Ex-Sparks & Honey strategy head McKendrick joins Canvas8’s expansion as US managing partner
Canvas8, a London-based behavioral insights consultancy, has hired Clyde McKendrick in a managing partner role for the US, and as its global chief innovation officer.
Clyde McKendrick, former strategy chief of Sparks & Honey has joined Canvas8 in its US expansion / Canvas8
McKendrick’s last role was at Sparks & Honey as its chief strategy officer. In the role, which Sparks filled a couple of days ago with Camilo La Cruz, McKendrick had responsibility over leading the agency’s forecasting platforms. He also held leadership positions at CP+B, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Possible. He also launched and ran his own consultancy for Zeitgeist Labs for several years.
As managing director for the US region, McKendrick has oversight over both US Canvas8 locations, in New York and Los Angeles, and will help develop the growth of the sales, account management and strategy departments for the region. The current client base includes Google, Nike and MillerCoors, and the company works with agencies FCB, Mother and Wieden+Kennedy.
In his global role, McKendrick also has responsibility over further developing the business’s membership platform, which maps shifts within 14 sectors across nine markets and five generations and provides in-depth behavioral science analysis. The platform reportedly has over 3,000 members worldwide, of which a third are US-based.
McKendrick said in a statement about his new agency: “Agencies and brand marketers are desperate for deep, authentic and actionable insight that will truly motivate their audiences. While there’s an abundance of data, you need to know how to extract the meaning from the noise. It’s the ability to understand data’s cultural context and apply a behavioral science lens that allows Canvas8 to go deeper and sets their quality of insight apart.”
Canvas8 founder Nick Morris commented: “For decades, market research has failed clients with one-dimensional methodologies and observations, not insight. We’ve spent the last decade helping our clients fuse cultural intelligence with behavioral science – offering fundamental truths about human behavior. With the official launch of Canvas8 in New York City, Los Angeles and Sydney, we’re now well positioned to help our clients on a global scale.
He added of McKendrick. “Clyde’s appointment is integral to Canvas8’s ambition – bringing energy, innovation expertise, empathy for the advertising market and deep experience on both sides of the Atlantic.”
McKendrick also spoke of the perils of today’s marketers, adding: “US marketers are in danger of being left behind by accelerated consumer demands that require a deeper understanding of what they really want. Brands need to dig deeper into resolving the anxieties customers feel about their brand choices and marketers can only do this if they focus obsessively on becoming human centric. Canvas8 is perfectly placed to help them do just that.”