Last September Wunderman Thompson was named global agency of record for the leading coffee brand, taking on strategic and creative duties. The agency’s first campaign for the brand, ‘Made a Little Better’, launched this April and premiered a new creative platform centring around the small things, like a Costa coffee, that can uplift everyday moments.

The agency also recently launched transformative work with Avon, with ‘Embrace your Power’, a global brand platform and accompanying integrated campaign which celebrates women living out their full potential and brings a fresh take to the 135-year-old brand.

Chloe joins from Ogilvy UK, where she was Global Creative Director across Dove and Hellmann’s. During her time working on Dove she led the ‘Change is Beautiful’ campaign, the biggest global relaunch in the brand’s history which premiered at last year’s Super Bowl, and led the Hellmann’s smart jars campaign, which uses a thermochromic jar label to help prevent food waste.

Prior to Ogilvy, Chloe spent six years at Droga5, Havas and Publicis in New York, working across award-winning campaigns for brands including Citi, Keurig and Rite Aid.

Steve Aldridge, Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson UK, said: “I’m delighted that Chloe has joined our irrepressible and ambitious creative team. She’s a talented creative leader with global and brand expertise and that I know will help us raise the bar as we continue to make bigger, bolder ideas across Avon and Costa Coffee.”

“I was drawn to Wunderman Thompson by the sheer diversity of the capabilities that Wunderman Thompson has at its fingertips” added Chloe. “Having so many world-class capabilities under one roof means that creatively anything is possible, and it’s possible at speed. I’m looking forward to maximising the creative potential of the iconic brands on Wunderman Thompson’s client roster.”

Wunderman Thompson was named as Campaign’s Global Integrated Network of the Year 2022, its sixth year holding an Agency of the Year title.

Source: Wunderman Thompson UK

Global ad tech company, Brand Metrics, which helps publishers measure the effectiveness of digital advertising, has developed a pioneering partnership with leading lifestyle publisher, mindbodygreen, highlighting the importance of context in advertising, and how this can help to build brands, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Brand Metrics empowers a growing number of publishers to gather independent data on their digital ad campaigns, enabling them to measure uplift in awareness, consideration, preference and action intent. 

Its technology allowed mindbodygreen to measure brand lift across a range of campaigns among its brand advertisers, and to compare results against a 20,000 strong campaign database, benchmarking advertiser results against 122 different industry categories. Due to the versatility of the platform, the publisher was able to accurately measure even the smallest of campaigns.

Peter Trombino, mindbodygreen‘s Chief Sales Officer, explains: “We design campaigns with partner KPIs in mind. With Brand Metrics, we’ve been able to effectively measure campaigns of all sizes with high levels of confidence, allowing us to prove we are moving people down the funnel, making creative suggestions, and ultimately driving growth in our partnerships.”

Traditionally, mindbodygreen’s commercial strategy has focused on attracting advertisers from the broad lifestyle categories that the site’s content covers, such as beauty, fashion and food. Brand Metrics’ data had shown how, from fashion to healthy eating, and from online counselling to supplements, brand advertisers on mindbodygreen were seeing total brand lift ranging between +11.5% and +13.3%. 

They also noted strong lifts in brand awareness, suggesting that mindbodygreen offers a great contextual environment for lifestyle brands to grow their presence.

But, beyond these more familiar categories, the mindbodygreen team also noted some very positive campaign results for Facet, a full service financial planning company. This included increases in brand lift by over 20% across the four key metrics.

“For the Facet team, knowing that mindbodygreen shared our belief that there’s no wellness without financial wellness made them a perfect partner,” explains Facet’s COO, Shruti Joshi.

The immersive, content-driven campaign included custom articles, social media, newsletters, and targeted display ads designed to propel action. Joshi notes incredible engagement across the delivery of 8.8M impressions and 9.6K clicks: “In terms of brand uplift, we are thrilled with the total absolute lift of 21.5% across all four key metrics”.

Taylor Sturtevant, Brand Metrics Director of Customer Success, US, explains: “It is universally understood that if you are exposed to an ad in a relevant environment, you’re more likely to engage with it. This type of contextual relevance can take place in a specialist publishing environment (for instance). But this pioneering partnership uncovered alignment between financial wellbeing and overall wellbeing, showing how audience understanding can create new content, context, and connection.”

