Mike Farrell
Partner and Chief Strategic Officer

Mike has been involved with youth trends and values studies for a shade over 12 years operating in a number of methodological management and analytical capacities. In those years he has developed a strong reputation in the fields of youth / pop cultural trends study and youth / young adult marketing. At the start of his career he was the core leader on the debut of The Angus Reid Group’s (now Ipsos-Reid) first dedicated response to youth and young adult-oriented market research - the popCulture report.

Now, as a founding partner and chief strategic officer at Canada’s leading youth research consultancy – Youthography – Mike has taken his insight and creativity to new heights in an environment that he and his partners have modeled fully for, and around the tri-way intersection between marketing, communication and youth – with youth sitting squarely at the epicenter. 

Youthography, now 8 years young, has a long list of established clients / devotees who have come along for the insightful ride including Nintendo, Kraft Foods, Molson, Ford, Pepsi- QTG, McDonalds, Hershey, American Red Cross, The Federal Government of Canada, Coty, Nike, Fuji, American Eagle Outfitters, Bell Mobility, Alliance Atlantis, CBC, The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Priszm Brands, Kellogg’s, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, City of Toronto, Peel Health, Kids Help Phone and most major advertising agencies in our fair continent.

Mike is frequently called upon for his insight on the media level. Over the past number of years his work and perspective has been cited in a number of nationally significant periodicals including The Globe and Mail, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston Business Journal, National Post and The Hill. Industry journals including Alert, Vue, Strategy and Marketing Magazine also routinely employ Mr. Farrell’s insight. On the television and radio front, Mike has received coverage on all major television networks and is a frequent guest on any number of local and national news and talk radio programs. Topping this all off, Mr. Farrell speaks regularly to various business groups and participates in industry panels throughout Canada and the United States. He has also had articles published by a number of organizations including the Canadian Advertising and Research Foundation, the MRIA and the Market Research Association of America.

Why the interest?

Mr. Farrell explains by saying, “all too often this somewhat trendy arena of research is fraught with subjectivity and the whims of people who really haven't put their own assumptions and hypotheses to the test. Applying academic rigor to these perspectives gives our clients a reasonably un-biased and well thought out approach to the key questions facing tween, teen and young adult marketers and culture today.”

Mike not only brings expertise garnered from his years studying cultural trends and values in North America to any project he’s in charge of but he also brings a vibrant style. This has been honed by regularly performing what he calls “balls to the wall rock and roll” in and around the underground scenes of Canada and Europe with his band The Pariahs.

Evidently, Mr. Farrell lives his work.

<< Back to Overview