Who We Are

Curious About People. Serious About Insight.

We help brands understand the consumers they’re trying to reach. WhyFive is a South African consumer insights consultancy powered by BrandMapp, the country’s most comprehensive study of the consumer class.

Why We Do What We Do

Data is everywhere. And making sense of it is where things get really interesting.

At WhyFive, we believe that every data point represents a real person with real motivations, habits, concerns, and aspirations.

Our job is to help turn those stories into insights that marketers, strategists, agencies, media owners and business leaders can actually use.

Or, to put it another way:

We help our clients go from “Huh?” to “Aha! Now we know what to do.”

Our Mission

We aim to illuminate the reasons behind consumer choices, enabling brands, agencies and media owners to make informed, strategic decisions. Through imaginative and creative online surveys, we uncover facts that lead to insights, ultimately informing strategy and making todays decisions better than yesterdays.

What Makes Us Different?

Good data is valuable. Knowing how to use it is even more valuable.

Our team combines deep consumer intelligence with decades of experience across media, marketing, publishing, strategy, and research.

Clients come to us for the data and stay for the conversations, the perspective, and the ability to connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information into something useful.

Curiosity helps too – we’re endlessly fascinated by what makes people tick, and we’ve built a business around asking better questions.

Meet the Team

The Humans Behind the Insights

We’re researchers, strategists, storytellers, marketers, and professional question-askers. Most importantly, we’re a team that genuinely enjoys helping clients understand the people behind the numbers.

Brandon de Kock

Director of Storytelling

Brandon’s been telling stories to anyone who will listen, all his life. A celebrated writer, photographer, editor, book author and public speaker, he’s had too much to eat and drink on all seven continents and played golf on six of them, although he now claims to be ‘completely recovered’ from the sport.

His describes his career as a ‘compendium of games’: bars & restaurants, a decade in music and another in publishing as editor of Compleat Golfer and then group creative director for RamsayMedia (Wine, Getaway, CAR). It was there, together with the late Stuart Lowe, that he launched RamsayMedia Research Solutions and discovered that Brené Brown was right: stories are just data with a soul!

Together with his wife Nikki, he continues to share a love of food, wine and travel at supertasters.co.za but for the past 12 years, he’s been partner in and creative director of WhyFive, the company behind the annual BrandMapp survey. As a go-to thought-leader in the world of consumer behaviour, he specialises in taking data and presenting them like great rock songs.

Julie-Anne Bell

Commercial Director

Julie-Anne started her career in media sales and moved into the world of marketing and brand management before settling into research and consumer insights. She’s worked with landscape datasets like AMPS, TGI and MAPS and the platforms on which they live (like Choices and Eighty20) and, more recently, got to grips with data layering and the power of Geospatial data.

In short, she may not have done ‘it all’ but she’s certainly come close, and in the process, she’s developed a deep understanding of how valuable it is to find the “story or so what” in numbers, and help a wide variety of clients convert it into actionable strategy.

For the past 5 years, Julie-Anne’s brought this wealth of experience and industry nous to her role heading up the client relationship and product development side of WhyFive’s business. It’s the perfect playground for someone who’s passionate about consulting with brands and agencies on how to bridge the gap between first and third party data and shift the needle in a meaningful way.

Ashleigh Cumming

Youth Development Director

Ashleigh joins the WhyFive team with a passion for people and a fresh perspective on the world of insights. With a background in both psychology and business, she brings a unique blend of human understanding and strategic thinking.

Her career began in the financial research industry, where she developed strong skills in data analysis, client engagement, and market interpretation. Over time, she became increasingly focused on the ‘why’ behind consumer behaviour: what drives people, how they make decisions, and what those patterns reveal about society and the economy. WhyFive is a very natural fit.

Ashleigh’s approach is both thoughtful and inquisitive, combining research rigour with creative curiosity to uncover the stories lurking beneath the data. She thrives in collaborative environments and enjoys translating complex information into clearly articulated insights that help brands and businesses make smarter decisions. With a strong belief in the power of good questions, she’s excited to contribute to BrandMapp’s mission of making data more human and more useful.