Paul Thomas

Beam Suntory

Leading Insights in our EMEA region and Global Shopper Insight lead - managing a team of 4 directly and 10 indirectly.

Key highlights:

* Implementing P2P and Touchpoint understanding across channels (and omnichannel) within our core businesses - allowing markets to select the most effective TPs and BHs to develop the right messaging for our TPs
*  Leading our future of drinking work - leading implications for the business to 2030 as well as innovation opportunities
*  Establishing agile research solutions to enable more research in the region - both testing and exploration
*  Leading our global moderation strategy - developing a cluster approach to markets across product, serve, comms and innovation
*  Developing menu and serve guidelines for our key on-trade partners
*  Embedding and leading global tools within the region, such as brand tracking and consumer immersion tools
*  Member of the Marketing and Insight Leadership team
* Developing POSM testing protocols to ensure maximum ROI

International Insight Director and Global Head of Shopper Insight

International Insight Director

The Forge

Part of a team of 10 senior director helping clients to make sense of their most challenging business questions.  Led a number of key projects:

1. Demand Space segmentation for a market-leading Hot beverage company - redefining its strategy across brand, innovation and channel
2. Innovation Strategy for a major beer company
3. Positioning and comms projects for a major Investment Fund manager
4.  Segmentation of BPC consumers to allow a major beauty firm to redefine its business strategy
5.  Writing proposals to win over £350k of business in first 9 months

Director

Asahi International

	Leadership of the global premium insights approach; a non-traditional approach to gaining market leading understanding and insight into premium occasions and categories 
	Lead the annual where-to-play analysis feeding into growth opportunities for the portfolio and the brands based on latest consumer/customer/market data & insight, culminating in 3y market plans
	Direct the creation of the business’ 3y Global Brands innovation pipeline, linked to the opportunities identified in where-to-play and market plans.  
	Centralized approach to research methodology & consumer validation (across communications, experiential, innovation) including success criteria against benchmarks.
	Develop a continuous brand performance system, against clear scorecards, including performance Vs KPI’s / previous year.
	Leadership of the Marketing Spend Effectiveness-process and identification of key drivers of success and failure by activation type, culminating in annual KPI setting in brand plans at global and market level.
	Leading a step-change touchpoint planning approach with a strong MSE and ROI orientation. 
	Facilitate quarterly root cause analysis against the brand scorecards, challenging the business through practical insights
	Ensure that ideas and insights flow freely throughout the business, by championing active knowledge sharing

Global Director - Insights, Planning and Performance

As Global Head of Insight:

Heading up globally the insights team at Asahi - responsible for ensuring that insights underpin and drive the growth of premium brands such as Asahi, Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime - and latterly the Fullers portfolio since our acquisition mid-way in 2019

*   Leadership of the global premium insights approach – A non traditional approach to gaining market leading understanding an insight into Premium occasions and categories that can be translated into actionable business growth opportunities.
*  Developing brand new positionings across all our brands globally through uncovering rich cultural insights - leading to new global campaigns for PNA and Grolsch, with Asahi Super Dry's first ever global campaign coming in early 2020
*  Feeding into our annual brand planning through identifying premium growth opportunities for global brands based on latest consumer/customer/market data & insight.
*   Making our business insight-first-  developing a global tracking programme across 20 markets, combined with social listening, firsthand consumer-immersions and a self-generated trends framework
*  Centralized approach to research methodology & consumer validation (across comms, experiential, innovation, new products) including success criteria
*  Developing our launch strategies in key new geographies such as South America

As Acting Global Head of Brand for Cornish Orchards (May - December 2019):

*  Developing the global business case for international expansion
*  Leading the global strategy, signed off at board level - highlighting key opportunities for growth based on consumer, category and country dynamics
*  Leading (watch this space!) a full pack and POSM relaunch across Cornish Orchards to cut through a cluttered, interchangeable category
*  Developing differentiated trial-generating activities to bring a taste of Cornwall to the rest of the world

Global Head of Insight

Diageo

Leading end-to-end innovation workstreams on gins and new categories for Diageo in Europe - from ideation to concept to pack to liquid to commercialisation

