ABOUT
THE TEAM
Fiona Blades
Following a marketing and advertising career, Fiona set up
MESH Experience in 2006 to fill a gap in data and analytics.
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By taking an Experience Driven Marketing approach, and
capturing how people come into contact with brands
in real time, MESH helps global clients, like LG Electronics,
to take quicker and smarter decisions about their investment.
Fiona is a Fellow of the Market Research Society, sits on the editorial advisory board for ESOMAR's Research World magazine, is Treasurer/Secretary of the Market Research Council in New York, is a member of the Marketing Society and Marketing Academy mentor. As CEO of a women-owned business, Fiona is passionate in supporting an inclusive agenda.
Brian Jacobs
Brian has over 35 years’ experience in advertising and
media agencies. He is a Fellow of The Institute of
Practitioners in Advertising.
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After stints at Leo Burnett, Aegis/Carat International and
Universal McCann, Brian was asked by Sir Martin Sorrell to
take on a global role at Millward Brown designed to bring Kantar and GroupM closer together within WPP.
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Most recently he established the virtual consultancy, BJ&A home to the Cog Blog, a weekly commentary on media and advertising matters.
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Over his career Brian has led global and local teams working on many leading brands and businesses including P&G, McDonald's, Pfizer, Unilever, Kellogg's, Mastercard, VW and Coca-Cola.
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He literally wrote the book on media: "Spending Advertising Money" co-authored with Dr Simon Broadbent.
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David Beaton
Working with his team at Navigation ME, David is an
accomplished innovator in marketing analytics.
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His work concentrates on bringing advanced analytics
(predictive models and optimization algorithms) into
alignment with business and marketing strategy. He bridges the gap between analytics practitioners and business leaders.
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At Navigation ME, the team has a long track record of building business across a wide variety of categories. Their approach to omnichannel measurement is both holistic and rigorously validated, making it a reliable choice for improving business performance.
Hilary Woods
After several stints at creative agencies, including one on
the board at BBH as planning director and then a number
of years running local and global insight projects, Hilary
returned to advertising to work at Ogilvy to launch Dove’s
‘Campaign for real beauty’ onto the global stage.
From Dove Hilary moved onto the American Express International business as head of strategy for 10 years (Consumer, Business & Merchants, 22 proprietary markets, 160+ JV/IO markets). Then, when the business moved to mcgarrybowen she moved with it to become Amex’s global executive strategy director.
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In 2021 Hilary, along with Brian Jacobs, Fiona Blades and David Beaton, set up Crater Lake & Co to support marketers in making sense of increasingly complex data sets and marketplaces.