Helenor Gilmour

After nearly three decades in consumer insight at DC Thomson, Helenor Gilmour launched Beano Brain, the kids-first insight agency, translating ‘rebel thinking’ from the iconic Beano comic into brand consultancy.

Helenor Gilmour has spent much of her career helping organisations understand what children actually think.

The idea for Beano Brain was built over decades. After joining DC Thomson in 1988 following marketing roles across retail and service businesses, she moved through marketing and consumer research positions before becoming Head of Consumer Insight and Brand Development. Her work brought audience understanding closer to decisions about products, brands and publishing, including research into what children found funny, how they read and how established brands needed to evolve with them.

Gilmour pioneered a Trendspotters Kids and Teens panel, longitudinal groups of young people who share what they are watching, playing, buying and talking about over months and years. Rather than asking adults to interpret children’s behaviour from the outside, the research creates a direct line into their lives. Gilmour has personally accumulated more than 750 hours of face-to-face research with children and families.

In 2020, that expertise became Beano Brain, the kids, teens and family insight consultancy within Beano Studios. It combines ongoing qualitative research with large-scale studies, including its annual Coolest Brands work, and has expanded its Trendspotter model beyond the UK. Gilmour also co-authored one of the earliest studies anticipating the behaviours of Generation Alpha, presenting its findings to businesses and government organisations in the UK and internationally.

In 2026, she stepped into the role of Head of Beano Brain, with the organisation increasingly working not only with brands but with organisations such as Ofcom to bring children’s own perspectives into questions that affect them.
Gilmour has spent decades researching audiences. The distinctive part is knowing when the most useful thing a researcher can do is stop interpreting and ask them directly.