Smith Leaves Kantar Futures for Tailor-Made SAMY Role

Former Kantar Futures Practice leader Meredith Smith has joined social media focused marketing agency SAMY as Global Head of Future Strategies, a role created for her.

SAMY was founded in 2012, is headquartered in Madrid, has been majority-owned for the past year by private investor Bridgepoint, and currently employs more than 900 people in twenty offices. The fast-growing company helps clients with social-first marketing strategies, through a combination of proprietary software and advanced analytics tools.

The firm says the creation of the new role reflects its ambition to help brands develop 'a much deeper, social-first understanding of audiences that truly drive brand love and commercial growth.'

Smith brings more than twenty years' experience spanning strategic foresight, consumer and cultural insight and innovation strategy. She started out as a product designer, including study of the cultural drivers of human behaviour; and completed a Master's in Innovation Management at Central Saint Martins. She joins from Kantar, where she spent almost five years leading futures, consumer and cultural insight across FMCG, beauty, retail, hospitality, food & beverage and 'Big Tech'. SAMY says her decision to join the company followed a collaboration with it and Diageo in 2025.

In her new role, based in the UK and reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Alex Hill, she will sit within SAMY's global strategy team, with a remit to combine the agency's technology, talent and acquisitions into new strategic capabilities for clients. An initial focus will be the development of new metrics and methodologies designed to help brands understand whether their content and social strategies are creating meaningful connections and increasing long-term relevance.

'Meredith's twenty-year career supporting iconic brands will be invaluable,' says Hill, 'particularly her expertise in anticipating change and translating emerging cultural, technological, and behavioural signals into commercially powerful strategies. This experience will supercharge our mission to transform how businesses can harness insight and intelligence to build meaningful connections across the social universe.'

Smith herself describes SAMY as 'a spice rack full of amazing ingredients.' - including technology, talent and social intelligence.

Web site: www.samy.com/en .