*  Led strategic thinking on gin, rum and no- and low alcoholic products
*  Worked on a range of projects from line extensions to NTW brands (will share more once they launch)
*  Led a cross-functional team to deliver the launch of Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla - an amazing new gin combining premium botanicals such as Seville orange and orange blossom with the unmistakeable taste of Tanqueray London Dry Gin
  *  This has been awarded a Double Gold medal for packaging and a Silver medal for liquid at the prestigious San Francisco spirit awards.  it also won Silver in the Grocer drinks awards.  https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/events/the-grocer-drink-awards/the-grocer-drink-awards-2018-winners-revealed/573451.article
  *  Led all facets of the project from ideation to concept, packaging, research, liquid development, supply, commercialisation, launch and marketing. 
*   This ended up being a huge success for the business, already launching in UK, Spain, Canada, Australia and Global Travel with a view to further global launches.  Despite premium ingredients, this was margin-accretive to the Tanqueray franchise and (despite a strong launch plan) was CAAP-neutral in Y1

Head of European Innovation, Gin, Rum and Emerging Spaces

Responsible for ensuring consumer insights drive business strategy across Africa
Have led portfolio planning across existing markets and new opportunities - to deliver efficient growth
Defined launch portfolio and strategy for markets such as CDI and Angola
Branding / positioning work across established brands such as Guinness, Star, Johnnie Walker - down to new value offerings
Led M&E process which improved our ROI on Marketing activities by +20% YOY
Managing research and insight across a portfolio of 40 markets
Supporting/leading (dependent on project) packaging/concept/advertising development from packaged Sorghum beer in South Africa to local soft drinks in Seychelles
Leading a team of 8
Won Esomar nomination for our cross-African mobile panel

Head of Strategic Planning, African Regional Markets

Ferrero

Head of Insight

senior insight manager

UK Insight Manager for the Kinder brand portfolio, responsible for being the voice of the consumer within the Marketing department.
Responsible for designing, commissioning and championing internally all UK qual / quant research relating to:

NPD - Idea, Concept, Product
Advertising (both developing and evaluating)
Continuous data to inform strategy
Equity / Brand Tracking
Bigger tactical / strategic pieces (e.g. brand re-positioning)
Insight generation

Expertise in: 

Synthesising ad hoc studies with continuous data
Championing the role of 'consumer insight' within a business
Developing sales and category stories from both continuous and ad hoc sources
Designing research to both inform and validate strategy
Taking consumer insight to inform development of marketing and creative strategy

UK Insight Manager

Ipsos MORI

Specialising in insight presentation and delivery - delivering a wide range of multi-country studies.   Experience across innovation research (esp. pack, concept and product testing) and shopper research (real shelf POS testing in particular).

Often used to bring a fresh insightful look at existing presentations to improve and advance client relationships (from beer to feminine hygiene to fast food clients)

Main strengths: insight, presentation, delivery and design of reports, project management, client relationship-building, man management

Research Manager

Project management, analysis, presenting to clients, account management

Senior Research Executive

The Nielsen Company

Specialising in pricing research (discrete choice modelling) and B2B satisfaction.

Client Executive

European Parliament

Translator

International Insight Director and Global Head of Shopper Insight at Beam Suntory

My mission is to make consumer planning and insight the lifeblood of every business I work for and to imbue that attitude into my teams and my agencies. I am not your typical researcher.   I strive to see insights making a difference and making sure the business makes the right, profitable decisions.

I have been privileged in my career to work on amazing brands from Kinder Surprise to Ferrero Rocher, from Johnnie Walker to Tanqueray and from Guinness to Peroni.  I have always prided myself on making a measurable, and commercial, impact through the insight work my team and I deliver.

Across insights and innovation, I bring a broad range of skills and experiences, both agency and clientside - I have a particular passion for ad hoc advertising, packaging and innovation insight work.  

I am comfortable across quant and qual, and pride myself in delivering great insight, quickly and at a good cost - and making my agency partners part of the team with me.  

Taplio

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