Sturtevant concludes: “While a directly relevant media context makes a lot of sense, there can also be great opportunities for less obvious pairings and contexts, often in less crowded and competitive spaces. Brand lift data can help to open up additional opportunities to welcome brands and categories which speak to the many wants and needs of diverse audiences.”

Brand Metrics works with many of the world’s leading publishers including The New York Times, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Financial Times and News Corp, helping them to measure brand lift across their digital campaigns. It is empowering a growing number of publishers and agencies to gather independent data on their digital ad campaigns and enabling them to measure uplift in awareness, consideration, preference and action intent, in a simple, cost-effective and comparable way.

Read the full case study here.

Source: Brand Metrics

The Responsible Marketing Agency today announces a number of key appointments as it continues to help clients to realise sustainable growth through responsible and progressive practices. The new hires include Liam Brennan as Managing Director; Alice Brady, Chief Strategy Officer; and Clare Latham, Global Programme Director.

The growing team of ethically-minded media professionals is helping brands, agencies and publishers to accelerate competitive advantage whilst shaping capabilities and enabling delivery of environmental, social and governance (ESG) roadmaps and KPIs. It offers flexible service models to cover advisory, enablement, strategy and partnerships. Passionate about helping clients plan for what’s next, whilst striving to ensure positive societal impact synchronised with business growth, these individuals will help to deliver consultative services to create and shape programmes that will drive responsible, sustainable and progressive marketing solutions.

Liam Brennan, the Responsible Marketing Agency’s new Managing Director, has a long history working alongside founder Hannah Mirza, with whom he launched Blink Consulting at MediaCom. He is determined to drive positive change for the agency’s clients, and ultimately, positive change for the industry – having already driven media and marketing transformation for a number of global, household name brands such as Mars and The Coca-Cola Company in his career to date. With a background in transformation, he can orientate clients and partners around a common goal and design work-streams which deliver sustainable and progressive change, and ultimately drive stronger business outcomes.

Liam says: “I can’t wait to bring the Responsible Marketing Agency’s offering to more clients and to work with the team to develop products and processes that help make life easier for our clients to deliver the positive change they and the industry need. Responsible marketing is a hot discussion point right now, but brands can struggle to find a place to start. Too often, it’s seen as a value-add for agencies as opposed to something that can really drive a business forward. I’m excited to help bridge that gap – doing the right thing, making media and marketing fit for progress whilst giving brands a clear path to success and helping deliver tangible, and quantifiable, results.”

Meanwhile, Alice Brady, who joins as Chief Strategy Officer, has spent the majority of her career in large media agencies as a strategist on household name brands including ITV, Marks & Spencer and Unilever – creating actionable communications strategies, leading integration with other disciplines and agencies and instigating ESG thinking. Latterly at Mindshare, Alice was responsible for Grow@Mindshare – where she supported highly ambitious adolescent brands such as Depop, Graze and Elvie to realise their next stage of growth.

She says: “I’m excited by the ‘can-do’ attitude of The Responsible Marketing Agency. As a strategist I’ve encountered too much ‘nice thinking’, and as an industry we’re prone to paying lip service to big issues. In contrast, The Responsible Marketing Agency is truly action-focussed, determined to deliver real, positive change for our clients and the industry. My biggest ambition is that we transform to integrate ESG into the everyday work of our clients and the industry. That’s where it can add the most value – rather being viewed as an additional workload by clients and agencies alike.”

Meanwhile, Clare Latham, appointed as Global Programme Director at the Responsible Marketing Agency, originally trained as a journalist before moving into programme management at digital agencies and consultancies, working alongside major FMCG brands including Diageo, Unilever, Wrigley, L’Oreal and Beiersdorf. Most recently at Flock Associates, Clare led digital and media transformation programmes for clients to drive growth and future-proof their business.  

Clare says: “I’m delighted to join The Responsible Marketing Agency which is at the forefront of driving the next biggest transformation needed for businesses – responsible, sustainable and progressive change; strategies and roadmaps that positively impact businesses and society at large. Within the next few years, responsible marketing will no longer be a nice-to-have arm of a business; it will be integrated into all marketing to ensure companies are not left behind.” 

