Canvas8 Hires First US-based Insights Director

UK-headquartered behavioural insights agency Canvas8 has appointed brand strategist and semiotics specialist Marian St Laurent as its first US-based Insights Director, as it prepares to double both the size of its North American team and NA revenues next year.

Canvas8 focuses on uncovering the hidden insights in everyday life by combining skills from psychology to journalism, anthropology to behavioural economics to understand human behaviour. The firm has recently updated its membership platform, which houses more than 30,000 articles, mapping shifts across fifteen sectors and nine markets, and providing in-depth analysis and cultural insights. In addition, the firm has launched a service called Access to enable clients to access support and advice from its expert and thought leader community, and Toolkit, for quick turnaround research projects.

St Laurent (pictured) joins the New York office to lead the agency's semiotics approach that will sit alongside its specialisms in cultural intelligence, data and analytics and social science. She previously held Director of Cultural Insights roles at Truth Consulting in London and New York; and Black Bamboo in New York; and she worked with TODO Design in Turin, and We Manage Consulting in Milan for a roster of clients.

In her new role, St Laurent will work with the teams in New York, Los Angeles and London to help expand the breadth and depth of Canvas8's cultural insights offerings in North America. Nick Morris, MD and founder, comments: 'We are delighted to welcome Marian, and her deep expertise in cultural semiotics, to our Canvas8 team. Her appointment is an important step in fuelling our ambitious expansion into North America and helping better solve our clients' unique, localised challenges.'

Web site: www.canvas8.com .