Minneapolis-based research and consultancy firm Magid is courting agencies with a new executive hire: Alec Bardzik joins the firm as senior vice president of brand and agency strategy, a newly created role aimed at expanding its presence on Madison Avenue.
Launched in 1957 with roots in local TV, Magid has grown into a consumer insights firm providing market research and data to retail, entertainment, travel, and CPG brands. Its clients include Amazon, Planet Fitness, Holiday Inn, Campbell’s, Hershey’s, Dr Pepper, Mastercard, and Best Buy.
Now, Magid sees agencies as a key growth area for its future, with potential “multi-million dollar upside,” said chief marketing officer John Rood.
“The pressure is on for agencies to deliver both breakthrough creative and measurable results for their clients’ businesses,” Bardzik told ADWEEK.
Bardzik joins from BarkleyOKRP, where he was senior vice president of strategic intelligence. He has also held senior strategy roles at The Wonderful Company and worked in Deloitte’s strategy and operations consulting practice, with a focus on consumer packaged goods and agribusiness.
In his new role, he will help Magid’s agency clients tap into what the firm calls its “EmotionalDNA” data set, which captures insights from more than 1 million respondents on consumer emotions, motivations, and behaviors on an ongoing basis. Agencies can use this data to accelerate briefs, sharpen strategy, and optimize workflows.
Magid also offers AI-powered tools that help agencies work more efficiently. For instance, Collaborator Strategy generates marketing strategy briefs in minutes, and Collaborator Publisher creates on-brand, long-form content.
“We make the digestion of intelligence inputs and translation to a brief that actually gets teams in the direction they need go from weeks or days to minutes,” Bardzik said.
He added: “We see this as the make or break of daily agency life—we want to make challenging and rewarding the norm and tedious and inefficient a relic.”
Magid’s push into the agency space builds on its nearly decade-long partnership with Horizon Media, which uses the firm’s EmotionalDNA data set to inform client campaigns.
“We’re really proud of our partnership with Horizon, which can serve its clientele with additional intel and help them make better decisions, especially when it comes to category competition and which partners to find,” Rood said.
Bardzik added that agencies today are eager for tools that help them streamline workflows without impeding their creativity.
“We rarely speak to an agency that isn’t seeking a way to accelerate and strengthen the briefing process across their clients, more fully put AI to work, and not get in the ways of their strategy and creative teams,” he said.