Founder Hannah Mirza concludes: “We are delighted to welcome these individuals to our trusted team as we continue to offer a range of services to our clients, from supply path optimisation to media decarbonisation strategies and the development of DEI programmes. We share a genuine passion for helping clients to thrive in an increasingly complex world; in the knowledge that when brands act responsibly in the media and marketing environment, their success deepens. Our growing team of advisors is here to guide clients through the ESG maze, navigating new solutions and paths ahead, with holistic and truly integrated strategies.”

Source: The Responsible Marketing Agency

In a strategic move, REDPILL, the influencer performance marketing agency, has appointed Wayne Edwards as their new Business Growth Director. Wayne brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at Ingenuity, Biglight, Your Favourite Story, Trustpilot, and Google.

Upon joining REDPILL during this crucial phase of expansion, Wayne will centre his efforts on amplifying both new and existing business opportunities. His principal duties will involve discovering unexplored avenues for growth and devising strategic sales tactics for introducing products and services.

Henry Collins, Agency Partner and Operations Director, expressed his confidence in Wayne, stating, “Wayne possesses profound knowledge and a deep understanding of growth positioning, making him a key driver in propelling REDPILL to the next level.”

Wayne, saying, “While REDPILL already boasts an impressive clientele, there is still ample room to explore and develop relationships.  I am excited to contribute to the agency during this period of growth.”

Source: REDPILL

Today, independent creative agency network GUT announces it is appointing Sandra Alfaro as its first-ever U.S. CEO, who will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of GUT’s office in Miami, the Network’s headquarters, as well as its GUT Los Angeles office, effective September 5th. She will be working closely with the agency’s global leadership team, especially with the U.S.’s creative leads Ricardo Casal and Juan Javier Peña Plaza, NA CCOs & Partners, and Bruno Acanfora and Ariel Abramovici, ECDs at GUT LA, as well as Carmen Rodriguez, Global Chief Growth Officer & Partner, to continue ensuring that all GUT’s U.S. clients execute gutsy work that builds and drives success for their businesses. Alfaro will report to GUT’s Global CEO Andrea Diquez and she will be based in Miami.

“Sandra is an incredible business leader. She understands where the market and consumers are going so she is the best at setting up clients’ businesses for success,” said Diquez. “Also, her integrated thinking amazes me every time. She’s able to merge media, creativity and data seamlessly into business, and has created models across many categories. And above all, Sandra champions people and creativity, and her heart is huge. Those qualities for me are why she is perfect for our culture and this new role, and is key to GUT’s future as we continue to grow globally.”

Alfaro brings over 25 years of experience across the advertising and marketing industries. Hailing from DDB Chicago, she most recently served as its President. During her time there, she helped the agency launch its first dedicated social practice, and played a key role in new business. Before DDB, she was at Horizon Media, where she was the first leader of culture-first creative agency 305 Worldwide, a joint-venture with Pitbull. And prior to that, she was the Managing Director of Grey Wing for five years, and helped reignite Wing’s leadership in the industry, and helped them win major clients including Pfizer, Papa John’s, Lilly, and Nestle.

“The culture of GUT is what most excites me. They are a brave agency for brave clients with clarity on its values of Courage, Transparency and Intuition, which means that GUT knows what it is, and what it’s not, which is inspiring and exciting,” said Alfaro. “In my new role, I hope to inspire the U.S. team to continue delivering brave work to its amazing clients, while ensuring the agency operates both effectively and efficiently. Growth is my passion, so it’s always my goal to inspire teams to embrace a growth mindset in all we do, in both the agency, as well as with clients. I view myself as a servant leader, so I will focus my energy on helping teams thrive and reach their greatest potential, while also being open to learn from their diverse points of view.”

In her 20+ years in Account Management, Alfaro has actively led campaigns across major categories including in Retail, Automotive, CPG, Beer, Pharma, Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Apparel/Fashion and Beauty, for clients such as The Home Depot, Nissan, Heineken, Stouffer’s, Old Navy, and many others. As the first U.S. born in her Peruvian family, Alfaro has always been interested in learning from different cultures and perspectives in both her personal and professional lives. She also earned her Professional Coaching Certification in 2019, and founded Power & Grace, a boutique consultancy offering Life and Business Coaching, Corporate Training and Public Speaking.

