Lowings (pictured) will lead the new practice, which will combine storyhearing, ethnography, cultural insight and semiotics, and also analyse behavioural biases and heuristics as well as cultural narratives and individual stories.

Before joining Irrational Agency, Lowings was group insight and strategy director at the Lab in Sydney, and has worked for more than 20 years in qualitative research roles across both the UK and Australia and at companies including House of Brand, Relish, Kokoro and BMRB.

Irrational Agency has also appointed Austin Ross as client consultant to support agency clients in developing bespoke tools.

Ross was previously behavioural science account manager at Lumanity.

Leigh Caldwell, founder at Irrational Agency, said: “Andie’s wealth experience in global qualitative and cultural research makes a superb enhancement to one of the best behavioural research and delivery teams in the industry.

“Our new practice is the natural and complementary combination of the powerful tools of qualitative behavioural science developed at Irrational Agency over the last 12 years, with cultural insight and semiotics.”