CRM

LBi hires New Global Head of Audiences and Engagement from Illumination Entertainment

New York – LBi, the largest independent global marketing and technology agency with operations in 16 countries, today announced it has hired Paul Beck as Global Head of Audiences and Engagement.

Beck’s hire is effective immediately, and he will work out of the New York office. Joining LBi’s Executive team, he will report to LBi President Judith Carr in the US and LBi Chief Media Officer Lyndsay Menzies at LBi Group. This new role will see Beck focus on continuing to enhance and grow the already well-established media services, CRM, and analytics offered by LBi to clients including Seamless, J&J, Dyson, MoneyGram International, and Focus Features. This expansion coincides with the recent acquisition of Mr. Youth. Beck will lead the integration of Mr. Youth community management and distribution offering, rolling this out to Health, Moms and additional audience sectors.

“As the digital landscape evolves, we are seeing the need for brands to become publishers with clear content and engagement strategies. Paul will be involved in further shaping our global media and content offerings, and how they dovetail with our IP and proprietary distribution platforms,” said Lyndsay Menzies, Chief Media Officer of LBi.

“We are thrilled to have Paul joining us at LBi. He brings years of experience and thought leadership to this new role. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been focusing on our media, CRM and analytics services and the role these services have in underpinning our large client engagements. Paul will be responsible for promoting our blended media offering to clients, as well as embedding and maturing our next-generation search proposition, which will provide massive growth opportunities,” said Judith Carr, President, LBi.

Beck comes to LBi from lllumination Entertainment where he was the Executive Vice-President Worldwide Marketing, and was involved in launching the films Despicable Me and HOP. He was responsible for the filmmaker’s interests including delivering best practices, creative and innovation to the research, strategy development and production of marketing and advertising worldwide.

Before Illumination Entertainment, Paul was the Senior Partner Worldwide Executive Director of Digital at Ogilvy where he was responsible for Global Leadership in Interactive Marketing, Advertising & Social Media. He worked across IBM, American Express, Cisco and Dove, and launched new product offerings for the agency.

“LBi is an impact agency, plain and simple. Where so many digital and social agencies struggle with the execution of new ideas, it’s a dream to come to a company with the key pieces of the digital/audience service puzzle in place and working successfully. Add brains, talent, technology, grit, entrepreneurship and a progressive global culture, and anyone can see why LBi has such an impressive client list.” said Paul Beck, Global Head of Audiences and Engagements, LBi.

About LBi
LBi is a global marketing and technology agency, expert at blending strategic, creative, media and technical expertise to build business value. We help companies of all shapes and sizes decide what’s next for their business – and then we take them there. Along with our media arm bigmouthmedia, we define and execute transformational digital strategies for clients including BT, Coca-Cola, E.ON, Lloyds TSB, Play.com, SAB Miller and Virgin Atlantic. Across our 27 offices in 16 countries, there are more than 2000 digital specialists collaborating with brands to enrich people’s lives via service design, branded content, mobile, CRM and social media. We also set the pace in digital display, search, affiliate marketing, usability and analytics. There are many things that make LBi unique, but if we had to choose one it would be our ability to bring together diverse teams of experts to suit any brief. We call this blending, and it’s the reason why all types of organizations – from famous global businesses to disruptive start-ups – choose LBi to help make their brands desirable wherever, whenever and however people choose to engage with them.

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Contacts

Christine O’Donnell
+1 646 792 6114
christine.odonnell@lbi.com

Gareth Jones
+44 (0) 207 063 6263
gareth.jones@lbi.com

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We launch Barratt Homes’ first lifestyle campaign

Our integrated campaign guides first time buyers and growing families on how to find the house of their dreams with Barratt Homes (www.barratthomes.co.uk) and highlights helpful homebuying schemes and their extensive portfolio of properties.

Launched on 14th September, it is in place to assist first time buyers and growing families to find and move into their ideal property with ease. By dispelling current cynicism in the market, Barratt are showing their customers how they can make moving into a new home happen. The site demonstrates this through an animated online journey showing how Barratt understand that their customers, especially those with young families, need more space to live in. It has three targeted landing pages which demonstrate how Barratt understand what their customers need from a new home and showcases their extensive portfolio of properties. We also incorporated video animation to convey the campaign message in a more engaging manner. The online journey is further enhanced with cutting edge search functionality to ensure the process is as simple and efficient as possible.

To support the campaign launch online, we also designed and developed an email marketing campaign for Barratt. This will target different customer segments, helping Barratt learn more about their customer base and what to offer them.

“Digital is core to the information and research stage of the purchase cycle when selecting a property and it is critical we provide a value exchange to the consumer at every point to aid them in their journey. It is important for Barratt to connect with consumers at more than just a product level and that has been central to our marketing strategy for this campaign, basing our messaging and creative on lifestyle”

Tom Poynter, Client Partner at LBi

“Digital is the single most important channel for us to reach and communicate with customers. In an economic downturn, being able to help our customers facilitate the move into their perfect home is imperative and LBi are helping us to harness the Internet to create real dialogue with customers.”

Sam Moore, Head of Digital at Barratt Homes

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CRM gets social

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So not content with being in this week’s OK Magazine (yes, really), the CRM team have been busy sharing their thoughts on segmentation and the like with NMA in last week’s Customer Relationship Management special.

It’s an interesting article that looks at the (relatively) long established discipline of CRM with a fresh pair of eyes and asks “what’s more important to customer relationships: triggers or Twitter?” It discusses a view shared by the CRM team here – that traditional CRM needs to evolve and make use of new, social communication methods, media and technologies.

“Social CRM” is about engaging with consumers on their own terms – joining their conversation. It means talking and listening to your customers at times and in places and in a way that they are comfortable with. From this perspective, the underlying principles of CRM remain true; ensuring relevant and meaningful conversations and interactions (”the right ‘message’ at the right time in the right place”). The proliferation of channels and media just make this a tad more complex!

This new approach to CRM is not just about ‘adding in a few more channels’ – its fundamentally challenging traditional CRM practices (i.e. segmentation and communication strategy) and technologies (i.e. multi-channel campaign management and marketing automation) – requiring them to evolve to accommodate the need to respond to real-time experiences and conversation that consumers expect through interactive channels.

There’s no doubt social media and technologies present real opportunities to better connect and build relationships with customers. Whilst a lot of attention is being paid to the marketing part of CRM, perhaps the greatest potential for improving and advancing relationships is through the service channel. For example, sites like getsatisfaction.com are turning customer service on its head: with customer support evolving into a community conversation between users and the brand.

Read more “Expert Views” on innovations shaping CRM, including my two-penneth! Enjoy!

Pipa Unsworth, CRM Practice Director, LBi

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Building an online presence

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