer journey moved to the answer engines.
A regulated brand
A deep comparative benchmark against a named competitor set, on positioning, pricing and digital presence, delivered as battlecards the commercial team could use in the room.
A consumer brand
A Market Drone read on category trends, regulation and an adjacent new entrant, which surfaced a threat outside the usual competitor set in time to respond.
Representative of our work; named client results are being cleared for publication and will be shared here. Figures describe Wise Pirates. Market figures are cited by source in the FAQ; the methods and ethics referenced are recognised public standards of the discipline.
Ways to work with us
Watch always. Go deep when it counts.
Monitoring programme
Continuous competitor and market tracking with alerts, battlecards kept current and a regular read-out, run as a retainer so the answer is ready when you need it.
Benchmark or war-game
A focused Competitive Drone study or a war-gaming session for a launch, a pitch or a board decision, delivered as a clear recommendation.
Trend and opportunity read
The high view: category trends, regulation, demand forecasting and adjacent threats and opportunities, for planning beyond the named competitor set.
Global network
Eyes in the market, not just from afar.
Competitive intelligence is local too. Regulation, the real competitor set, pricing norms and the codes of a category all change from one country to the next, and the best sources are often in the local language. Through ICOM, the global network of independent agencies, we add partners on the ground so the read is accurate wherever you compete, while the analysis stays owned and consistent.
Competitive intelligence is local: regulation, the real competitor set and pricing change by country. Through ICOM, the global independent-agency network, we add partners on the ground wherever you compete, with the analysis owned and consistent.
On-the-ground read
Partners in-market who know the real competitor set, the local regulation and the sources that matter, in the language they are written in, not a view pieced together from afar.
True market reality
Pricing norms, positioning and demand signals read against local reality, so the benchmark reflects how the category actually behaves in each country.
100+ cases, 10+ countries
More than a hundred competitive intelligence cases across ten-plus countries through the network, the weight of a very strong group behind every read.
We draw on partners for local sourcing and context; the analysis, the so-what and the recommendation stay ours, owned and consistent across every market.
Connected
Part of the wider intelligence engine.
Competitive intelligence works hardest wired to the rest of what we do.
FAQ
The questions buyers actually ask.
Is this competitor tracking for sales, or market strategy?
What is the difference between the Competitive Drone and the Market Drone?
Which tools and data sources do you use?
How is this different from buying a CI platform ourselves?
Can you tell us whether AI answer engines recommend our competitors?
Is what you do legal and ethical? Where is the line?
How fast do we get intelligence, and in what form?
Where do the numbers and frameworks on this page come from?
Competitive Intelligence
Name your rivals. We will show you the board.
Tell us who you are up against and what you need to decide. We will show you the drones, the benchmark and the so-what.
Talk to us →
