Irma Zandl
President
Irma has been acknowledged as one of America’s foremost experts on consumer behavior and trend forecasting. Conducting on-going work with directional consumers through in-home ethnographies, expert roundtables and scene immersions allows her to anticipate emerging trends and early shifts in consumer behavior.
Irma is in demand as a guest speaker and television commentator, and is frequently quoted in the business press for her insights on consumer behavior and market trending (e.g. The Observer UK, The New York Times, Business Week, CNN, The Economist, and WWD).
Irma also weighs in on topical issues in her column, "OUT LOUD with Irma Zandl", a weekly feature on our Zandland blog.
After 20 years of living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Irma recently pulled up stakes and moved to Long Island City, an up-and-coming neighborhood of industrial lofts in Queens. She joins a growing number of artists and galleries, including Takashi Murakami, Mathew Barney, Bjork and Deitch Projects who have been setting up studios in the area. Since moving, Irma has also achieved renown for hosting Sunday Supper Club dinners bringing together an eclectic array of New York artists, designers, stylists and creative professionals.
In another major move, Irma relocated the company’s offices this year from Manhattan’s SoHo to Bushwick, Brooklyn. The new space and new community of neighbors (film makers, artists, musicians, photographers) has been totally inspiring for her and the entire Zandl team.
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RESEARCH TEAM
Anna D'Agrosa
Senior Research Director
Anna is The Zandl Group’s lead trend analyst for both proprietary and secondary research, keeping us consumer-centric and on the forefront of emerging trends. Immersed in the world of young adults, teens and tweens —from pop culture and technology to shifts in values and priorities, she oversees all aspects of our Trend Tracking Reports (The Hot Sheet). Additionally, Anna contributes insights from our Trend Tracking Reports for all consumer research projects.
Anna also facilitates and participates in client ideation sessions and frequently serves as the kick-off speaker at company brand summits. Her highly engaging and entertaining presentations bring the meeting participants up to date on the latest trends and consumer insights which lead to more productive ideation. Anna is a frequent TV commentator on emerging trends (Fox Business News) as well as a popular keynote speaker (McGill Health Challenge Think Tank, NAB Radio Show in Austin, and annual Kidscreen Summit in New York).
As Culture Editor for BushwickBK.com, Anna keeps up with the Bushwick arts scene, blogging and visually archiving cool events and happenings. Anna’s weekly “Bushwick Culture Weekend Picks” is an essential weekend activity guide for many (visit BushwickBK.com or catch highlights via our Zandland blog).
Born and raised on a farm in Iowa, Anna moved to NYC 14 years ago to attend NYU and recently bought an apartment in Bushwick, close to the office.
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Paige Newman
Editor, Trend Analyst
As editor of our Trend Tracking Reports (The Hot Sheet), Paige oversees all the day-to-day operations of the research studies including recruiting, survey analysis, database maintenance, and writing the bi-monthly and the year end Master Reports.
Paige prepares custom trend reports for clients, utilizing our proprietary trend resources as well as researching secondary data.
She also
writes our press releases and updates our Zandland blog especially as related to pop culture and lifestyle trends.
A Jersey girl at heart (Jovi rules!!), she graduated from Vassar in 2003 with a BA in German Studies, is an internationally acclaimed quiche chef and self-proclaimed celeb gossip fetishist. She is also active on the food blogging scene, with a bi-weekly cooking column on BushwickBK.com, and is a monthly contributor to SaucyLittleDish.com. She is also working with members of the Bushwick community to start a Food Cooperative in the neighborhood, and an avid supporter of the Bushwick CSA.
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Carla Avruch
Director, Consumer Insights
Carla manages consumer research projects from inception to final presentation, bringing an innovative approach to getting maximum insights and synthesizing the learning to create insightful, highly visual and actionable reports and presentations. She also develops custom trend presentations utilizing our proprietary panel data, secondary research and online trend search. These presentations are highly tailored for specific client objectives, categories and consumer segments.
An avid oil painter, she maintains a studio in Ridgewood (just a few stops away from the office!). Her travel fetish has brought her all over the world; most recent explorations include solo trips to Nicaragua and Thailand. Carla also loves to cook, is constantly creating new recipes and is currently teaching herself to sew with her new Singer (BurdaStyle.com is a lifesaver).
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Brandi Stansbury
Lead Ethnographer
Brandi guides our ethnographic research studies, from scene infiltrations to in-home interviews, utilizing her background in contemporary theory and metropolitan studies to identify underlying trends and consumer insights from a cultural and social perspective. She graduated from NYU’s prestigious Gallatin School of Individualized Studies. Brandi's consumer insights and ethnographic experience has also recently been featured on NPR's Marketplace.
Brandi hails from Playa del Rey, California and also claims the hills of Paso Robles as her hometown. However, she now lives in San Francisco where she's deeply involved in the arts, her book club, thrift stores and checking out new restaurants. She spends a great deal of time in San Francisco's thriving writing community and volunteers with Dave Eggers' organization, 826 Valencia, teaching writing classes and bilingual courses in schools. She also enjoys wine tasting, documentary film, music, pop culture and trivia. Brandi is also an avid traveler (especially destinations where she can use her Spanish) and recently spent time on the mystical Easter Island.
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CREATIVE TEAM
Jamie Dwyer
Senior Creative Advisor
Jamie provides us with creative perspective for our consumer research and findings, and further translates consumer insights, marketing perspectives and trend forecasting into highly visual, multimedia formats. He’s also Zandl Group's webmaster extraordinaire and official tech expert.
Jamie frequently participates in our client ideation sessions and is much in demand for his creative input for promotional event planning, including talent and visual design recommendations.
Jamie has a digital arts degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies and a masters degree in art and media from NYU.
He also collaborates with other creatives (musicians, visual & performing artists); creative ventures include music videos, short films & animation, album artwork, poster design, apparel and websites.
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Deborah Hilert
Creative Director, Video
Deep diving into our consumer ethnographies and round table interviews, Deborah is our video guru, translating consumer insights, trend forecasts and research into short films and perceptive presentations that bring consumer insights and trends to life.
Deborah also creates video profiles of consumers to highlight key learning from quantitative segmentation studies as well as trend and lifestyle videos for client sales meetings.
She has a BFA from VCU with a concentration in painting and has a wide range of creative skills from fiberglass casting to embroidery. In her off-hours, Deborah takes gymnastics classes at Chelsea Piers and can do a mean round-off back handspring.
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Nancy Bentley
Creative Director, Graphics
Nancy rounds out the creative team, creating graphic presentations and reports for our consumer insights and trends. She has a finely tuned eye for visuals, bringing our presentations to life with images from her highly curated image library.
Originally from Utah, Nancy lived in Tucson, AZ and worked as a curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art there before moving to NYC.
She is an amazing seamstress and constantly wows in her personalized and reconstructed clothes. And when she's not in her own creations, Nancy shows off her eye for style, sporting spectacular 'finds' from local vintage and thrift stores.
A self-professed music geek, her tastes are wildly eclectic – but current faves include Deastro, Three Mile Pilot, Bill Callahan and Fever Ray.
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OUR NETWORK
We maintain an extensive nationwide network of creative, trend-forward people to work with us on an as-needed basis. Our connections include cultural observers and insiders/experts with backgrounds in:
- the arts
- academia
- blogging
- tech
- entertainment
- nightlife (including chefs, bartenders, promoters, event planners and stylists)
We reach out to our network for ideation, interviews, ethnographic research and videography.
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