“After five years of really exciting growth, it was finally time to appoint someone who could help us continue to lead and grow our U.S. offices successfully, which is why we entrust Sandra with this amazing responsibility,” said Anselmo Ramos, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman at GUT. “We also wanted to find someone who shared our People-first philosophy and could help us perpetuate it even more across GUT Miami and GUT LA. We also love the fact that Sandra already worked with Andrea in the past and they perfectly complement each other; we’re strong believers in the power of the second time. I have no doubt that Sandra will successfully lead us into our new chapter of growth and success for our offices and clients across the U.S., and Gaston, Andrea and I, along with our leadership team, will be there to support her every step of the way.”

Alfaro’s appointment comes off the heels of GUT Network’s strong year at Cannes Lions, where it won a total of 35 Lions, including 3 Grand Prix, 8 Golds, 12 Silvers and 12 Bronzes across its Network. It also became Cannes Lions’ Independent Network of the Year, LATAM Regional Network of the Year, and its GUT Buenos Aires office was honored as its Independent Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year – the first for Argentina. GUT also recently expanded its footprint to Europe, with the opening of its seventh office in Amsterdam earlier this year.

Alfaro earned her MBA in Marketing and Management from NYU’s Stern School of Business and her BSBA in International Business from The American University. She began her career at Saatchi & Saatchi, which was where she discovered her passion for advertising and business leadership. Later, at The Vidal Partnership (TVP), she spent over a decade building a best-in-class Account Management department, reaching the role of Managing Partner of the agency before she was 30. While at TVP, Alfaro was recognized by Ad Age as one of its Women to Watch lists in 2005, becoming the youngest recipient to receive that honor at the time.

Source: GUT

The Valuable 500 is the global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion.

Today, the Valuable 500 announces the appointment of Katy Talikowska as its new CEO. With an impressive track record leading on inclusion in the advertising industry, Katy is set to strengthen and amplify the global movement for disability inclusion. Katy succeeds Joanne Pritchard, former CEO of the Valuable 500, to lead the organisation into an ambitious strategic phase until the end of 2025.

Caroline Casey, founder of the Valuable 500, will continue to play a vital role for the organisation as Director, providing ongoing insights, guidance, and expertise. Katy will report to Paul Polman and Jeff Dodds jointly as Chairs of the Company and Advisory board. Reporting to Katy, Gitika Kalra will join the executive team as Director of Operations and Delivery, after successfully implementing complex transformation programmes within the UK and Asia markets.

New CEO Katy Talikowska began her journey with the Valuable 500 in 2019 when she partnered with Caroline Casey to launch the initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Her instrumental role in the programme’s initiation showcased her commitment to disability inclusion on the global stage. As CEO, Katy will lead the Valuable 500’s mission to ensure that disability inclusion becomes a strategic priority for companies worldwide.

Katy will lead the charge towards the Valuable 500 Accountability Summit in Tokyo 2025, where the 500 companies of the organisation will be invited to report on their progress against three ‘Synchronised Collective Actions’: Leadership, Reporting and Representation.

Before her appointment, Katy excelled in various leadership roles during her impressive twelve-year journey at AMV BBDO, a leading advertising agency. Katy played a key role in the ground-breaking 2016 Maltesers Disability campaign, which garnered prestigious awards and became Maltesers’ most successful campaign in 18 years. She serves as a Leadership Mentor for Disability Rights UK and has been acknowledged as a Marketing Trailblazer of 2019. She has extensive global business expertise, having worked for 7 years in New Zealand and Australia.

Katy and Gitika bring their leadership, creativity, and a deep-rooted commitment to the disability agenda. Their appointment marks an exciting new chapter for the Valuable 500 as it continues to drive disability inclusion globally.

Katy Talikowska, CEO of the Valuable 500 commented:

“As the new CEO of the Valuable 500, I am excited to lead the change, drive our mission of the 3 Synchronised Collective Actions, and help end disability exclusion. 

