Proximity hires raft of new planners

By Sara Kimberley, campaignlive.co.uk, Monday, 28 March 2011 11:33AM

Proximity London has made a raft of new hires to strengthen its strategic capabilities after a series of new business wins, including Lloyds TSB.

Proximity: new hires Andy Morris, Thomas Bunnel, Melani Parsons

The direct and digital agency has hire four planners – Phil Lewis, Vaughn Hartman, Melani Parsons and Thomas Bunnell.

In addition, the agency has appointed Andy Morris as technical director. He joins from DLKW Lowe where he held the same position. Morris will report to executive creative director Caitlin Ryan.

New planner Lewis joins from Rapier where he was lead planner on Yell. Lewis will work as a planning director at Proximity on Royal Mail and Johnson & Johnson.

Hartman joins from Rapp Edinburgh as planning director, to work on the BBC TV Licensing business. At Rapp he worked on Standard Life and Co-operative Group retail.

Proximity has hired Parsons as a planning director to work on the agency’s Lloyds TSB account, which it won last year.

Parsons has worked across major brands such as IBM, BT, O2, Unilever and Nestlé at agencies including McCann Relationship Marketing, TMW, Wunderman, AIS and JWT.

Bunnell joins as a planner from Amp London where he worked across accounts including HTC Mobile, The Telegraph and RSPCA. At Proximity, he will work across the P&G and Kraft brands.

The four planning hires will report to Mark Iremonger, head of digital and planning.

Iremonger said: "We've incredibly strong consumer and B2B expertise in the planning line-up for 2011, and I’m looking forward to these folk enriching the work and our culture here."

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk