IPG Mediabrands launches social marketing business ‘Society’ + hires Nicola Swankie in MD role + Ian Laurie in head of social investment role

The IPG Mediabrands Australia group is moving its social capability and future development of social campaigns into a new business named ‘Society’ and has appointed Nicola Swankie (left) as its managing director.

The launch of Society, with a staff of 24, means that Reprise Media, which has handled the group’s search and social media, will focus exclusively on expanding its development in all aspects of search-related marketing. 

Says Henry Tajer, IPG Mediabrands Australia executive chairman: “Society will be a national, full-service social marketing business that will provide a full range of expert social services. I am delighted that Nicola Swankie is joining us to lead its expansion.

“Nicola has the perfect background and experience to deliver our ambition of creating a uniquely positioned, strategically-led social proposition, one that helps brands find their role within culture and create social content and conversations around that. Its repertoire will also include social media investment, community management, analytics and advocacy programmes. Society will operate seamlessly alongside our other 11 businesses and will be incorporated into our client portfolios.”

Swankie joins Society from Leo Burnett where she has led the agency’s social capability as social media planning director for the past three years. She has worked on social campaigns that have won awards in both Australia and overseas. Before Leo Burnett, she was content and social director at TCO and prior to that spent five years in creative agency roles with Host and McCann Worldgroup.

In addition to Swankie’s new role, Ian Laurie will be joining Society as head of social investment. He was previously leading social investment at Ikon. He has more than five years of social investment experience and has built a reputation as being best in market in this rapidly emerging skill set.

Says Tajer: “Both Nicola and Ian are top class professionals. We are forecasting Society to be one of the fastest expanding businesses in the IPG Mediabrands Australia group this year. Nicola and Ian will also guide the group around social media investment and its ROI for clients. It’s an exciting new phase for our businesses overall.”