It is crucial that businesses recognise disability inclusion not only as a moral imperative but as a strategic priority. Considering today’s competitive market, inclusion is a critical commercial advantage. It is not only about embracing diversity for diversity’s sake but about the value of recognising people with disabilities as consumers and, especially within the workplace, as employees. I am committed to driving tangible change towards a business world that recognises disability in its entirety.”

Caroline Casey, Founder of the Valuable 500, commented:

“Katy’s dedication to disability inclusion is undeniable. She has shown commitment to the Valuable 500 since its inception, and I am confident that under her guidance, the organisation will continue to make significant progress in accelerating disability inclusion through business. Phase 1, we achieved 500 CEO-backed board-level commitments as we broke the global CEO silence on disability in business and we positioned disability on the global BUSINESS leadership agenda. I look forward to working closely with Katy and truly believe in her leadership for the Valuable 500 and its next growth phase.”

Source: The Valuable 500

The partnership between Stanley Black and Decker and Jellyfish started two years ago when the regional digital marketing business secured its retail media activity, including Amazon search and display advertising. This new remit broadens the scope across the full digital media activity and will leverage Jellyfish’s vast retail and commerce expertise to drive performance for the different brands under Stanley Black and Decker. 

The work will be led by Sally Husseini, Account Director, and Belén de Mingo, Client Partner, alongside a broad team of platform experts. 

In a statement, Stanley Black and Decker Digital Marketing Director, Majo Martinez, expressed her excitement about the strengthened partnership: “We are excited to announce a significant leap forward in our brand’s growth and outreach strategy for DEWALT and STANLEY. As part of our commitment to staying at the forefront of the digital landscape, we have decided to invest more resources in digital marketing and online presence. Embracing this dynamic shift, we aim to leverage the vast opportunities offered by the digital realm to better connect with our valued customers and reach new audiences across the EMEA ANZ region.

We’re thrilled to be expanding our work with Jellyfish to take Stanley Black and Decker’s brands to the next level to drive performance marketing. We have been continually impressed with their achievements and expertise across retail media, so the natural progression was to achieve the same results across all our digital media activity. I’m confident that together we can drive more effectively digital transformation and achieve great results for our core brands. With this strategic move, we are confident that we will continue to shape the industry and deliver innovative solutions that exceed expectations.”

Meanwhile, Tommaso Pietrarelli, Senior Growth Director at Jellyfish said, “We’re delighted to be strengthening our partnership with Stanley Black and Decker. Over the last two years, we have achieved great things and I am excited to achieve even more together in the next part of this journey.”

Source: Jellyfish

InMobi, a leading provider of content, monetisation, and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth, today announced its appointment of Dan Rapaport as Vice President of Product for InMobi Commerce, a leading advertising technology platform for retailers and eCommerce companies.

Retail media is one of the fastest-growing ad channels and is poised to capture a significant market share moving forward, with global ad revenue set to exceed that of television by 2028. The demand for innovative solutions, standardisation and differentiation is at its peak in an era where it is increasingly challenging to capture consumers’ attention. Dan’s expertise and extensive industry experience will play a pivotal role in propelling InMobi‘s success in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Dan brings over two decades of product management experience to his role at InMobi. Prior to InMobi, he held key positions at companies such as PubMatic, Yahoo, and AdKnowledge. Most recently, Dan served as the Vice President of Product, Ads & Retail Media at Firework, a leading provider of livestream and video commerce solutions for brands, retailers, and publishers.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dan to InMobi. His experience as a product manager and deep understanding of the Ad Tech and retail media landscape positions him perfectly to drive our growth and innovation. Dan’s addition to our team will further strengthen our ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions to our customers and allow us to inspire product discovery through InMobi Commerce’s solutions that are loved by Advertisers and Marketers,” says Jimit Doshi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, InMobi Commerce.

Dan holds an MBA and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford, as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics from U.C. Berkeley. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he currently resides in Redwood City, California.

InMobi Commerce is an innovative suite of product discovery and monetisation solutions, for retailers and e-commerce companies that are designed to help maximise media-derived revenues. InMobi Commerce is a pioneer in launching shoppable videos to retailers, helping them create high-impact shopping experiences, moving immersive product discovery from social platforms back to their owned channels.

