NEW YORK, July 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clyde McKendrick, former Chief Strategy Officer of Omnicom-owned consultancy sparks & honey, has joined the independent behavioral insights practice Canvas8 as US Managing Partner and Global Chief Innovation Officer.
Based in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and overseeing both New York and Los Angeles operations, McKendrick is tasked with leading Canvas8’s US expansion. He will oversee an existing client base that includes brands such as Google, Nike and Miller Coors, along with agencies such as FCB, Mother and Wieden+Kennedy, and will play an integral role in building out the US team, specifically the sales, account management and strategy departments in New York.
“Agencies and brand marketers are desperate for deep, authentic and actionable insight that will truly motivate their audiences,” says McKendrick. “While there’s an abundance of data, you need to know how to extract the meaning from the noise. It’s the ability to understand data’s cultural context and apply a behavioral science lens that allows Canvas8 to go deeper and sets their quality of insight apart.”
As Global Chief Innovation Officer, McKendrick is also responsible for further developing the business’s membership platform, which maps shifts within 14 sectors across nine markets and five generations and provides in-depth behavioral science analysis. The platform boasts over 3,000 members worldwide, a third of which are based in the US.
In McKendrick’s last role at sparks & honey, based in New York, he was responsible for leading strategic consulting services and the development of the agency’s forecasting platform. Prior to that, he held strategic leadership positions at agencies including Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, TBWA Chiat and WPP’s Possible and founded his own brand strategy and innovation consultancy, Zeitgeist Labs, which he ran for several years. To date, his career has focused on cultural strategy and brand relevance, working with iconic brands such as Instagram, T-Mobile, Red Bull, Chanel and Pepsi.
Canvas8 founder Nick Morris commented, “For decades, market research has failed clients with one-dimensional methodologies and observations, not insight. We’ve spent the last decade helping our clients fuse cultural intelligence with behavioral science – offering fundamental truths about human behavior. With the official launch of Canvas8 in New York City, Los Angeles and Sydney, we’re now well positioned to help our clients on a global scale. Clyde’s appointment is integral to Canvas8’s ambition - bringing energy, innovation expertise, empathy for the advertising market and deep experience on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“US marketers are in danger of being left behind by accelerated consumer demands that require a deeper understanding of what they really want,” adds McKendrick. “Brands need to dig deeper into resolving the anxieties customers feel about their brand choices and marketers can only do this if they focus obsessively on becoming human centric. Canvas8 is perfectly placed to help them do just that.”
Canvas8 has a global network of over 1,200 experts from vertical industries, academia, technology and audience intelligence. Insights are generated by an in-house team of behavioral science analysts and are validated with supporting expert perspective and quantified data.
About Canvas8 Canvas8 is the leading behavioral insights practice specializing in uncovering the cognitive and emotional nuances behind consumer behavior. By understanding people and the relationships that matter in their lives, Canvas8 provides actionable insights that underpin clients' strategic decisions.
Canvas8 ’s unique approach combines the expertise of a global network with market research, behavioral sciences, data analysis and cultural intelligence. Canvas8 membership offers access to an unrivalled resource of 22,000+ articles on global consumer behavior. Spanning across 14 industries and nine key markets, the Canvas8 Library delivers a range of insight- from deep dive consumer profiles to academic thought leadership to studies into generational dynamics - that offer the rigor, foresight and understanding to inspire innovation and help clients stay culturally relevant.
Press Contact: Courtney Meola DiGennaro Communications courtney.meola@digennaro-usa.com 212.966.9525
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