Duel

A UK brand advocacy platform, with hubs in London and Bristol, that helps retail brands grow through their own fans and communities.

About Duel

Duel is a brand advocacy platform for retail brands. It helps companies such as Abercrombie and Fitch, Charlotte Tilbury, Spanx, Victoria's Secret, LUSH and Elemis grow through their own fans and customer communities instead of relying only on paid ads. The platform has two sides: an Advocate Portal where fans take part, and an Operator Dashboard where brand teams manage the programme.

Duel says its mission is to make brand advocacy the industry standard for building retail brands. Advocacy is described as its north star, for customers and for its own employees. It says employees are its largest shareholders, which is the company's own description of its ownership. It describes itself as a high trust, tight ship, and lists its values as trust, freedom, ownership, execution and candor. It also says it is a B Corp and that employees hold equity.

Paul Archer founded Duel in 2015. Its main UK hub is in Bloomsbury House in London, with a smaller hub in Bristol, and it has also expanded into New York. Its careers page states a team of around 66 co-workers. Hybrid roles ask people to be in the office three days a week. The company also calls itself AI-native, saying it uses AI to deepen human relationships rather than just automate them.

The careers page names teams in Advocacy Network and Community, Product, Advocacy Consulting, Advocacy Activation and Enablement, Finance, and Engineering, AI and Data. Its listed leaders include roles in brand partnerships, advocacy activation and AI and data. Named leaders include Lauren Bishop Vranch (advocacy activation and enablement), Corie Beardsley (brand partnerships) and Owen Tribe (AI and data), alongside engineers such as Ivan Varga. Its pension is the NEST scheme, with the company paying in 3 per cent. UK benefits listed include a pension, 28 days of holiday plus bank holidays, a home-working set-up budget, a company laptop, paid parental leave, two extra days off for volunteering and a personal development budget. These are the company's own claims.

The careers page showed no open roles when we read it, but it invites visitors to get in touch for updates. For students interested in marketing, community and customer loyalty, Duel is a good example of a young UK company turning fan communities into a career field.

What they do

• {'desc': 'A space where brand fans take part in challenges and rewards.', 'title': 'Advocate Portal'}
• {'desc': 'Tools for brand teams to run and measure advocacy programmes.', 'title': 'Operator Dashboard'}
• {'desc': 'Advice on building an advocacy strategy.', 'title': 'Advocacy consulting'}

Key facts

• Founded in 2015 by Paul Archer
• Main UK hub at Bloomsbury House, London; smaller hub in Bristol
• About 66 co-workers (careers page)
• B Corp (company claim)

Website: duel.tech