• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 1, 2007

In a rare case of reverse migration, a top media research executive has returned to Madison Avenue. Eighteen months after he stepped down as vice president-director of research at Carat, Rob Frydlewicz has joined Interpublic's Universal McCann unit as senior vice president-director of media research. Frydlewicz, who reports to Universal McCann Director of Consumer Insights Graeme Hutton, fills a void created when long-time McCann researcher Susan Nathan left in late August to join Turner Broadcasting as vice president-media currency.

Nathan's departure marked the latest in an ongoing exodus of top media research and consumer insights executives at many of Madison Avenue's biggest agencies, some of whom have left the industry altogether, such as former Carat research chief Joanne Burke and former MediaVest researcher chief Maryellen Vincent. Others, like former MediaCom research chief Tony Jarvis (now at Clear Channel Outdoor), MindShare research chief David Marans and PHD research chief Barbara Zack (both now at IAG Research), Universal McCann's Jon Swallen (now at TNS), have simply left the agency business.

The exodus has come at a time when agencies are more reliant on consumer insights and media research knowledge than ever before, as the complexity of the marketplace and demands from clients have accelerated, not abated.

"I was waiting for all the key media research issues to be resolved, and now that they are I can come back," Frydlewicz quipped about the reason for his 18-month hiatus from Madison Avenue. Actually, he remained quite active during that period, operating RAF Consulting, working for clients such as Mediamark Research Inc., Nielsen's and Arbitron's Project Apollo, and the Council of Better Business Bureaus. He also wrote a regular column for MediaPost.

Prior to Carat, Frydlewicz was a media research and planning executive at N.W. Ayer, Young & Rubicam and Scali, McCabe Sloves.