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Carat unveils new senior management structure designed to deliver business value to clients

Leading UK media agency lines up former Stella Artois marketer Jo Allan (née Franks), Aegis Media’s Jumptank joint head Matthew Hook and Carat Client Services Director Richard Sexton for three newly created top roles.

Client experience and innovation at the heart of Carat’s new senior team structure, mirroring its pioneering business model

Carat has today announced three completely new senior executive positions as it builds on its mission to become the agency of the future. Tracy De Groose’s new senior management team will include a Chief Client Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operations Officer, representing an important shift towards non-traditional media agency experience. The three roles, which report into Tracy, reflect a reorganisation of the entire business around three key pillars: getting closer to clients’ businesses; integration of emerging media; and outstanding media planning and buying. The new roles will be taken up by former Stella Artois Marketing Director Jo Allan, strategy and innovation heavyweight Matthew Hook and Richard Sexton, Carat’s current Client Services Director respectively.

Tracy De Groose, Managing Director, Carat said: ‘With this fresh structure, we enter into a new chapter for Carat, reflecting the changing nature of our business. Staying the same is no longer an option. Our clients are increasingly seeking services and solutions that are outside of our core remit and we are adapting, pushing the boundaries and innovating. As a result, almost half our revenue already comes from non-traditional media and our business is as large outside of London as it is within it. These appointments will enable us to get closer to our clients’ businesses, redefining our role as their media agency to unlock greater business value for them.’

The new posts build on Carat’s recent success, topping Campaign’s New Business table in 2011 with £75m of wins including Wickes and Gocompare.com and scooping more than £32 million of business so far in 2012 including Rank Interactive and CSL. They also mirror client desire for diverse media solutions that will help them grow their businesses – a demand that is already being met at Carat with nearly 50% of its revenue now derived from services outside its core media planning and buying remit. Carat is redefining the role of the media agency, establishing itself at the top of its field across a multitude of disciplines. The new senior management team, with client experience and innovation at its heart, will work together to unlock more opportunities for clients across all of Carat’s UK offices to deliver even better business value.

Former Stella Artois Marketing Director Jo Allan (née Franks) brings with her more than 20 years’ client-side experience, most famously as Marketing Director at Stella Artois, but also including stints at Cadbury and Abbey National. Joining from her current role as a consultant working with clients including AB InBev, Allan will coach and direct Carat’s business teams to drive senior client engagement that will move the business forward.

Matthew Hook, as Chief Strategy Officer, starting in July, will be tasked with bringing together Carat’s talented strategy, content, planning, insight, data and emerging platforms teams to deliver the best work in each specialist discipline. He will also be charged with connecting them seamlessly to create a new standard of innovation and integration in the market. Hook joins following two years as Partner at Aegis Media’s New York innovation unit Jumptank and Chief Strategy Officer at Vizeum US, working on brands from P&G to GM. He also worked as part of the new business team that was instrumental in taking Carat in the US from 8th to 3rd in just three years. Matthew was previously Head of Strategy and Managing Partner at Vizeum in the UK before heading to the States in 2010.

Carat Client Services Director, Richard Sexton, has been promoted to Chief Operations Officer, tasked with developing, planning and driving forward the company’s performance. His appointment to the role follows his strong contribution to Carat’s success in 2011 and his knowledge and understanding of its clients and business. Sexton has been with Carat for 16 years, working in both their broadcast and client service departments, becoming Group Communications Director in 2006 before being promoted to Client Services Director in 2011.

The top-tier appointments, effective across Carat, are Tracy’s De Groose’s first step towards delivering an entirely new business model and will provide a springboard for promotion of some of the other talent within the business in coming months.

Jo Allan, Chief Client Officer, Carat said: ‘I am really excited to be moving from client side to agency side bringing my 20 years of experience to an agency that is on an exciting journey of innovation, evolution and success. I am looking forward to working with such a dynamic team both in Tracy, Matt and Richard, but also in the agency as a whole.’

Matthew Hook, Chief Strategy Officer, Carat said: ‘I am hugely excited to be returning to the UK, having been part of a great team and a fantastic run of success in the US. The world still looks to the UK for thought leadership in media to an extraordinary extent and it continues to be a unique and special place in the global media ecosystem. There is therefore a real opportunity at Carat to tap into the best-in-class expertise across Aegis Media agencies Isobar, iProspect and Posterscope as well as Carat’s own sponsorship and insight teams to create work that really breaks the mould and is emulated around the world.’

Richard Sexton, Chief Operations Officer, Carat said: ‘Having worked in both planning and buying throughout my career at Carat, has given me a well rounded view of the business, making me ideally placed to focus on developing, planning and driving the company’s performance forward. I am really looking forward to working with Jo and Matthew to achieve even more great things for Carat, redefining the way we deliver business value for our clients.’

Film and TV industry uses Xbox LIVE platform to target young males

London, UK, 23rd April 2012: The Industry Trust for IP Awareness, the UK audio-visual sector’s copyright education body, launches its first ever Xbox advertising campaign today. Developed by Microsoft Advertising, media agency Carat and Industry Trust, the campaign brings the pro-copyright ‘Moments Worth Paying For’ campaign to the Xbox LIVE channel to inspire and educate 16-24 year-old males about the importance of paying for film, TV and video.

Situated on an Xbox branded destination experience (BDE) - the Xbox equivalent of a microsite - the new campaign encourages users to watch and vote on their favourite scenes from famous movies, including Fight Club, Inception and The King’s Speech, with the popular ‘Inside Xbox’ presenters Dan Maher and Andy Farrant as hosts.[1] Each week over a period of four weeks, Dan and Andy will present two of their favourite movie scenes and explain what makes them great – and worth paying to see. A voting mechanism will allow viewers to vote on their favourite scene, and in doing so enter into a competition to win Microsoft points.

The campaign BDE also directs to FindAnyFilm.com – where users can find all films, all above board, all in one place.

Liz Bales, Director General of the Industry Trust for IP Awareness commented:

“Tackling digital copyright theft is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK film and TV industry, and indeed many of the other creative industries, including gaming. We are committed to using innovative and inspiring campaigns to engage film fans around the value of creative content. The Xbox LIVE tie-up is the first of its kind to blend branded content and editorial endorsement across the platform. We’re confident the concept of Moments Worth Paying For will be delivered in an interactive way to thousands of gamers.”

James Hayr, Head of Specialist Sales at Microsoft Advertising said: “With nearly 40 million Xbox LIVE members worldwide, Xbox offers the Industry Trust access to a very large proportion of its target young male audience. Xbox users typically spend 5-8 minutes engaging with branded content, offering the potential to hold its audience’s attention for a longer time period than other platforms – ensuring its anti-piracy message is communicated clearly and effectively. The Xbox BDE has enabled the Industry Trust to leverage Dan and Andy’s significant influence alongside its own fantastic content and assets.”

Louise Wright, Associate Director at Carat said: “The Industry Trust’s ‘Moments Worth Paying For’ campaign is about inspiring people to play fair by demonstrating that film, TV and video has a value to it that is worth paying for. We felt it was important for the campaign to leverage the editorial endorsement of an influential platform like Xbox, which enables the Industry Trust to tap into a core young male audience in a credible and interactive way. Dan and Andy’s influence over the Xbox audience opens up a deeply engaging communications channel, allowing the Industry Trust to inspire as opposed to finger wag.”

Additional campaign assets will include the chance to recreate famous movie moments starring users’ own Avatar Kinect characters and downloadable background themes incorporating the “Moments Worth Paying For” posters from the Industry Trust outdoor campaign. Dan and Andy will be supporting the campaign in their show, ‘Inside Xbox’, alongside Xbox LIVE promotion of the BDE via the homepage, video channels and editorial placement on gaming websites.

The campaign launches today across the Xbox LIVE platform and will continue until the end of May 2012. More information can be found at www.FindAnyFilm.com

Carat wins 2 gold at Revolution Awards

On Friday night at the Revolution Awards at Grovesnor hotel, London, Carat scooped an impressive 2 awards for Nivea- Invisible for Black and White and Vodafone- Proving Generic Search Drives Offline Sales.

The awards are, along with the NMA’s, the UK’s foremost digital marketing and media awards and tend to be won by specialist digital agencies. Carat had never previously won a Revolution Award but this year we were shortlisted for three.

Carat was one of only two media agencies to win at the awards and the only media agency to win more than one trophy, showing the strength of our integrated digital offering.

In the best FMCG category, NIVEA won for the “Invisible for Black and White Launch” campaign, which has now won eight awards over the last 12 months – making it the most-awarded piece of work in media.

Vodafone also won for “Proving Generic Search Drives Offline Sales”, which has now won four awards – a truly groundbreaking research study.

The full winners list is here: http://www.revolutionawards.com/about

Carat picks up more awards at Hollis Sponsorship Awards 2012

Last night Carat picked up three awards at the 18th annual Hollis Sponsorship Awards.

TRESemmé's sponsorship of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model on Sky Living triumphed over Mini, Castrol and Nikon to win Best TV Sponsorship. Julia Fitzgerald then returned to the stage again later in the evening to pick up the First Time Sponsor Award for the same campaign, beating out some stiff competition.

Finally, a third piece of silverware was picked up in a joint entry between Sky and Carat Sponsorship, again for TRESemmé's Next Top Model Sponsorship. Crucially, the award for Best Use Of Research In A Sponsorship Campaign saw the bespoke research commissioned to demonstrate the effectiveness of product placement and broadcast sponsorship win out against Barclays Cycle Hire and Mastercard UEFA Champions League.

Congratulations to Julia Fitzgerald and the broadcast team in demonstrating how we can work together to create fantastic partnerships for our clients.

More wins for Carat

It may only be March but Carat’s 2012 awards cabinet is already very well-stocked, with our latest gongs coming from last night’s Utalkmarketing Marketing Innovation Awards.

The Marketing Innovation Awards, held at Altitude 360, are now in their second year and recognise agencies and brands that are breaking new ground and shaping the industry.

Our groundbreaking campaign for Vodafone proving the value of generic search scooped the Innovative Use of Search awards.

Meanwhile our launch of NIVEA Invisible for Black and White deodorant, which entirely shook up the functional marketing for this category and created fashion history, picked up Innovative Digital Brand Strategy and the Grand Prix for the entire awards ceremony.

The campaign saw Carat create a partnership with cult online retailer ASOS to launch a bespoke clothing line of classic and timeless black and white dresses. This successfully linked the deodorant with clothing and created an emotional connection with consumers – leading to sales figures higher than for a sister brand with a bigger marketing budget!

This isn’t the first award for the NIVEA campaign by any means – last year it scooped Campaign’s Media Campaign of the Year, Fashion, Beauty and Healthcare Campaign of the Year and Best Total Communications Programme at the magazine’s media awards, along with MediaWeek’s Media Idea and Best Collaboration under 250k awards.

The Vodafone campaign, in which we proved for the first time the value of generic search on in-store sales, has already picked up an award this year. It won Gold for Innovation in PPC at last month’s eConsultancy Innovation Awards.

The research has transformed Vodafone’s future PPC strategy.

Both campaigns have been entered into the Aegis Awards, and the Vodafone work has also been shortlisted for a Revolution Award.

These new gongs join our Media Agency of the Year award from The Drum’s New Year’s Honours.

Congratulations to everybody involved in these two campaigns on these well-deserved accolades, which we are sure will be the first of many in 2012.