Source: InMobi

40-strong Kindred, which has just celebrated its ‘B Corp Birthday’ after being awarded B Corp status last summer, couples this change in senior structure with a brand relaunch, including a refreshed positioning and new visual identity that builds on the firm’s heritage and expertise in purpose-led comms.

Positive Change is Serious Business aims to demonstrate the business impact of delivering creative campaigns that improve the lives of people and enhance the wellbeing of the world. Current clients include Lily’s Kitchen, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, Gosh!, GoCardless, ZenAuto, CIPD and HM Government.

Charlotte Dolman said: “I’ve always been passionate about what I do but using these skills to make a difference has given me greater zeal and enjoyment for the job and our industry. Positive change can lead to many organisational benefits, including the bottom line. I’m really excited about growing Kindred’s consumer offering, and inspiring more brands and businesses to communicate their purpose in bold and brilliant ways.”

Sharon Bange, Joint Managing Director, said: “This PR game can be a slog at times, but Charlotte’s energy builds up everyone around her. Her enthusiasm for delivering brilliant work is infectious, which has helped to take our consumer brand client base from strength to strength. We’re excited to grow it even further under Charlotte’s leadership, and show we mean serious business.”

Charlotte will join Kindred’s Joint Managing Directors, Sharon Bange and Sinéad Gray, Commercial Director, Ross Garavand, and Chairman Nick Mustoe on the Executive team, supported by the Senior Leadership Team of Creative Director Zac Schwarz and Business Directors Emma Parrish, Shona Mathew and Katie Holl.

Kindred’s evolved positioning is based on the agency’s 25-year heritage in delivering earned-first campaigns through purpose-based thinking; and is launching now as the agency builds for future growth.

Source: Kindred

A passionate and tireless activist for equality, Nishma has worked hand-in-hand as vice president with Rania Robinson, Chief Executive of Quiet Storm, since Rania took on WACL Presidency in July 2022. 

Taking the helm of the oldest and most influential women’s club, possibly in the world, Nishma is passionate not only about WACL’s campaigning work and relentless pursuit of gender equality but also the community it provides to members, which includes leaders from across the industry.

Nishma’s top priority is to continue building momentum behind WACL’s 50% CEO campaign, which is pushing to have half of the chief executive roles in the industry filled by women by 2045. Currently, only 30% of CEO roles in advertising and communications businesses are held by women. The campaign kicked off earlier this year with the launch of the 50% CEO Playbook.  

To support that goal, Nishma will also focus on inclusivity across several different areas. These include spotlighting the vital importance of modern leadership and allyship, both receiving it and demonstrating it, with a particular focus on male colleagues and leaders, but also anyone of difference.

A second area of focus will be to develop the #RepresentMe campaign working with young and mid-life women to understand how they want to be represented in media, communications and advertising, as well as helping to build a robust pipeline of confident and “seen” women, whether they are new starters or returners.

Finally, Nishma is committed to delivering a menopause policy for all businesses to ensure support and understanding for women through this stage of their lives and ensure they are supported for the next progression in their careers.

Joining WACL as vice president is Karen Stacey, CEO of DCM (Digital Cinema Media).

Nishma joined Google in 2014 and has shaped many of its most loved programmes, events and campaigns in the UK. She joined Google from Dentsu where she held the role of Chief Client and Marketing Officer for iProspect. Before her agency career, she had held senior client and media owner roles.

Aside from her day job, Nishma lends her time to mentoring young talent and supporting groups such as MEFA (MediaForAll), BRiM and Creative Equals. She is also proud to be a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the IPA

Nishma said: “It is a privilege to take on the role of Chair in WACL’s 100th year, and I am proud to lead it into its next century. There has never been a more exciting time for the industry and women, and while we have witnessed significant progress over the past 100 years, there is still so much to do. WACL members are the very best and most senior women in our industry, and I believe there is no better group of women to make change and lead the way for future generations.

Rania added: “Nishma is the perfect leader to advance our modernisation of WACL. She has shown through her personal values, proven track record and hugely impressive achievements in her role at Google that she perfectly aligns with the WACL mission. Nishma will usher in an inspiring new era for WACL as it enters its second century.”

Source: WACL