The agency has hired Patrick Cummings (pictured) to lead the new business as chief executive officer. Cummings, who was previously head of the modelling and analytic solutions division of Symphony IRI, will be based in Chicago.

SMA’s modelling offerings will produce “insights mapped to client business processes” by bringing together attitudinal, media, digital and macroeconomic data sources, the firm said.

Scott Miller, CEO of Synovate North America, said: “The research market is starting to move in this direction. Companies are already investing in alternatives for simplifying their market intelligence, business information and market data into databases connected to models that identify what really drives their business metrics.”

Ged Parton, CEO of practices and capabilities at Synovate added: “With so many different research solutions available, clients struggle with bringing all of the information together to get the most meaningful insights. They don’t necessarily need new tools, but better and more integrated ones. SMA will help solve that problem.”