Kantar strengthens Brand intelligence offer

The company also highlighted a number of AI-focused products supporting its Brand business

Kantar has appointed Adhil Patel as Senior Director, Marketing Science, as the company expands its Brand leadership team to strengthen its brand intelligence capabilities in response to the growing influence of AI on consumer decision-making.

Patel joins Kantar after serving as Africa Director of Research at Mobile Digital Insights (MDI). He previously spent 22 years with Kantar and will be based in Cape Town when he starts the role on 3 August. He will oversee the company's brand equity intellectual property, including its Meaningful, Different and Salient (MDS) framework, and lead its development for an AI-driven marketing landscape.

Appointment supports AI-focused brand strategy

The appointment is the first senior addition to the Brand team led by Dan Colton, who joined Kantar as Global Managing Director, Brand in April. The team is being built to combine behavioural insights, brand science and AI to help marketers understand how brands are discovered and selected.

Dan Colton, Global Managing Director, Brand at Kantar: "Since I joined in April, my focus has been on building a team with the depth and ambition this moment demands. Adhil is the clearest example of that: few people understand our IP as well as he does, or have thought harder about what it means for the AI era. As people and machines increasingly shape how brands are discovered and chosen, that's exactly the combination of rigour and fresh thinking our clients need."

Patel returns after 22 years with Kantar

Adhil Patel: "Kantar has always stood apart because of the strength of its IP and the scale at which it can apply that thinking. I'm coming back to a business I know and love, and to a team Dan is building with real ambition. This is an exciting moment to evolve the industry, given how AI is reshaping how equity is built and as marketers seek clear evidence for turning intelligence into stronger growth."

Kantar also highlighted a number of AI-focused products supporting its Brand business. These include BrandDigital AI Signals, which measures how AI-generated recommendations influence brand equity using the company's Meaningful, Different and Salient framework; Kantar Live, which combines quantitative research with qualitative group discussions; and Kantar Converser, an AI-moderated research platform designed to generate deeper consumer insights through one-to-one conversations.

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