Echelon Insights – Merlin Strategy Announcement
From the beginning, Echelon Insights has been about finding the truth in data—helping campaigns, brands, and organizations make smarter decisions in a fast-moving world. And as we’ve grown, so has the demand for the kind of insight-driven strategy we offer—not just in the U.S., but across the Atlantic.
That’s why we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Merlin Strategy, a top-tier research and strategic advisory firm based in London. With this partnership, we’re now offering seamless capabilities across the U.S., U.K., and Europe—combining Echelon’s U.S. expertise with Merlin’s deep understanding of the political, cultural, and media landscapes in the U.K. and EU.
To launch this exciting partnership, Echelon and Merlin took a look at what voters in the U.S. and U.K. think about the direction of their own countries, the impacts they are feeling from issues like trade and immigration, and how populist parties of the political right are reshaping the landscape.
- Americans and Brits think their respective countries are on the wrong track – but that things can be fixed if we try. Half of Americans and a whopping 67% in the U.K. believe their own country is on the wrong track.
- Institutions need to be fixed, not abandoned. Those in both countries also say that our institutions can be fixed if we try, not that they are too broken and need to be replaced entirely, by large margins of 70-21 in the U.S. and 73-27 in Britain.
- Experience still matters to many. Given a choice, voters in both countries narrowly (48-40 in the U.S., 55-45 in Britain) prefer political leaders to have experience and know how the system works rather than being “bold outsiders.”
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- Notably, UK Reform party voters and U.S. it is “Trump-first” Republicans and political independents disagree and prefer outsiders to experienced leaders.
- UK Reform voters and US Trump-first Republicans think globalization has been bad for them. While U.S. voters (42-29) and U.K. voters (57-43) say globalization has been mostly good, 66% of Reform voters say it has been mostly bad. Trump First Republicans concur, saying globalization has been mainly bad by a 44-30 margin.
- Americans feel more firm in their sovereignty than British voters. While voters in the U.S. disagree (43-39) that people in their country have lost control over important decisions because they are made outside their borders, the majority of Brits (57%) agree with the statement.
- Culture change is seen as headed the wrong way – unless your party is in power. Voters in the U.S. think the culture and way of life in their country is changing for the worse, not the better, by a 54-27 margin, and 51% of those in Britain think it is changing for the worse as well.
- Republicans say it is changing for the better by a 12-point margin, while by contrast, in Britain, 73% of Reform voters say it is changing for the worse.
- U.K. voters have slightly more reservations about immigration than U.S. voters. Voters in the U.S. are split on immigration, with 46% saying it strengthens our country by bringing in new skills, ideas, and cultures, and 44% overall – though 70% of Republicans – saying we should limit it due to the pressure it puts on jobs, housing, and public services, and the cultural tensions it creates. In Britain, 56% agree more with the statement about limiting immigration.
- The political left in the U.S. is a little less worried about immigration than the left is in Britain. While only 21% of Democrats say we should limit immigration, 34% of Labour voters agree with the statement about the downsides of immigration.