Saatchi & Saatchi boosts planning department with key new hires
04 AUG 2011
Saatchi & Saatchi has bolstered its planning department with a promotion and two new hires, including the appointment of its first UK communications planning specialist, Gavin Jones.
Jones, who joins the agency as communications strategy director reporting to Director of Strategy Richard Huntington, was previously the communications planning director at Engine Strategy.
He joins Saatchi & Saatchi with a brief to offer comms planning expertise to existing and prospective UK clients. He will work alongside Andrzej Moyseowicz, the director of media and innovations for Saatchi & Saatchi EMEA, on further developing the agency’s comms planning offering for its UK clients.
At Engine, and before that Edwards Groom Saunders, Gavin developed integrated communications strategies for clients including Nando’s, Rightmove, Gala Bingo and Coral Bookmakers. Before that, he was an account director for communications planning at Mindshare UK.
Saatchi & Saatchi has also appointed Neal Fairfield as international planning director on Lurpak. Neal joins from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney where he worked as planning director on the Cadbury, Toyota, Sony, and Emirates accounts. Before that, he worked at DLKW in London, Ogilvy in London, and Fuel North America in New York.
Meanwhile, Faraaz Marghoob, a planning director at Saatchi & Saatchi London, has been promoted to the new role of director of digital strategy. The move reflects the growing importance of digital planning to both existing and prospective clients at Saatchi & Saatchi, and further builds the breadth of the agency’s planning offering.
Faraaz has market-leading expertise in digital planning, having founded and managed the award-winning MEME digital agency (part of the Engine group) between 2004 and 2008, before leaving to join Saatchi & Saatchi.
Huntington said: “These two appointments and Faraaz’s promotion are part of our ongoing commitment to delivering bigger and better brand strategies and more powerful and participatory creative ideas. Plus they are all thoroughly lovely people”.
