Epinion turns 25 years old: 10 milestones that shaped our journey

2000: Epinion is founded

Founded in Aarhus in 2000 by Søren Hoelgaard Justesen, Epinion began with a bold idea: usability testing for websites at the dawn of the internet age. But with the market not quite ready, the company quickly pivoted. Consultancy in rule simplification and government evaluations soon became its core — establishing the strong foundation that shaped the Epinion we know today. In 2001, Epinion opened its doors in Copenhagen. Shortly after, founder Søren was joined by Mogens Storgaard Jakobsen, who brought valuable experience from Gallup. They first met at the Department of Political Science in Aarhus, where both were methodology instructors. Here, they discovered a shared vision: to combine their passion for statistics and methodology with entrepreneurship and business management. This vision marked the starting point for giving people a voice through e-surveys, which were widespread in the US, where Søren had spent a short stay after completing his political science studies. However, the concept had not yet reached Denmark. The partnership quickly proved a success – customers grew in number, as did employees.

 

2005: Seal of approval through collaboration with DR  

After years of preparation and a sharp focus on building a high-quality Denmark Panel, Epinion stepped into the spotlight during the 2005 parliamentary elections—taking charge of polling and exit polls for DR as Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Mogens Lykketoft vied for the role of Prime Minister. This gave Epinion a strong reputation and greater credibility in the market, helping to establish us as Denmark’s best-known research company. In fact, an ‘Epinion survey’ soon became a household term among Danes. Today, Epinion continues to advise DR. Beyond election polling, we support them with population surveys on a wide range of political topics, candidate tests, and more. This collaboration has also led Epinion to work with the vast majority of parties in the Danish Parliament — advising on voter segments, testing political messages and profiles, and evaluating election campaigns. Today, Epinion possesses a unique historical knowledge of Danish parliamentary elections and voter migration, and collaborates with leading Danish universities on research in the field.

 

2006: Gazelle award 5 years in a row

Epinion was recognised as one of Børsen’s Gazelle companies 5 years in a row, reflecting a doubling of revenue over a four-year period and strong financial growth. Revenue growth was driven in particular by contracts with key government institutions such as the Danish Business Authority, the Danish Health Authority, the Ministry of Children and Education, the Danish Defence Personnel Agency, Statistics Denmark, DSB, and a wide range of Danish universities. University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Aalborg University, University of Southern Denmark, Technical University of Denmark, IT University, Roskilde University and Copenhagen Business School. Aarhus Municipality, Copenhagen Municipality, the Danish Road Safety Council, the DaneAge Association, the Danish Cancer Society, the Confederation of Danish Industry, Visit Denmark, MOVIA, Wonderful Copenhagen, FOA – Trade and Labour, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), the Danish Trade Union Confederation (FH) and HK Denmark also became Epinion clients during this period. These customers have become long-lasting loyal customer relationships that Epinion cherishes and is grateful for to this day. Many of these customers have helped to shape Epinion, just as we, in all modesty, have helped to shape them.

 

2007: Epinion conquers the world and becomes independent 

During these years, Epinion experienced rapid growth, expanding its services, client base and international reach. Our appetite drove us forward, and the horizon was packed with opportunities. Internally, Epinion was referred to as a wild rose bush – uncontrollable and budding, but powerful and beautiful. Epinion was also sold to Capacent and spent three years under Icelandic ownership, before the founders bought it back, driven by their strong belief in Epinion’s future potential. Epinion also acquired smaller research companies in Norway and Sweden, and began winning major contracts with international airports, expanding interviewer teams and scaling operations in aviation. Today, Epinion is proud to count one of the world’s largest airports, London Heathrow, as its biggest client for more than 15 years. In addition, a dedicated aviation team supports Copenhagen Airport daily with insights into passenger behaviour, satisfaction and expectations for the airport of the future. Epinion also established a back office in Vietnam to meet the growing need for efficient e-survey scripting and insight reporting. Towards the end of this period, Epinion’s founders stepped back from day-to-day management and appointed Thomas Yung Andersen as independent CEO.   

 

2015: Epinion organises itself into specialised industry areas

Epinion helps customers understand people and advises them on the future. This, we have learnt, requires in-depth industry knowledge. Building on its strong growth, established customer portfolio, recognised brand, and more than 15 years of expertise, Epinion adopted a new organisational structure based on industry areas. It was here that our highly specialised, and later very successful, business areas first took shape; Public Sector, Tourism & Private, Transport & Mobility, Civil Society & Politics, Aviation, Polls & Social Sciences. Each industry area is staffed by teams of dedicated specialists who know their field from A to Z, its framework conditions, competitive landscape, trends and emerging tendencies. In other words, Epinion made a conscious choice to become industry specialists because we learned that expertise in data, methodology and analysis is not enough on its own. This only gets us halfway to advising our customers on their commercial strategic choices. In-depth industry knowledge is essential for us to be able to provide our customers with qualified advice and inspiration.

 

2019: Epinion revitalises its brand and launches a new sense-maker strategy  

During this period, Epinion revitalised its brand with a new core narrative, a refreshed logo and a stronger visual identity. The changes resonated with both customers and employees, and together they formed the foundation for what has since become Epinion’s sense-maker strategy. Epinion also formulated a new purpose: We help businesses and organisations understand their reality so that they can steer towards a better future – because insight generates new insight. Epinion also defined three core messages, which are now embedded in our daily life, our innovation projects and our culture. The first message is: We are sense-makers. In a world that is becoming increasingly data complex, we are here to cut through the noise and make sense of it all. This is what drives us. And this is what makes us who we are.. The second message is: We give people a voice. Whether it is members or masses, consumers or citizens, we have an obsessive craving for understanding what motivates and drives them – their behaviours, opinions, beliefs or unknown needs. The third message is: We are a reliable advisor. With more than twenty years of experience, we have developed deep knowledge and targeted expertise across sectors and industries.

 

2020: We focus on innovation and development – always moving forward, never standing still

In the aftermath of COVID, three hubs were established to accelerate the sense-maker strategy and innovation power in Epinion: Data Science & Analytics, Human Minds & Anthropology and Design, Innovation & Impact. Because whether we’re talking about methods, data, digitalisation or artificial intelligence, development is moving at lightning speed, and as Epinion’s current CEO Berit Didriksen likes to say: We are always moving forward. Never standing still. This means that Epinion not only has to keep up, we need to stay ahead of the curve, with our finger on the pulse and always two steps in front. Our role is to answer the questions our customers haven’t even thought to ask yet. We need the courage to explore ideas openly and widely, shaping our insights into clear advice that moves our customers forward. That’s why our hubs are dedicated to innovation, experimentation, and fresh thinking, bringing value to every project and every customer. This period also saw a strong push to grow our people through the Epinion Academy with training in project management, cutting-edge methods, workshop facilitation and presentation skills, alongside a sharper, more professional talent programme for our young stars.   

 

2023: Epinion as a professional beacon – or call us thought leaders  

Epinion is brimming with expertise, growing daily as we collect and document knowledge on behalf of our customers. Our knowledge spans travel habits, destination development, tourist behaviour, educational choices, motivation for volunteering, citizen involvement, satisfaction in elderly care, digital habits, vulnerable children and young people, democracy research, municipal budgets, synthetic respondents, membership maximisation, campaign impact and much more. Yes, we are far more than opinion polls. Look closer, and you’ll see our hand in many of society’s most important agendas, tackling complex challenges that defy simple answers, and demand depth, nuance and care. At Epinion, we’ve chosen to share more of what we know. And as part of our commercial strategy, we’ve committed to stepping forward as active thought leaders. We want to share knowledge of new trends, ideas and perspectives to inspire others, and to be the ones they turn to when they need credible advice. Follow us on LinkedIn and our website – we hope you’ll be both inspired and enlightened.

 

2024: Epinion as a technological frontrunner

At Epinion, we aim to be technological frontrunners — setting the pace and leading the industry forward. Our strong consultancy culture dictates that we not only provide raw data and reports, but also use technological insights to provide our customers with tailored, strategic advice. This helps our customers understand complex data and make better decisions. Our goal is to set the standard for our industry and to be the first to embrace new technologies. We even hope to pioneer innovative methods that others will later follow. We will harness advanced technology using tools like artificial intelligence and automation to collect, analyse and present data faster and more accurately than anyone else. We decided early on to use AI in our internal processes and in advising our customers, and we have invested in our own language model SenseAI, which is continuously developed and utilised in all aspects of Epinion’s business. The model is used to find hidden patterns in all types of data and predict societal trends. We are ambitious, striving to master the art of blending artificial intelligence with human intelligence. Two forces that complement each other, like yin and yang.

 

2025: Epinion is ready for take-off in earnest

Over 25 years, Epinion has gained hard-earned experience – both the successes and the setbacks — and turned it into a winning formula for the consulting industry. A winning formula that only Epinion knows, and only Epinion can execute successfully. This is particularly evident in a solid organisational platform and strong teams of professional advisors, ready to scale whenever market opportunities arise. Scale in the form of new neighbouring industries and more skilled sense-makers. At the same time, Epinion is driven by a restless curiosity and an explorative spirit — always uncovering new opportunities and propelling us forward, year after year. With this strong position, Epinion’s ambition is clear: to be the most attractive choice — for more customers and for more sense-makers. In this light, 25 years is no age. Epinion is not old, but young and strong. You could say that, on its 25th anniversary, Epinion is ready for take-off.

Berit Didriksen
CEO & CFO
bedi@epinionglobal.com