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Tag: Pete Stein

  • After setting up ROAR, Publicis Groupe acquires Crown Partners

    After setting up ROAR, Publicis Groupe acquires Crown Partners

    MUMBAI: It was last week when Publicis Groupe, the French holding company had announced the launch of ROAR, an agency of hand-picked talent drawn from across the digital resources within the group.

     

    To scale up its digital side of the business, the group has acquired Crown Partners, a full service firm that drives commerce and content solutions, based in the United States.

     

    According to WSJ, the group is aiming at generating at least half of its revenue by 2018 from digital. Publicis reported that its digital revenue rose 14 per cent on an organic basis in 2013, with digital representing 38 per cent of the company’s revenue.

     

    Crown Partners will be aligned with Razorfish, to further accelerate the agency’s strong leadership and growth in commerce, marketing and content technology platform-related services.

     

    Founded in 2001 by CEO Richard Hearn and president Mark Kennedy, Crown Partners currently has 150 employees based at its headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and across US offices in New York, Dallas and Denver.

     

    The firm offers technology solutions to Global 2000, Fortune 500 and emerging enterprises, ensuring clients—which include Lands’ End, ASICS, Keurig-Green Mountain, GlaxoSmithKline, St. Jude, United Technologies and David Yurman—achieve their digital goals.

     

    The acquisition supports Razorfish’s commitment to identifying opportunities for business transformation that have commerce at their core. Crown Partner’s healthy business, combined with Razorfish’s approach to creating superior integrated customer experiences on behalf of their clients, will amplify the agency’s ability to provide exceptional services to its clients.

     

    The Crown Partners’ team will join Razorfish Technology Platform Services. Hearn will assume the position of executive lead and president of Razorfish Technology Platform Services, and will report to Razorfish North America CEO Shannon Denton.

     

    “We believe this is a time of great opportunity for businesses that are willing to embrace transformation. The businesses with the best and most consistent customer experience will come out on top, and the only way to win is to effectively leverage technology and data,” mentioned Razorfish global CEO Pete Stein in a statement.

     

    “The integration of Crown Partners within Razorfish reinforces the agency’s technology capabilities in the commerce and retail space and offers increased capitalization on growth opportunities, while ensuring continued talent development and delivery of the highest quality client work,” added Razorfish chairman Rishad Tobaccowala.

     

    Hearn continued, “For the past 13 years Crown Partners has empowered companies to use digital technologies to expedite growth, drive new business and minimize costs. Joining forces with Razorfish will give our shared clients access to unmatched innovation, depth of expertise and balance in platform enabled professional services.”

     

    Razorfish and Crown Partners will also be able to expand an already long list of successful platform implementations with mutual key partners hybris, a SAP company, and Adobe.

     

    hybris president and co-founder Carsten Thoma said, “Crown Partners has been a dynamic force in realising omni-channel commerce solutions leveraging the hybris and SAP platforms. Together with Razorfish, we have a valued partner in the market with the innovation, experience and ambition to change the face of commerce.”

     

     “It’s exciting to think about the potential that will result from an innovative partner like Crown Partners joining forces with a powerful Adobe global partner like Razorfish. This acquisition will further extend Razorfish’s current success with providing customers the value and benefit of Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions by growing their web experience and experience-driven commerce practice,” concluded Adobe vice president, global alliances Jim Sink.

  • Razorfish hires MediaCom’s Vik Kathuria as global chief media officer

    Razorfish hires MediaCom’s Vik Kathuria as global chief media officer

    MUMBAI: Razorfish, a digital and technology agency, has appointed Vik Kathuria as global chief media officer.

     

    Kathuria will report directly to Razorfish’s Global CEO Pete Stein.

     

    In his new role, Kathuria will be responsible for leading the agency’s 300 media employees worldwide, driving Razorfish’s exclusively digital media strategy—from its executive level partner relationships to its proprietary data solution infrastructure—and overseeing a global client roster that includes DHL, Starwood, HSN and Best Buy. He will also be involved in further strengthening and aligning Razorfish’s global media practice and commanding significant new business efforts.

     

     “As we continue to evolve our global media offering and educate clients on the need to employ a digital-centric approach, it is essential we have a leader poised to take us to the next level,” said Stein. “Vik’s experience lies in negotiating digital media strategies that maximize brand investment. He has what it takes to further progress our team, support our shift to programmatic buying and foster our culture of innovation and optimization.”

     

     “Razorfish’s media practice is excelling at a time when many agencies in its position are stagnant,” said Kathuria. “My entire career has been comprised of helping brands and agencies identify progressive integrated media strategies that accelerate ROI. As Global Chief Media Officer I am excited to support Razorfish as it further amplifies an already superior offering.”   

     

    A 20-year industry veteran, Kathuria most recently served as global head of digital investment for MediaCom, one of WPP’s leading media agencies under the GroupM umbrella. In this position, he was tasked with establishing network-wide best practices, leading relationships with global publishers and driving multi-market client negotiations. Prior to joining MediaCom in 2008, Kathuria was senior vice president of digital media for OMD and served in senior global marketing positions at Citigroup (New York) and PepsiCo (Singapore). He is the recipient of numerous awards including being named an “Agency Innovator” by Internationalist Magazine and one of Cynopsis’ “Most Intriguing People” in 2013.

     

    Kathuria will begin working out of the agency’s New York City headquarters immediately.

  • Razorfish appoints Anne Davis as senior VP head of multi-national clients

    Razorfish appoints Anne Davis as senior VP head of multi-national clients

    MUMBAI:  Publicis Group’s full-service digital agency, Razorfish, has appointed Anne Davis as the senior vice president head of multi-national clients.

    A member of the Razorfish team since 2009, Davis has over 20 years experience working in client and integrated communication agencies with the last 15 focused on digital. The role is based out of Hong Kong.

    Her new role is to build an operation and culture that is hospitable to multi-national client relationships. “Many client companies are establishing global operations in APAC. We are the only global agency network equipped to support this regional business focus. The creation of my new role supports the ongoing evolvement of Razorfish’s relationships with clients; partnering to navigate the unknown, drive change and enable business transformation.”

     

    She will be reporting directly into global CEO, Pete Stein, and  will work both with the global leadership team and with the organisation as a whole to facilitate multi-national client opportunities.

    Razorfish global CEO Pete Stein commented: “Anne has been working globally for more than 20 years. She’s managed regional and global accounts for brands as diverse as IBM, Cisco, P&G, Unilever, Diageo, Reckitt-Benckiser, Blackberry and Gucci. These experiences, combined with her continued presence in Asia Pacific, position her to deliver unparalleled opportunities for our multi-national clients.”

     

    Via organic growth and acquisition Razorfish operations have grown 25% in the last two years. Of the 3000 global Razorfish employees, 1000 employees are located in APAC regions.