Branding agency Principals has appointed Mary Winter to the role of Insights Director.
Winter, based in Melbourne, joins the business with more than 25 years’ experience in research. Most recently with PUSH Collective, she previously held roles at EY and GfK. Prior to that, she was the Chief Strategy Officer of the STW Group (now WPP AUNZ) and Senior Vice President Group Director of Strategic Services at BBDO New York.
The appointment will see Winter contribute to client projects spanning the three Principals offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland where she will draw on her experience working with a wide range of clients including Pepsi, Bayer, M&Ms, Guinness, Arnott’s, AGL, ANZ and Blackmores.
The addition of Winter’s skill set to Principals is a powerful complement to the recently launched AlphaLab capability with insights helping to underpin the process of creating prototype products and services for clients.
Principals Group Strategy Director Tim Riches said: “We are thrilled to have Mary join the Principals team. Insights play a crucial role in developing robust brand strategy, human-centric brand identity and voice. Having the capability to do this in-house enables us to offer clients significant economies of time and effort as we integrate research and brand development – making processes faster and more robust.
“Even in the current market, we’re experiencing a spike in interest from our clients as companies seek support in executing short-term responses and also start engaging with the strategic challenge of preparing to compete post isolation. Mary’s input in this will be invaluable.”
Winter said: “This role supports my fascination with human behaviour, marketing problems, creative solutions and my passion for brands. Principals will enable me to embrace insights at the most thorough level, bringing secondary research and a diverse range of primary research skills together to add value to clients beyond ad hoc projects.
“The agency understands the voice of the customer needs to be woven into developing effective brand experiences and I am looking forward to inspiring, energising and collaborating with some of the best creative thinkers in the business.”