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Brett Templeton

Brett Templeton is our expert on insight, trends & brands.

Brett is a Founding Partner of pluralthinking, an insight, brand thinking and cultural intelligence agency based in the UK.

Brett Templeton is Founding Partner of pluralthinking, an insight, brand thinking and cultural intelligence agency based in the UK.

After a stint in advertising planning in his native Ireland, Brett built his career in London in the field of qualitative consumer insight. He founded pluralthinking as the next­ generation of insight agency, putting brand narrative and cultural context at the heart of the work. ­

Brett’s work over two decades has taken him to over 40 countries, running projects spanning human understanding and concept development and evaluation for some of the world’s leading brands.

A powerful advocate for the importance of human and cultural intelligence in innovation processes, Brett has assisted in the development of new products and services for corporates such as Heineken, Unilever, HSBC, Shell, Wrigley and Bacardi, learning about everything from how chewing gum helps the mating game in Nigeria to how ‘soccer moms’ in the States rely on mayonnaise. He’s helped develop non-alcoholic beers in Denmark and Islamic Banking products in UAE.

Brett strongly believes that many innovation projects are wasteful of time, resources and senior resource because not enough work is done up-front to understand the brand’s purpose, direction and how it earns resonance with people; just because a brand stretch or brand extension can be developed doesn’t mean that it should, or that anyone will want it or care.

Brett would describe himself, first and foremost, as someone who is fascinated by brands, communities and culture and how these things interact. When he’s not nosing into people’s lives he’s to be found restoring a Georgian house whilst listening to pre-historic 90s dance music. He’s a Member of the Market Research Society, the Association for Qualitative Research and the Advertising Group. He’s also fully Accredited by Unilever.

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