Board director Rupert Blackwell said: “Our qualitative business is growing tremendously and it’s great to be able to bring in people of the calibre of Graham and Justine.”

Brown has experience in issues of national infrastructure, government departments and broadcast audiences, while Lukas specialises in senior stakeholder research, with particular interests in public sector and b2b work.

The agency also hired Tom Wormald, another former Opinion Leader researcher, last month, though Wormald was latterly at the Central Office of Information.

ICM chairman Justin Sampson said: “I’m excited to have been able to oversee the coming together of a senior team at ICM which has tremendous experience and ability. We are in a great position to be able to offer clients top-of-the class expertise in both traditional research and emergent techniques.”