FleishmanHillard names its first global manager of consumer culture

Lauren Winter’s promotion ties in with FleishmanHillard's plans to deepen its clients' understanding of the impact and importance of culture on consumer behaviour and choices and wider societal movement.

Her new responsibilities include providing counsel to the agency's top global clients and client leaders on key cultural movements, themes and creative solutions for campaigns. Her remit also involves empowering client teams and the agency’s network to place culture at the heart of its communications and campaign strategy.

“With FleishmanHillard’s existing commitment to D&I, global reach and talent, I couldn’t think of anywhere better to make sure brands aren’t just reacting to the chaos we are seeing all around us, but actually understand how to use their spend and space for true change,” Winter said.

“Enabling culture and people ‘movements’ is what great brands are primed to do and I’m excited to help our clients realise this cultural potential with consumers on a much greater scale around the FleishmanHillard world.”

Since joining FleishmanHillard six years ago, Winter has built a brand practice of more than 40 practitioners in London, winning major contracts with clients such as Bose, Unilever, Fitbit and Krispy Kreme.

She has also led a new ideas and partnerships in London, including launching a Youth and Culture team, ensuring talent without academic qualifications can enter the workplace through the agency’s Residency programme, a recent partnership with diverse model agency Zebedee and using Gen Z trend spotters across the globe to enable work such as ‘making Crocs cool’ and launching the first dedicated LGBTQ+ newswire.

She will continue to operate in her EMEA and London practice leadership roles, and sit on the executive committee of the London office.

'Culture – a key currency'

FleishmanHillard’s global brand practice lead, Candace Peterson, described Winter’s appointment as “another step in understanding that culture is a key currency in the new world of marketing”.

She added: “Brands – whether product, service or corporate – have moved their narrative much closer to what they think consumers will respond to, but these can lack depth and validity. The nuances of culture that exist within – and that connect to – communities are often very complex. Inaccurate and generalised data threatens consumer alienation and, at worst, a brand’s reputation.

“Lauren and her cultural work across the globe has already seen game-changing thinking and results and so I am very pleased that she is now taking the cultural reins more formally and that more of the firm's clients and teams will have access to that great expertise.”