Jane Power has been appointed as Client Managing Director at Medialab, the UK’s leading independent media agency. Power joins Medialab from global network, PHD, where she was Client Leadership Business Director. Prior to this Power was at the7stars for over 11 years. The appointment is part of Medialab’s ongoing commitment to reinforce its senior leadership team and sees Power join recent hires Harry Darlington, Strategy Director and Head of Planning, Jess Talbot. Power will hold a key role at Medialab, being the senior lead for all clients within her team and responsible for delivering high-quality, multi-channel media planning a cross a number of clients including National Trust and Laithwaites.
Chris Hockin has been appointed Director of Business Development at global ad tech company The Trade Desk. In this role Hockin will be responsible for servicing and scaling new business opportunities for The Trade Desk’s clients in key markets located in the Northern region of the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Based in Manchester, Hockin brings 15 years of experience in the advertising technology sector to his new role after previously working as a Senior Seller at American technology Quantcast.
Immediate has appointed Lily Barclay as Content Director of Good Food. Good Food is the UK’s number one food media brand, comprising Good Food magazine, the website goodfood.com, the Good Food paid for app, Good Food live shows, the largest food event in the country, as well as millions of followers across social media platforms, and the Good Food podcasts. Barclay, formerly the Group Digital Editor of bbcgoodfood.com and olivemagazine.com started her media career at the BBC and has over 15 years’ experience working on media brands. She is a former winner of both the PPA and the BSME Editor of the Year (2022) and is currently on the judging panel for the recent PPA Awards 2024. Barclay will work closely with Immediate’s Food and Wellness Group MD, Jessica Norell Neeson, to grow and develop Good Food, alongside the brands that comprise Immediate’s Food and Wellness Group: Good Food, its sister brand olive, and nutrition tracker app Nutracheck. In other moves at Good Food, Keith Kendrick has been appointed Editor of Good Food magazine and will take up his new role this month and Janine Ratcliffe takes on the role of Editor of olive magazine from September.
Digital media, marketing and technology company Brave Bison has promoted Matt Garbutt to Director of AI & Creative, a role designed to supercharge the company’s existing leadership in AI by expediting the development of AI-powered tools and innovations at scale. Garbutt’s appointment marks a significant step forward for Brave Bison as it continues to harness the power of AI to unlock greater performance and value for its clients. Proudly ahead of the pack, Brave Bison started its generative AI journey early—building proprietary tooling, integrating techniques into workflows and augmenting service propositions in line with client needs. Ultimately, building their own, internal suite of strategy and delivery focused GPTs for clients – such as Scribe, which creates SEO optimised product landing page copy at scale – several months before Chat GPT rose to popularity in November 2022. Garbutt, who spearheaded much of this innovation, joined Brave Bison in 2017 to lead creative for its performance business unit with a focus on UX/UI, design and technical development. In his new role, Garbutt will be responsible for building a comprehensive suite of AI and Creative tools aimed at maximising client performance. He will report to Hannah Kimuyu, Managing Director, Performance, and will play a pivotal role in defining and delivering Brave Bison’s AI roadmap across the entire company. In addition to these new responsibilities, Garbutt will continue to oversee performance creative, ensuring the seamless integration of AI advancements into creative strategies.
Alex Ward has joined digital experience agency 7DOTS as Senior Performance Marketing Manager. Ward will be reporting into Head of Paid Media Chris Davenport-Smith. He will be delivering and optimising paid media strategies across Google Display, Google Search and Microsoft Search for a number of clients including Mercer, Cosegic, Rite Hite, Marsh Bluestream & The Dyslexia Shop. Ward comes with 8 years’ experience in Digital Marketing, specialising in Paid Media, working both brand side for New Era and Fresh Fitness Food and agency side including Wilderness Agency, WePlay and Bright Partnerships working with Sport and Entertainment clients including NBA, NFL, ESPN, Manchester United, MotoGP, Discovery, HBO and NBCUniversal. 7DOTS’ clients include Coca-Cola, Aston Martin, ITV, and Bupa.
Lyca Mobile, the world’s largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is pleased to announce the appointment of Frank Wiemann as the Group’s Chief Marketing Officer. In this role, Frank will spearhead strategic marketing initiatives aimed at accelerating growth and enhancing brand recognition across Lyca Mobile’s global footprint. Wiemann joins Lyca Mobile from Vodafone, where he served as the Senior Vice President of Customer Marketing among other appointments. At Vodafone, he played a crucial role in driving organic growth and transforming the marketing ecosystem. His extensive background in marketing and sales strategies, business development, and product management positions him to lead Lyca Mobile’s marketing efforts to new heights. With over two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry, Wiemann brings a wealth of knowledge and international expertise. He has held various senior leadership roles in Germany, Spain, and the UK, managing diverse, multicultural teams. His experience spans both operational and strategic capacities, contributing to his holistic understanding of market dynamics and customer needs.
Aer Studios, a leading creative technology studio in the South West, is thrilled to announce the appointment of James Hobbs as Head of Technology. Hobbs, who brings a wealth of experience from his time at Dyson and Great State, joins at a time when Aer Studios also announces a new trio of practice leads, including Max Waring (Front End), Jon Chard (Back End), and Aaron Bushell (DevOps). Notable career achievements for Hobbs include a six-year period at Dyson, where he successfully led the global digital technical team from its inception to over twenty members. At Great State, Hobbs was instrumental in driving the company’s technology strategy, leading an engineering team delivering multi-award-winning work.
