Kantar launches Media & Analytics practice, adds two leaders
Kantar Insights Canada, part of Kantar – WPP’s data, insight, and consulting wing – has launched a Media & Analytics practice which will use audience measurement, digital measurement, and analytics to drive business growth. The firm also added Hilary Borndahl as Vice President, Analytics, Brand & Marketing ROI and Lisa Freedman as Director, Digital & Media Research.
The new Canadian practice launch arrives on the heels of Kantar’s recent launch of a global Analytics practice. The move unified a worldwide network of 1,500 data scientists, analysts, technologists, and data designers from across the firm’s businesses – including MaPS and Analytics Quotient.
With its new Media & Analytics practice in Canada, Kantar Insights aims to help clients more accurately and effectively address critical business issues. "Research we have conducted with CMOs from around the world clearly showed that the three biggest challenges marketers face are measuring and proving ROI, optimizing media allocation, and understanding omnichannel behaviour,” remarked Scott Megginson, President of Kantar Insights Canada. “The future of market research will increasingly focus on these areas more than survey data."
Two new hires, Hilary Borndahl and Lisa Freedman, will support the growth of the new practice. The two bring deep marketing and analytics expertise that complements the capabilities of Kantar’s Marketing Sciences practice, which include segmentation, innovation, and customer analytics.
As VP, Analytics, Brand & Marketing ROI, Borndahl will lead analytics solution strategies related to Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) and other techniques that drive sales and brand equity. She has extensive experience in MMM (which measures the impact of various marketing tactics on sales), price and promotion analytics, and audit modelling, among other analytics methods.
Borndahl previously spent almost 12 years at Nielsen, starting as a Research Consultant in modelling and marketing ROI, and rising to the position of VP, Marketing Effectiveness. As VP, she built Canada’s first MMM practice, growing the practice from three to 30 employees. She successfully launched four products in the local market and advised over 25 CPG clients and some of the largest advertisers in Canada.
Prior to her work with Nielsen, Borndahl worked as an Analyst at Hotspex and Maritz Research. She holds a BComm in Marketing Management from the University of Guelph.
Meanwhile, Lisa Freedman joins Kantar Insights Canada as a Director of Digital Media & Research, leading the company’s Digital Research practice and guiding the growth of its solutions in the Canadian marketplace. She has nearly a decade of experience in digital and media research and analytics.
Prior to joining Kantar, Freedman held multiple client-side roles in the TV broadcasting industry, providing digital advertising insights. Most recently, she was a Manager, Ad Sales Research, at Disney ABC Television Group for two years. Before that, she held roles in Digital Ad Sales Research at Scripps Networks Interactive and in Digital Research at NBC Universal Media.
Prior to her stint in NYC at NBC, Scripps, and Disney-ABC, Freedman was an Online Content and Programming Analyst, Broadband Entertainment, at Canadian media giant Rogers. She holds an MS in Media Management from Parsons School of Design and a degree in business administration from The University of Western Ontario.
In other Kantar news, parent company WPP recently approved plans to sell off the analytics and consulting company. The company will examine strategic options related to selling off Kantar while still remaining a shareholder. WPP reported a revenue decline of 0.8% in the third quarter, and believes that Kantar’s sale could fetch a potential US$4.6 billion. Founded in 1993, Kantar provides data, insight, and consulting services to clients in 100 countries.
