BARB Promotes Griffiths, Hires Walt Disney's Whelpdale

UK audience research body BARB has promoted Rhiannon Griffiths to the role of Strategic Developments Director, while former Walt Disney exec Douglas Whelpdale joins as Insights Manager.

BARB (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) provides official viewing figures for UK television, and is funded by the BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and 5, the IPA, Sky and UKTV. Data is collected by Ipsos MORI, Kantar Media and RSMB, via a panel of 5,100 homes, to represent 26.6m UK households. Griffiths joined in 2016 as Head of Strategic Developments and has since worked with both research agencies and broadcasters to progress projects that will result in BARB delivering new services, such as the implementation of the next phase of Project Dovetail. She previously spent 25 years as a primary research specialist at Guardian News and Media, where she developed and managed a variety of teams, while providing insight and support to strategic planning and sales.

Whelpdale joins from The Walt Disney Company, where he served as Senior Insight Manager, Media Sales and Partnerships. Before this, he was Consumer Insight Director at Havas Media, and he held research roles with Associated Northcliffe Digital and Associated Newspapers. In his new position, reporting to Griffiths, Whelpdale will be responsible for helping BARB's agency, advertiser and broadcast customers understand and make best use of BARB data, while working with broadcasters to enable them to participate in new reporting services following the launch of Dovetail Fusion this year.

CEO Justin Sampson comments: 'Rhiannon's promotion is well-deserved; in the eighteen months since her appointment, she has become a key member of BARB, taking the lead on delivering our key projects. I'm also delighted that Douglas has joined us, further strengthening the team for what is an important year ahead'.

Web site: www.barb.co.uk .