Kantar Public rebrands globally as Verian

14 November 2023 Consultancy.uk

The firm formerly known as Kantar Public has announced a new brand to reflect its independence from the global Kantar Group. Verian has spent the last year building capacity with acquisitions and key hires, before transforming its corporate identity.

In May 2022, professional services agency Kantar entered into an agreement for the sale of Kantar Public to pan-European private equity firm Trilantic Europe. Seeing Kantar Public establish itself as an independent business, the deal saw Trilantic Europe partner with the management team to deliver the carved-out company’s next phase of growth, and to better support its clients in the public realm.

Launched in 2016, Kantar Public employed more than 700 people in over 20 countries at the time of the deal. In the 18 months since, however, the backing of Trilantic Europe has enabled the firm to rapidly expand across the continent, via acquisitions like Lithuanian consultancy PPMI, and with marquee appointments such as former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband or its Global Chair Eric Salma

Kantar Public rebrands globally as Verian

Now, following further consolidation and investment in strengthening its capacity over the summer, Kantar Group has finally announced one final key step to independence. Effective from early November, the company has rebranded in all operating markets across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US – and is now known as Verian.

Verian Global CEO Michelle Harrison commented, “After seven years, we have now completed our journey as Kantar Public, which was formerly a division of Kantar. Today, as an independent business, we start the next phase of our journey as Verian. Our business works across all areas of the policy cycle, from research, programme evaluation, behaviour change, through to the creative execution of public communication. But at our heart, across all our diverse teams and continents, our people are in the profession of seeking truth for their clients.”

Echoing this core goal, the firm’s new moniker combines the Latin roots for ‘truth’ and ‘the qualities of’. As such, Verian hopes its name now captures the group’s global reputation for bringing evidence and insight to public policy and decision making, in government and the public realm.

Looking ahead to the firm’s future as Verian, Harrison added, “I want to thank our Verian teams around the world for their support, commitment and dedication to maintaining a relentless focus on the needs and priorities of our clients and partners as we continue to help solve the next generation of public policy challenges. We look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.”