Mediabrands boosts social offering with key appointments

Eric Weaver has been named chief social officer, while Roland Fiege is head of social strategy.  The new positions have been created to strengthen the G14 team’s social services and consulting portfolio, a Mediabrands spokesperson told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

In 2011, as part of restructure, Mediabrands shifted from traditional regions to three clusters comprising G14, World Markets and North America. The G-14 cluster includes Australia, Benelux, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the UK and Ireland, Russia and Spain.

The new appointments reflect the demands of the market, as social becomes increasingly important to clients.

“Social has an impact on business both horizontally and vertically,” said Arun Kumar, president of MAP (Mediabrands Audience Platform) G14. “Our social expertise needs to mirror that, and we need to stop operating in silos around social advertising.”

Weaver’s role covers four major capabilities. He will be the social practice lead for the company, defining the social offering for G14 offices. He will also assist on new business development and driving cross-market collaboration and projects. In addition he will act as the Mediabrands global practice lead for social business and social advisory opportunities. Finally, he will manage, mentor and contribute to the output of G14 teams for the agency’s clients.

Weaver is regarded as one of the first proponents of social media. He was previously SVP, social strategy and intelligence for Mediabrands’ Seattle office and has more than 23 years of digital marketing experience.

Although he works across regions, he will be based in London, reporting to Kumar.

Roland Fiege who takes on the role of head of social strategy, will report to Weaver. Fiege will work out of Germany, his current base. He will be responsible for driving strategies for clients across G14. He will help develop frameworks for clients to effectively use social platforms for marketing.

A week ago, the agency launched its social capability in Australia into a new business named Society. It appointed Nicola Swankie as its managing director and Ian Laurie as head of social investment.