GLOBAL – UNITED STATES, MARCH 11, 2013 – Wunderman has restructured its business, tailoring to a new generation of marketers and their need for real-time consumer conversations.
According to chairman and CEO Daniel Morel, Wunderman’s 20+ specialized agencies in social, mobile and data now fall into four divisions each with global reach: brand experience, consumer engagement, data and insights, and world health. The restructuring aims to make it easier and more efficient for clients to access the needed expertise.
"Our mission is simple. Ensure our clients know what their competition doesn’t, and act upon it quickly. Today, that means tapping into real-time consumer conversations and transactions and connecting them with every bit of data we have accumulated,” Morel said. “Lester Wunderman, our agency founder and chairman emeritus, was prescient in his advocacy for data-driven insights to be at the heart of our business. Today, very few companies can derive as much insight to craft locally relevant communication that can be leveraged globally. Now, we can more easily put the power of our collective agency expertise in branding, engagement, health care and data behind our clients’ biggest marketing challenges."
The Wunderman Brand Experience division provides e-tail environments, online content and mobile innovations, and search and real-time optimization that improve brand image and enhance consumer consideration. It comprises agencies owned or acquired over the past 10 years and many similar practices we built around the world.
Sam Landers, who heads Designkitchen, has been promoted to president of the Wunderman Brand Experience division and joins the Wunderman Executive Board. Martin Conneen, the global client lead for Nokia, has been promoted to division COO.
The engine of consumer retention is the Wunderman Consumer Engagement division, which involves all things CRM at the global, regional and local levels. This includes "always on" social, mobile, loyalty, and both traditional and eCRM. Morel oversees the operations, as the search for president continues.
Headed by Gary Laben as president, the Wunderman Data & Insights division supports the entire organization. At its core are three elements: raw data; the integration and management of that data; and, insights derived through sophisticated data processing, analytics and interpretation. Laben is currently the CEO of KBM Group.
Wunderman World Health, under the leadership of Becky Chidester, is a specialist in driving customer engagement in pharma, consumer health and health services.
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The restructuring also includes significant changes in creative, regional operations, marketing and innovation and new business globally. Kass Sells has been promoted to president of Wunderman North America, while retaining his leadership role at Microsoft. Blast Radius founder Gurval Caer takes on the new role of vice chairman, chief marketing officer and Executive Board member. Stewart Pearson has accepted the responsibility of growing Wunderman’s new business roster as chief client officer. The role of global creative officer is yet to be filled.
Summing up the changes, Morel said, "Today clients expect more than a piece of communication. And for this next generation of ‘real-time’ marketers, that means anticipating their needs with even greater speed and accuracy. Organizing this way creates a sleeker, smarter and solidified Wunderman client service model that delivers on that promise."
