He will also find and cultivate an editorial team as the company expands.
Soutar told Media Week that Crash Test Media had started to attract some clients from the UK and abroad, but that projects were at an early stage.
Hilton's appointment brings the fledgling company's staff to four, following the hiring of Matt Phar, creative director on Emap's men's magazines, as creative director. Soutar said he also planned to look for a digital development director later this year.
Alluding to Emap's current restructuring, which is set to incur large-scale redundancies, Soutar said: "There will inevitably be more talented people in the industry who are no longer attached to big companies who will want to undertake consultancy work."
As well as developing and launching Nuts, which he edited for three years, Hilton worked with Soutar on various other developmental projects at IPC, including short-lived men's monthly Later and women's weekly Pick Me Up.
The pair previously worked together at Emap, where Hilton was deputy editor of FHM under Soutar's editorship in the mid-1990s.
Hilton has twice won magazine launch of the year at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards, for Later and Nuts. He also helped to launch Men's Health, published by Natmag-Rodale.
Soutar set up Crash Test Media in September last year. The agency aims to help publishers of all sizes, particularly those new to the market or to a sector, to develop and test print and online products prior to their launch, and to relaunch established magazines.
Soutar said that the rising cost of major magazine launches made it more important than ever for publishers to position their titles accurately before launch.
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