ZURICH — Farner International has continued its acquisition streak by buying behavioural science specialist Affective Advisory, based in Zurich.

It is the group’s third deal to complete this month: Farner has also recently expanded into Germany with the acquisition of strategic communications consultancy Kirchhoff Consult and creative and consulting firm Komm.passion, adding 150 people to its total headcount.

The Affective Advisory deal is again backed by private investment firm Waterland, on the same model of 100% acquisition and re-investment by founder Torben Emmerling (pictured), who becomes a partner and chief behavioural officer at Farner, bringing a team of nine behavioural science specialists.

Farner International executive chairman Roman Geiser said: “For decades, Farner has relied on evidence and data wherever possible. With our new colleagues from Affective Advisory and Torben Emmerling as the first chief behavioural officer in our industry, we are now taking a giant step. We are developing new solutions based on scientific insights. I am absolutely convinced that this added value is the "missing link" to solving numerous business and policy- making challenges. The days of agencies that based concepts solely on experience and gut feeling are definitely over”.

Affective Advisory is driving force in the global behavioural science community, as a founding and board member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists (GAABS), whose advisory board includes Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and Robert Cialdini, professor emeritus of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University.

Emmerling said his team would expand Farner’s evidence-based strategy consulting, and was committed to maintaining and developing the highest quality and ethical standards in applied behavioural science, from tackling the climate crisis to promoting public health.

“We translate scientific evidence and methods into effective strategies and policies for private, public and non-governmental organisations seeking solutions for sustainable behaviour change,” he said. “Our expertise in applied experiments further enables us to understand which measures are really effective. Going forward, we can leverage this know-how across the entire international agency alliance.”

Daniel Jörg, chief innovation officer at Farner, who has been leading on behavioural marketing at the agency in recent years, added: “Communication specialists aim for one thing above all: to successfully address and motivate the behaviour of our target group. To do this, we need to understand what really makes people tick - consciously and unconsciously. By deliberately addressing behavioural drivers, we can raise the effect of measures to a new level.”