December, 2025.- Since establishing TRA’s Sydney office in 2022, Terri Hall has built one of the agency’s most dynamic hubs, grounded in strong relationships, meaningful work, and a culture teams genuinely want to be part of. Now stepping into the role of Managing Partner across Australia, Hall brings a perspective shaped by rapid scaling, disciplined decision-making, and an unwavering commitment to sustainable growth.
As TRA enters a new phase of trans-Tasman integration, Hall sees opportunity in strengthening shared thinking while preserving each office’s unique character. Collaboration, she notes, is built into TRA’s DNA—whether through layered human sciences, collective problem-solving, or the instinctive exchange of diverse perspectives.
With innovations such as ARTI, TRA’s AI-powered tracking agent, the agency is reaffirming its belief that technology should amplify human insight. Looking ahead, Hall identifies the biggest opportunities in refined craft, more creative delivery of insights, and scalable solutions that meet the evolving needs of clients across multiple markets. For her, the art of knowing people remains TRA’s most powerful differentiator—and the foundation of its future growth.
- You’ve successfully built TRA’s Sydney office from the ground up since 2022. What were the biggest challenges and learnings from scaling a new market so quickly, and how will these experiences shape your approach as Managing Partner for all of Australia?
As a team, we have stayed focused on nurturing amazing relationships, delivering outstanding work that we are proud of, and building a culture that we love being part of. The biggest challenge has been in growing sustainably to ensure those three things are protected.
It’s important that these three focus areas remain at the core of what we do as we continue to scale in Australia. This will mean bringing in people who share our passions, and doing so in a way that keeps up with our momentum. Hiring ahead of the curve, trusting instinct, and being comfortable saying no to things that might stray from our big strategic priorities are just a few things I’ll be keeping in mind!
- TRA is entering an accelerated growth phase in 2026, with stronger integration between Australia and New Zealand. How do you plan to foster greater collaboration and cultural alignment across the two markets while maintaining each office’s unique strengths?
I have the opportunity to bring our total Australian businesses closer together for all the benefits of shared thinking, resources, and combined impact. But I deeply recognise the unique flavours that each office brings to our combined business, built from the people in each team, and that are right for the markets they sit within and serve. I want to protect those nuances, and elevating the directors in each office will be an important pillar to this.
Collaboration is not new to TRA. Our people instinctively collaborate to layer different perspectives, challenge thinking, and drive creativity. That is true both internally and for how we work with clients. This role will allow me to create more opportunities and time for this – be it in bringing the teams together for key moments or galvanising them around shared and joint strategic priorities.
- Brand tracking and insight-driven strategy are core to TRA’s offering. What opportunities do you see for evolving your brand-tracking SaaS platform, especially with the integration of AI and new technologies?
Our ethos is that technology empowers our humanity. We applied this directly to our tracking proposition and invested in our SaaS tracking platform to land a partnership proposition that blends the best of tech and thinking.
TRA’s platform is fast, beautiful, easy to use, and critically integrates AI throughout – our capability is already established, and we will be focused on continuing evolution from here.
We launched ARTI, our Tracking AI agent, this year, to help deliver one of our key principles of accessibility to insight through intuitive tech. To support this, we are focused on delivering confidence through smart design (tracking the metrics that matter) and clear direction through our consulting excellence (led by brand and tracking experts).
Our technology allows for the setup of programs in a smart, efficient, scalable way, fit for the unique needs of the clients we work with. We run large-scale tracking programs over 25 markets across multiple languages through to tight, focused, lean programs for clients that just need the fundamentals. In 2026, we’ll continue exploring opportunities with clients across this tracking spectrum and ensure the technology we deliver is sharp and ahead of the curve.
- Under your leadership, TRA has delivered strong growth and attracted major clients like Canva, Diageo, and Atlassian. What do you believe resonates most with clients about TRA’s philosophy of “the art of knowing people”?
Clients don’t come to us for expected answers that can be sourced and found easily. They come to us for the uncommon truths, as we call it. The insights that others don’t see, that in turn deliver an uncommon and unfair advantage.
To get to those insights, we believe in the power of layering different human sciences and perspectives to solve problems. That’s the art of knowing people. I think clients see the value in this craft, that equips us to deliver provocations and direction that gets them to think differently.
We push ourselves to consider the cultural context brands are designing in for today, and into the future. The behavioural principles needed to unlock growth. The emotive building blocks to growing brands with edge. The human experience principles that will deliver distinctive CX.
Bringing these ideas together is often where the gems are found.
I also believe that beyond the craft of research and technology capability, our growth comes down to our people, who have a genuine curiosity and care for the clients we work with. That’s hard to beat, and I’m particularly proud of it.
- You’ve been praised for cultivating high-performing, people-centric teams. As you now oversee both Melbourne and Sydney, what will be your priorities for developing talent and ensuring consistency in leadership and culture?
Above all else, I think it’s critical to bring people to our team who have a shared passion for our purpose – improving people’s lives – and excitement for growth. People who share this mindset but come from diverse career backgrounds and bring a curious, thoughtful mind are where we’ll have the greatest success.
This may mean people who come from non-traditional research backgrounds but have led themselves towards a strategic insights pathway, or people that want to be part of an innovative agency that champions experimentation, doing things differently, and a fresh perspective.
As a team, we are all conscious of protecting the special culture we’ve built, but are excited for how that can continue to evolve, because culture is as much built from the people within the team as it is the vision we set for it.
- Looking ahead, TRA are preparing to scale and expand its footprint across Australia. What areas of the business or emerging client needs do you believe represent the biggest opportunities for TRA in the next two to three years?
Craft. I mentioned this before, but clients have so many resources available to them to deliver insights, so the biggest demand will lie in the craft of finding the distinct insight and lens that will set them apart. This comes back to TRA’s core craft and expertise – using what we know of psychology and human behaviour to first ask the right questions, then triangulate insights from multiple techniques and lenses.
Creativity. I don’t just mean creativity in research approach but in delivery. People are hungry for levity and a break from a sense of sameness – that applies not just to the consumers we serve, but our clients too. I think our ability to galvanise action through very distinctive design and storytelling and unique delivery experiences will be important to giving clients the inspiration they’re seeking.Smart scalability. Whether it’s efficient exploration of research across multiple markets, or multiple categories, clients will want solutions that work harder to have scalable impact. With significant international research under our belt, and tech capability to scale, I think this is an important area of growth for us in the years ahead.
