A visionary legacy: Andy Brown
Obituary
From the first data fusion between Barb and TGI in the late 80s through to securing Kantar’s investment in cross-media measurement before it was fashionable, Richard Poustie, former CEO of Kantar Media UK & Ireland, reflects on the lasting contribution of a giant and friend in UK media.
Andy Brown (1963-2026) was a giant in the field of media research and audience measurement, and one of the best-loved leaders in the industry, with an insatiable passion for his subject.
In a 43-year career that spanned almost every aspect of the discipline and every geographical region, he was an immensely successful driver of growth and innovation, and an inspirational mentor, advocate, and connector.
Best known for his leadership roles in the media research practices within Kantar, Andy rose to become chairman (2009-2020) and global CEO (2013-2020) of Kantar Media, subsequently holding a plethora of advisory, non-exec and consultancy roles in the industry, latterly including his leadership of The Attention Council.
Born in Altrincham, Cheshire, Andy’s career began at the AGB Group as a graduate trainee in 1985. He moved to become a research executive at Anglia TV (the ITV regional franchise) in 1987, under the watchful eye of Gareth Morgan and Jerry Hill, and in doing so ignited a career-long love affair with audience measurement.
It was, however, when he joined the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) in 1989 as business development manager for its TGI (Target Group Index) division, that Andy’s career really took off.
Launched in 1969, TGI (a single-source, product-media study of 24,000 adults in Great Britain) enabled media planners and sellers, for the first time, to directly quantify the relationship between brand users and their exposure to all forms of advertising media.
Whilst an already well-established 20-year-old industry currency by the time Andy joined the team, TGI’s orbit was relatively limited: it was a single-product offering in a single market (GB), whose subscribers were, in the main, confined to print media owners and the bigger advertising and media agencies.
Over the next dozen or so years, Andy’s commercial leadership of TGI catalysed exponential growth in subscriber penetration, innovation and geographic expansion.
Andy’s understanding of broadcasters’ needs led to TGI becoming an everyday tool across the TV, Radio, Cinema, Outdoor, and later digital media owner sectors, which in turn led to almost universal take-up across the media agency world and among multiple brand owners.
This was also a period of rapid innovation in the TGI stable of offers with the roll-out of TGRs (Target Group Ratings), the pioneering fusion of TGI product targets to BARB’s dynamic audience data, Premier TGI, Youth TGI, TGI Wavelength (serving local and regional radio stations) and the Choices and Super Midas software tools amongst others.
The 1990s
Under Andy’s leadership, the 1990s saw TGI break new geographical ground.
Its first, tentative step outside Great Britain came in 1992 with the launch of Northern Ireland TGI. The Republic of Ireland TGI was released in 1993, TGI Russia in 1994, followed by a cascade of eastern and central European TGI-license partnerships and then wider-still geographic expansion over the rest of the decade.
Harnessing the demand for harmonised, comparable regional data across countries, Andy spear-headed the simultaneous launches of both TGI Latina (a seven-country joint venture with IBOPE Media in South America) and TGI Europa (the big five western European countries) in 1999, and, in all, oversaw the expansion of the global TGI partnership to around 70 countries.
2000 – 2012
In 2001, Andy and KMR became co-sponsor (with Ipsos) of the Worldwide Readership Research Symposium, which Andy guided for many years, forging many new friendships.
As Kantar and its parent, WPP, expanded their media research interests through innovation and acquisition, Andy was promoted to global CEO of the newly formed KMR Group (Kantar Media Research) in 2002.
Andy’s leadership of KMR spanned a vast and complex portfolio of media specialisms, including wholly owned businesses such as TGI, KMR Software, Intelliquest CIMS and MARS Medical, as well as Joint Ventures and shareholdings in companies including IBOPE Media, AGB Italia, RSMB, Marktest and MRB Hellas.
In 2009, WPP acquired the TNS Group and incorporated its portfolio into the Kantar network.
