McKnight (pictured) joins from McCann Worldgroup where she was associate director, while previously founding and leading the culture and trends practice at InSites Consulting.

McKnight will work alongside new recruits Kim Howard, who specialises in semiotics, and culture & trends practitioner Peter Latham, as well as the existing Verve team, including Anna Williams, Kate Downer and Andy Dexter.

Howard and Latham both previously worked at InSites Consulting within the culture and trends segment of the business, while Howard also did a 12-month stint there as a semiotician.

Together, they will aim to strengthen an area of the business that is already providing clients such as John Lewis Partnership, Innocent and DeBeers with “approaches designed to drive richer, strategic insight and foresight into their businesses”, according to the Manchester-based agency.

Commenting on the new appointments, Rich Preedy, joint head of insight at Verve, said: “This is a fantastic time for Kelly, Kim and Peter to be joining the Verve team. We’re seeing strong client demand for our strategic insights propositions and a desire to push the boundaries of traditional research approaches, as we increasingly become regarded as an extension of our clients’ teams.”

Founder and chief executive Andrew Cooper added: “Kelly, Kim and Peter are, without doubt, excellent talents and great people with whom the whole team at Verve is looking forward to working with, learning from and then together inspiring our clients as we build an innovative world-class practice in this area.”