Richard McLeod returns to Kantar as Head of Media

Richard McLeod has returned to Kantar to lead its work for agencies and businesses measuring how consumers engage with media and advertising. He begins his second stint at the firm four years after exiting his former role as Chief Commercial Officer of Kantar’s Indonesian Insights Division.

As businesses look to respond to a rapidly shifting market – and a number of headwinds in 2022 – firms need a full picture of what’s happening in different markets, making market insights offered by firms like Kantar crucial to their success. Richard McLeod’s extensive experience “makes him well placed to give clients exactly that”, according to the Executive Managing Director of Kantar’s UK and Ireland Insights Division.

Amy Cashman said, “It’s fantastic to have Richard back in the fold at such a dynamic time for the industry. The media landscape is increasingly complex and information is becoming more fragmented, as regulatory changes and growing awareness of consumer privacy make it harder for brands to track how behaviour is evolving.” 

Kantar is a global evidence-based insights and consulting company, one of the largest such firms in the UK. It is operational in over 90 markets. McLeod was previously at Kantar for eleven years, most recently as the Chief Commercial Officer for the business in Indonesia. McLeod returned to London in 2018 to take up a new role as Commercial Director at Netfluential, before joining MetrixLab as Senior Client and Strategy Director, supporting businesses to scale their operations and grow.  

McLeod returns to Kantar as Head of Media in the UK, and he will now help businesses maximise media spend using insights from marketing tracking tools across a range of sectors. Part of his focus will be on guiding businesses through the removal of third-party cookies, using Kantar’s extensive consumer data to provide insight as the market adapts.

The arrival of McLeod is the second high-profile return at Kantar’s UK wing in as many months. In February, Paul Cowper re-joined Kantar as a Senior Partner in the firm’s business consulting practice.