LBi London

Alan Davies joins LBi’s group exec as Chief Strategy Officer

Posted by Laura JB May 25th, 2009

Alan Davies, Group Strategy Director at LBi International AB (LBi), is to now join the Executive management team as Chief Strategy Officer.

He will be responsible for the execution of LBi’s global strategy and service offering.  Alongside the CEO, Alan will ensure that LBi’s growth in services, geographic coverage and organizational design is structured to deliver maximum value to clients.  A key part of this strategy will be the development and delivery of proprietary tools and IP that help drive accountable ROI and intelligent decision making across all channels.  The commercial expansion of LBi’s data platform into all key client engagements will provide an increasingly differentiated service that will help to cement LBi’s long-term strategic partnership with its clients. 

“I am very excited to be taking on this challenge.  We are now entering the next era of digital where the relationships that companies and brands have with their customers is fundamentally changing.  The agencies that support that change must themselves adapt.  With the strength of talent and service and the tools that we have developed at LBi, we are in a unique position to offer our clients the support necessary to com-pete in this new environment. I have had the pleasure of working alongside the cur-rent management for many years and now, as part of the leadership team, I look for-ward to helping drive the business forward“ says Alan.

Alan has been at the forefront of the Digital Industry for over 10 years as a consultant, a manager and a salesman. He has worked for LBi for over 8 years with most of their significant clients.  His background in corporate strategy has additionally given him the strong commercial and operational skills required to ensure LBi’s continued strategic success. 

Luke Taylor, CEO, comments, “It is important that our services strategy is informed by a deep understanding of clients and their needs.  Alan has been at the forefront of our most important strategic client relationships for many years and with his consulting insight is uniquely positioned to drive forward our services to support large, international brands.

Having worked alongside all of our international offices and enjoying their deep respect, Alan is ideally placed to both mentor and embed a greater degree of sophistication around the use of IP and data in the transformation of our strategic services.  Specifically, our data platform has the ability to transform the nature of our engagement with clients and Alan will be key in driving this forward throughout the organization.”

Tags: global, hires, LBi Group, Staff, strategy

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Fans star in ‘What’s Your O-Face?’ campaign

Posted by Laura JB May 12th, 2009

LBi Special Ops Media have launched the ‘What’s Your O-Face?’ digital campaign for Three Olives Vodka, a Proximo Spirits brand, to remind people that Three-O is a seriously premium and seriously fun Vodka. 

Through a mix of compelling design, technology and social media components, fans are being asked to upload their own ‘O-Face’; a look of happy excitement after drinking one of the Three-O vodka drinks, onto the site.

 Entrants are encouraged to spread the word and rally voting outside the site using special widgets that plug into Facebook and social networking sites. The campaign will be peer judged on May 31,. Five finalists will then be flown to New York and asked to take part in a photo shoot to become the face of the brand, with the winner staring in a national ad campaign and taking home the tidy sum of $10,000.

 http://www.threeolives.com/o-face/

 LBi Special Ops Media have been in charge of developing the online brand through website development, online creative, media planning, online press and digital strategy.  The campaign is supported with print media, out of home media, publicity and a targeted online media campaign that includes high impact custom placements and flash display ads on sites like PerezHilton.com, and Maxim.com.

 Gino Luci, Brand Manager for Three Olives is keen to spread the brand message, “Three Olives is the most exciting vodka brand in the market, carving out a niche from our stuffy and pretentious competitors with a single-minded message of being seriously fun.  We are dedicated to bringing the fun back to vodka and want our fans to be a part of it. We’re shaking up the category through innovation in every aspect of the brand – advertising, promotions and exciting new flavors – and the results are showing.”

 Jason Klein, co-CEO LBi Special Ops Media, “The O-Face promotion proved to be the perfect fit to reap the benefits of Facebook Connect and help it stand out from the oversaturation of brand-centric UGC efforts.  We were fortunate to have a client who allowed us to take them on this journey to become the first spirits brand to employ this platform.  For a brand like Three Olives that thrives in the real world with word of mouth enthusiasm, harnessing the social evangelical power of Facebook and making it the cornerstone of a 360 degree marketing campaign, seemed a natural fit.  And, so far, the results are proving us right.”

Tags: campaign, drinks, ePr, FMCG, LBi Group, New York, Special Ops

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LBi’s SYRUP wins ‘International people’s voice award’ at the WEBBY’s

Posted by Laura JB May 11th, 2009

Syrup’s Hello FRA campaign is this years People’s Voice Award Winner in Interactive Advertising at the 13th Annual Webby Awards.

 Hailed as the “Internets highest honour” by the New York Times, 500,000 people voted for their favourite websites, videos and ads. Syrup Stockholm will pick up their award in New York on 8th June, fans will be able to watch the ceremony, including Syrup’s ‘5 word only’ speech via YouTube.

 Hello FRA is the campaign that introduced digital disobedience to the net. In spring 2008, the Swedish government proposed a new law that makes mass-surveillance of e-mail-traffic, sms, phones, etc. possible of Swedes without suspicions of illegal activity. With the campaign Hello FRA, the little independent newspaper Fria Tidningen, gave people the opportunity to sabotage the new law and join the fight.

 Syrup created a simple standard text that people can put in their e-mails that makes FRA’s computerized search programs react. This will make the FRA’s digital e-mail filters busy analyzing ordinary e-mails, and will make their million-dollar investment worthless. With a simple mail signature people can spread the word through their daily mail communication. The text can be changed randomly with different “dangerous” trigger words.  Without any media investment, the campaign spread instantly,, e-mail to e-mail and blog to blog.

 Fredrik Lundgren, Creative Director at Syrup, “The beauty of the campaign is that it shows that people wish to be part of the message. A very simple way to use the social functions on the net and give people a tool to express their view”.

 Jonas Sandström, marketing director at Fria Tidningen, “The first time I got an email with a Hello FRA-signature in my mailbox from an outside contact; I realized the extent of the campaign.”

 The 13th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states.

Tags: Amsterdam, award-winning, campaign, ePr, event, LBi Group, Syrup, Vodafone

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LBi opens Cannes

Posted by Laura JB March 27th, 2009

LBi’s Chief Creative Chris Clarke will kick off the Cannes Lions International Festival Seminar programme this year. ‘The Death of the Creative Director’ is scheduled for 10am on Sunday 21st June in the Debussy Theatre in Cannes. He will be speaking about how social marketing changes the creative skill set, and kills old notions of the role of Creative Director.

Clarke feels that marketing has changed forever.

It has moved from locally focused broadcast to global conversations, bringing with a need for more complex multilayered forms of marketing. When shouting is replaced with listening, the old egos don’t seem to make sense anymore. The consumer has taken control and now agencies must reach those consumers through their networks with clever tools, content and services which make a difference and improve people’s lives. Doing this effectively calls for collaboration, open-mindedness and a feel for technology. The traditional Creative Director is ill at ease in this new environment and we see many of them retreating into a deeply conservative mindset and a position of denial.

In his speech, Chris will explore some of these issues hoping to goad the industry into a more meaningful response to the new realities of marketing than we currently see in the advertising industry.

LBi is also proud to announce that Jonas Linell from LBi Denmark is on the Cyber Lions jury and that Laura Jordan-Bambach from LBi UK will be speaking at 10am on Thursday 25th at the Creative Social event.

Tags: Cannes, Chris Clarke, Creative Director, event, LBi Group, Lorenzo Wood, UK

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