LBi International

LBi wins two CLIO Awards for Americans Elect campaign

Posted by Calvin Lau May 8th, 2012

London and New York: Global marketing and technology agency LBi has been honoured with highly sought-after Bronze and Silver CLIO Awards (Silver in the Content & Contact category and Bronze in the Interactive category) for its ongoing partnership with American’s Elect, the non-partisan nomination platform for the forthcoming US presidential primaries.

LBi in New York partnered with Americans Elect to build an online platform capable of harnessing the ubiquitous and collaborative nature of the web to empower the American people to nominate their own choice for president.

The CLIOs are one of world’s most recognized awards competitions for advertising, design and communications and this year attracted over 11,000 submissions and more than 250 in the Content & Contact category alone.

Entrants in the Content & Contact category had to demonstrate their ability to minimise or even eliminate the barrier between the content and the target audience, bringing the user into direct ‘contact’ (whether perceived or actual) with the message in a more personal way than previously thought possible.

Americans Elect is holding the first-ever online presidential primary. Between now and June, every registered voter in America – regardless of party – is invited to sign up and help choose a third ticket for president. Following the online convention in June, the Americans Elect ticket will be on the 2012 ballot in all 50 states – and the American people will have directly nominated their choice for president for first time ever.

Cedric Devitt, Executive Creative Director, LBi New York, said: ”Getting this recognition is fantastic as it truly highlights the ambition we had as an agency when we undertook this project. Regardless of the presidential outcome this year, the course of American Politics and how we choose our elected officials will likely be changed forever.”

Last month LBi and Americans Elect also won a People’s Choice Award at SXSW, the international festival of technology, culture and business.

Tags: americans elect, democrat, presidential race, primaries, republican, us president

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Carlsberg has appointed LBi as its global digital agency of record

Posted by Calvin Lau May 3rd, 2012

Copenhagen: Following a four-way competitive pitch process, LBi has been selected to develop a strategic framework for the Carlsberg brand in digital and to lead the creation and implementation of a multi-touchpoint engagement programme.

Khalil Younes, Carlsberg’s Senior Vice President Marketing and Innovation, explains:
“We have increased our focus on digital and our ambition is to adopt an always-on mindset and establish a framework for us and our local markets to engage our audiences within. We have chosen to work with LBi because they share our thinking and have demonstrated a strong strategic insight as well as the ability to deliver strong solutions across creative, media and technology platforms”.

Bettina Sherain, Chief Executive of LBi Nordics, comments: “We’re incredibly excited that Carlsberg has chosen to partner up with LBi. We look forward to embarking on this ambitious and exciting journey and to help Carlsberg in defining and setting a new marketing agenda”.

The appointment of LBi will not affect any of Carlsberg’s existing agency relationships and LBi will work together with other local digital agencies, technology companies and media partners to develop and implement digital programmes.

The pitch process was lead by Jakob Kalkar, Group Media & Digital Director, with support from Nordic intermediary Hestbaek Consult.

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LBi wins a prestigious Webby Award for Sony Xperia

Posted by Calvin Lau May 3rd, 2012

- Xperia Studio honoured with People’s Voice Award in the Integrated Mobile Experience category

London and New York: Global marketing and technology agency LBi has won a prestigious People’s Voice Award in the Integrated Mobile Experience category for its work to promote Sony’s Xperia range of smartphones.

The Xperia Studio initiative invites the digital generation’s most talented people to use Sony Xperia smartphones to create fun, beautiful, out-there experiences that ‘Remake Reality’.

Xperia Studio contributors include a diverse mix of innovators and agitators, who have manipulated, abused and even destroyed Xperia smartphones in the pursuit of creativity.

The result is a rolling programme of inspiring content that takes in projects from Danish art collective Illutron, NASA astrophysicist Josh Peak, hot British film director Tom Harper and innovative photographer Joergen Geerds.

People have discussed, shared, Liked and even loved the content available via Xperia Studio, helping to give Sony an edge over big-spending rivals like Apple and Samsung.

The films generated by the initial slate of ten projects have clocked up over 1.7m views so far. Moreover, the online content fuelled a 24/7 positive conversation about Xperia smartphones with 85% of people surveyed saying that they had a better opinion of Xperia smartphones as a result of the campaign and 17% of visitors to xperiastudio.com continued on to the main Sony Mobile site.

Established in 1996, The Webby Awards, which is now a byword for excellence in internet related creativity and business, is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 1,000-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

Cedric Devitt, Executive Creative Director LBi in New York, said: “Every once in a while you get a client that is completely on the same page as you and the creative idea. Xperia Studio was one of those times. It seems that the Webby judges thought so too. We’re obviously thrilled with the win. It’s the bloody Oscars of the internet, innit.”

- ENDS -

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LBi sees continued sales and earnings growth in Q1 2012

Posted by amdebont April 26th, 2012

Progress reflects success of business model transformation and strategy execution -

Amsterdam (the Netherlands), 26 April 2012 – LBi International N.V. (NYSE Euronext symbol: LBI), Europe’s largest independent marketing and technology agency, today reports its first quarter results for the period ended 31 March 2012.

Key highlights

• Q1 2012 net sales up 27.8% (25.3% at constant rates) versus Q1 2011 reflecting continued growth in all regions and successful integration of Mr Youth;
• Q1 2012 adjusted EBITDA up 25.3% (22.7% at constant rates) to EUR 9.4 million vs. Q1 2011 (EUR 7.5 million), EBITDA margin at 16.2% (16.5%);
• Q1 2012 organic revenue growth (1) at constant rates 17.8%;
• Net income of EUR 4.5 million in Q1 2012 vs. a net income of EUR 4.6 million in
  Q1 2011 (net result Q1 2011 benefited from a one off contingent consideration release of EUR 1.8 million);
• Healthy financial position with limited net debt of EUR 8.2 million and a slight negative cash flow from operations due to primarily seasonal effects of EUR -1.1 million;
• Continued increase of interest by clients (brands) in agencies that blend search, social, direct response, data and digital skill sets.

Luke Taylor, CEO of LBi commented: “We are broadly pleased with progress made in Q1. The growth recorded across the US, UK and Nordic regions remains particularly strong and we see accelerating opportunity for LBi to own both the digital and social agency of record opportunity. The acquisition of Mr Youth delivers a best-in-class competitive advantage in the rapidly growing social marketing segment and we are focused on the rapid transfer of these specialist skills across all our markets. We have also upgraded our platform toolset to facilitate the rapid integration of social marketing IP into all key hub offices. We believe that our offer which uniquely blends both digital and social marketing skill sets is now differentiated by the depth and breadth of skills mix and a cost effective delivery model. The success of this mix is best evidenced in recent multi market Agency of record wins for Honda, Skype and Etihad.”

(1) For best comparison, we have defined organic revenue growth as the movement between Q1 2012 revenues including Mr Youth and Q1 2011 revenues also including Mr Youth. Please note that US-based social media marketing agency Mr Youth was acquired by LBi in November 2011 and consolidated as of mid-November 2011.

Download the full report here: LBi quarterly update January – March 2012

Contacts

Luke Taylor, CEO, LBi International N.V.
+44 20 7063 6465, luke.taylor@LBi.com

Huub Wezenberg, CFO, LBi International N.V.
+31 20 460 4500, huub.wezenberg@LBi.com

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