9th December 2013: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has today announced that Head of SEO, Andrea Brown, is to become Managing Director of its content arm, LiquidThread. The promotion will see Brown shift the area’s focus to develop greater content marketing activities across SMG London.
In her new role, Brown will lead the creation and optimisation of digital content for brand discovery through search engines. She will manage the creation of social objects and dynamic creative assets for consumers to engage with on display and paid and non paid for social media.
Brown’s promotion recognises the importance of LiquidThread’s support of SMG in order for it to engage audiences with immersive human experiences. It also acknowledges SMG’s focus on storytelling through grouping all of their content marketing from SEO, social content creation/management, AFP, and media partnerships.
The new MD will report to SMG’s co-CEO Steve Parker, her promotion follows the appointment of Olivier Gers as Global President of LiquidThread in October. Andrea Brown’s team of over 50 people will be based in London and will service the UK business and the Global Network client base, including brands such as Samsung, McCormick, Tata Global Beverages and Yahoo!
In the UK this year LiquidThread developed the 2012 X Factor partnership for Samsung to become an Official Partner of The X Factor 2013, making it the largest product placement deal in the UK for two years running. The deal has grown year on year to incorporate not only Product Placement across a range of products, but exclusive digital content, PoS, Social Activation, Licensing and Prop Placement delivering a fully integrated partnership for Samsung.
Globally in 2012, LiquidThread produced more than 400 projects for 25 brands, resulting in 4,000+ minutes of original content and is on track to outpace this for 2013. LiquidThread won a gold Cannes Lion for its Wheat Thins/Colbert Report campaign in 2012 in the branded content category, followed by taking home a silver Cannes Lion for its Pedigree “Annie the Musical” campaign in 2013.
Steve Parker, co-CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, said: “We have asked Andrea Brown to lead LiquidThread London. Over the past three years Andrea has successfully built the London SEO and social content business into a market leading enterprise. Her leadership skills and technical expertise will be invaluable in delivering the integration of the SEO, and social content teams with the current LiquidThread team which will give SMG London a world-class future facing capability to bring content marketing proficiency and delivery to our domestic and global network client base.”