MindShare is constructing a specialist division to house its
business-to-business clients.
Tony Read, ex-managing director of Carat’s business-to-business arm, has
been chosen to run the department.
Read, whose clients at Carat included Dell, Philips and Samsung, is in
the process of working out which of the agency’s 20 or so clients will
be moved into the dedicated unit.
The business-to-business slice of the agency’s IBM account will
definitely come under Read’s responsibility although the agency insisted
that the account team will remain the same. It comprises Simon Frances,
head of strategic planning; Abid Ansari, business director of planning;
Mark Field, business director of press buying and Eve Samuel-Camps,
account director.
MindShare is also hoping that as well as servicing existing clients, the
division will attract new clients, both traditional businesses and
e-commerce ventures.
Read will also recruit a team to assist him although he stressed that it
was ’early days’ and had yet to decide how many staff are required.
’It’s up in the air, but I’m going round the managing partners to see
which clients would benefit from being in the division,’ he
explained.
After leaving Carat Business in April last year, Read joined the IT
media agency David Wood & Associates but quit after just five
months.
Read said the business-to-business division will work closely with the
agency’s other specialist units such as its internet arm MindShare
Digital.
He commented: ’Business-to-business makes up more than 10 per cent of
revenue -it’s bigger than both cinema and radio.
’Our aim to offer specialist business-to-business media services is a
logical extension of the way MindShare works, which is to secure an
advantage across all areas and achieve that through areas of
speciality.’
