The Bravo Group Adds Chief Insights Officer.

The Bravo Group announced the appointment of Graham Hall as Chief Insights Officer.

“This is a definitive move to boldly enhance the planning centricity of our culture at The Bravo Group,” explained Gary Bassell, Chairman and CEO of The Bravo Group. “Planning is still in its infancy in the Hispanic market, and reaching back to where it began and to those with a more fully dimensionalized understanding of its possibilities is the right thing to do right now. We hope to accelerate the development of planning in the Hispanic market, leapfrog the natural, slower learning curve trajectory and help develop a whole new generation of dynamic Latino planners.”

Bassell noted that when account planning was first introduced as a marketing discipline in the U.S. from its origins in the U.K. over a decade ago, many of the general market agencies that stand today as planning and creative powerhouses – including Weiden+Kennedy, Fallon and Crispin Porter Bogusky to name just a few – worked with a handful of notable U.K. planners to accelerate the development process.

“Graham was one of those distinguished thinkers who helped pollinate planning in our landscape and nurture a generation of really smart planners,” Bassell stated. The Bravo Group created the new position of Chief Insights Officer to elevate the stature of planning in the organization. Previously, the most senior post in planning at the agency was at the level of director of planning.

Hall established his name emphatically during the 1990’s with his youth brand development agency Informer, a company at the forefront of understanding the attitudes and mores of 15 to 30 year-olds. Working extensively with major clients such as Coca-Cola and Nike, Hall’s groundbreaking research techniques and state-of-the-art reporting systems meant he and his 25-person team were never far from the action. In the U.S., this included involvement in the much acclaimed TRUTH anti-tobacco campaign, a watershed event in youth marketing in the United States.

“I’ve joined The Bravo Group because I want to engage with the hot issue currently in greatest need of new insight and energy,” explains Hall. “Just as youth was the major marketing issue of the 1990’s, so cross-cultural marketing is today’s social zeitgeist, the one we most need to understand. Having spent years working out of Miami, as well as many more years in other ethnic-defined markets, I understand the richness of the issues in play. There’s a bold mission in motion at The Bravo Group to develop a whole new generation of thought leadership and marketing practices for this dynamic Hispanic market. It’s a great challenge, one I look forward to contributing to, con mucho gusto.”

Hall’s responsibilities at The Bravo Group will include overall development of the strategic and account planning functions throughout the agency (with special emphasis in the areas of cultural and youth insights); establishing the role of thought leadership for the agency in the marketplace development and definition of methodologies for researching consumer, category and brand insights; managing research philosophy and approach; and collaborating with senior agency management and clients to author business-building marketing strategies.