The grant comes from the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme, which aims to encourage collaboration between businesses and universities. It goes towards a £124,000 two-year project aiming to come up with new analytics capabilities to enhance Mesh’s TROI tool, which uses text messaging and online diaries to get feedback from participants about their interactions with brands.

Hugh Wilson of Cranfield School of Management said: “TROI experience data has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of how people’s experiences with brands drive sales. We are excited by the prospect of developing some truly groundbreaking approaches through our collaboration with Mesh.”

Fiona Blades, CEO of Mesh Planning, said: “With more and more clients coming to us for continuous experience tracking, it is essential that we build a suite of state-of-the-art analytic tools. We are delighted to be working with the industry’s thought leaders at Cranfield to develop new tools fit for a new world.”

Mesh and Cranfield are looking to recruit a recent graduate as an associate to work with them on the project.