TRA Group Hires Three in Melbourne

New Zealand-based insights agency TRA Group (The Research Agency) has made three appointments in its Australia office - Mark Hutchinson as product owner of its new brand management tool Streamlight; and Andie Lowings and Alex Forrester as Business Directors.

Auckland-based TRA's offer includes research, strategy, behavioural science, cultural analysis, data and analytics, design and new venture development. The firm opened its first Australian office in Melbourne last year. Hutchinson (pictured) joins with more than two decades of experience developing and promoting brands. Most recently, he was a Director at Faster Horses Consulting, having previously worked for Ipsos Australia, latterly as Service Line Lead, Creative Excellence. Earlier he was Country Head of the Ipsos Advertising Research business unit, and he worked for TNS as Development Director, Brand and Comms.

Lowings has more than fifteen years of strategy, research and cultural insight experience, most recently gained at The Lab Insight & Strategy as Strategy Director, and earlier at House of Brand, Screen Audience Research International, Outlook Research, Creative Research and BMRB. Forrester previously held strategy and client service positions with Clemenger BBDO, VMLY&R, and most recently was Strategy Director at The Lab Insight & Strategy.

TRA Melbourne Partner Mark Hobart comments: 'I cannot be more thrilled to welcome such a highly skilled and energetic trio as Andie, Alex and Mark to the team. Their combined skillsets boost our senior Australian expertise and enable us to bring new and innovative tools, such as Streamlight, to support clients' business growth. The launch of Streamlight and their appointments are a brilliant way to kickstart the year'.

Web site: www.theresearchagency.com .