Seeking to leverage its combined scale and expertise, the media research and measurement assets from both the TNS Media division and the legacy Kantar media specialisms within KMR Group and BMRB were integrated to create Kantar Media, which launched in January 2010 with Andy appointed its global chairman.
At the time, Kantar Media comprised several global specialisms: Audience measurement, Advertising Intelligence, the TGI international and custom media research networks, Reputation Intelligence (news and PR monitoring and evaluation) and a sports practice.
Despite the portfolio’s breadth and immense geographical footprint, Andy’s engagement and influence spanned every aspect and corner of the Kantar Media domain.
Andy’s forensic knowledge of the product portfolio and competitive set, plus his deeply networked relationships in just about every territory, were unparalleled and a huge driver of Kantar Media’s outstanding growth trajectory over the next decade.
2013 – 2020
Upon the retirement of its inaugural leader, Jean-Michel Portier, in 2013, Andy was promoted to Global CEO and to a seat on the global Kantar Group board, while retaining his chairmanship of Kantar Media.
Over the next seven years, Andy’s leadership of the company – with over 6,500 employees – drove multiple major business wins, notable acquisitions, strategic partnerships (including Google and comScore), and groundbreaking innovations.
Kantar Media’s television audience measurement footprint continued to grow geographically, whilst innovations included the introduction of the first streaming meter and the roll-out of its first tablet-format People Meter.
In the UK, Kantar Media partnered with BARB to deliver the world’s first “hybrid” audience measurement system, Dovetail Fusion, which linked census-level measurement of Player data with people measurement from the panel.
A particular focus of Andy’s during this period was the targeting and integration of several significant strategic acquisitions, notably the news-monitoring agency Precise (2014) and the audience-analysis software firm TechEdge (2017).
Perhaps the crowning achievement of his leadership was the acquisition of the remaining equity in IBOPE Media, the Latin American media research titan, in 2015, bringing it fully under Kantar’s control.
Andy had long held a particular affinity for IBOPE, dating back many years to the launch of TGI Latina, and bringing this highly respected enterprise into the Kantar Media family was a cherished ambition of his.
Post 2020
After 31 years within the Kantar Group, Andy set up his own consultancy in 2020. Over the next six years, Andrew Brown Associates enjoyed considerable success providing consultancy and advisory services to many leading players, including Digital 1, Dynata, Inditronics, Ipsos, Looper Insights, Progress Partners, The One Partnership, TVision and TV Squad amongst others.
During this period, Andy became particularly interested in and an expert at measuring the relative levels of “attention” among media audiences and regularly spoke on the subject at industry conferences around the world. He became CEO of The Attention Council in 2021 and chair of the Attention Working Group for the Coalition of Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) in 2024.
In March 2023, Andy was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. As all who knew him will attest, he showed extraordinary bravery in fighting this for over three years whilst continuing to work, travel, write and give conference papers almost right up to the end. After a brief period of palliative care, he died surrounded by his family in May 2026.
Andy was arguably the most knowledgeable and well-connected figure in the global media research world, bar none, and certainly the most passionate and approachable. He loved his subject, the industry and many thousands of the people in it. He had a particular vocation for connecting people and bringing different factions of the industry together.
He was also a terrific bloke; loved by clients, partners and staff alike all around the world. He was loyal, indefatigable and incredibly hard-working.
He had a gift for sharing, was passionate about coaching and mentoring and always had time to impart his wise advice and knowledge to anyone who asked.
Andy was a real people person; warm, friendly and very funny. He was a vastly knowledgeable conversationalist, a fine mimic and a wonderful raconteur. If you were lucky enough to be seated next to him at dinner, you knew you were in for a great evening.
Outside work, Andy’s passions included Arsenal Football Club, Cricket, Tennis and travelling. In his last years, he attacked his bucket list with gusto, making trips to Jamaica, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Paris (for Roland Garros) and Australia (for The Ashes and The Australian Open).
Andrew James Brown is survived by his children, Alexandra and Rory, and by his longtime partner, Sharon.
Tributes can be made and read at: https://andy-brown-media.muchloved.com/