Hires and Promotions for Youth Researcher Smarty Pants

Youth and family researcher Smarty Pants has hired Samantha Davis and Lautaro 'LC' Cabrera for its position of 'Insights Whiz', while appointing Elizabeth Aparicio as Research Manager. In addition, the firm has promoted Emily Arbour to Senior Research Manager and Sabrina Roth to Research Analyst.

The company, which has headquarters in Johnson City, TN and offices in seven other US cities, works on brand positioning, new product development, consumer lifestyle and trend research. Davis joins in Johnson City from strategic insights agency Creative Energy, where she was a Brand Executive, leading client teams to develop clients' branding and advertising strategies. During this period, she helped develop the agency's primary research practice, fielding brand workshops, focus groups, online surveys and concept tests. Director Anne Knight comments: 'Sam's unique professional background makes her a well-rounded fit for the Smarty Pants team. Her energetic curiosity matched with her consumer empathy and cross-industry marketing expertise provides an invaluable perspective to the agency, and we're thrilled to have her.'

Cabrera was most recently a postdoctoral researcher at University of Maryland, College Park and during this time, he investigated topics spanning parents' perceptions of the impact of video games, children's science learning through Minecraft, kids' computing and programming mastery, and teachers' classroom computing support needs. Earlier, he was a Research Assistant at The Research Institute, Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Company Director Kara Liebeskind says: 'LC's passion for understanding people combined with his strong academic background and analytic skills make him uniquely suited to be an innovative researcher and savvy storyteller. We're impressed by his enthusiasm for projects across industries and methods. He is already an invaluable member of the team.'

Aparicio was most recently an ethnographic analyst and senior consultant at The Hartman Group, where she led in-home interviews, shop-alongs, in-store intercepts, remote IDIs and digital diaries, and identified food and beverage trends. She began her market research career as a quantitative ethnographer at SmartRevenue, tasked with in-store intercepts and in-depth field interviews to better understand shopper insights. Senior Manager Laura Munroe adds: 'Elizabeth has an insatiable curiosity about people and a knack for digging below the surface, connecting dots and unearthing novel ways of thinking about the human experience, and her ability to merge qualitative and quantitative findings.'

Separately, Arbour joined last year as Research Manager, having previously worked at Community Coffee Company, latterly as AD of Brand Strategy & Insights; and Roth, who also joined last year as a Research Associate, had held internships as a Digital Marketing Coordinator at jewellery designer Nathan & Moe, and as a PR intern at brand experience consultancy Narrative.

Web site: www.asksmartypants.com .