Block Report Lands itsu as Client

Block Report, the new data-led social PR agency, has brought on itsu as a client, while also partnering with social agency, NewGen.

The agency, founded by Wonderhood’s Jack Colchester and Iris’ Chris Grimwood, has brought on several new clients in its first two months of trading, including partnering with social-first agency NewGen to help it identify exciting cultural opportunities for a number of its brands.

In February 2025 itsu tasked Block Report with helping to drive more talkability around the East Asian-inspired casual food brand via a mix of social and PR.

“At itsu grocery, we’ve seen significant increases in brand awareness and lower-funnel conversion, but we've been searching for a way to drive greater cultural cut-through,” said Misha Metcalfe, brand director at itsu grocery. “We saw Block Report as a unique, cost-effective way to change that. Their first report blew us away – mixing data and creativity in ways we hadn’t seen before. Block Report fits seamlessly into our roster of partners, and we’re excited about the stream of work to come.”

Jack Colchester, Block Report’s head of insight, said: “We are thrilled to bring itsu on as a client. The task ahead is a significant one, in 2024 just 2.6% of Brits spoke about the brand on a regular basis – clearly the brand is culturally not very salient. But we’ve identified lots of interesting and exciting opportunities for the brand to drive more talkability and brand fame – watch this space.”

Block Report is not a client brief-led agency, but culture- and consumer-led. This ethos translates into the agency providing its clients with a monthly Block Report full of data-led insights across the brand and wider culture. These insights are then coupled with creative ‘thoughtstars’, all of which are geared towards driving one, single-minded ambition: ‘Fame Beyond the Feed’. Not just likes, comments and impressions, but real-world fame.

The agency boasts impressive proprietary products from how it accesses data to the way it distributes ideas. One tool – the ‘Engines of Culture’ tool – gives the start-up API access to a range of interesting cultural sources such as Change.org and Wikipedia. Meanwhile ‘Nodes Analysis’ looks at how ideas spread, analysing the journalists who cover social stories and looking at who they follow, searching for common denominators.