Simone Blakers to lead social marketing agency SOCiETY at IPG Mediabrands in the role of MD

IPG Mediabrands has announced the appointment of Simone Blakers as managing director of the group’s social marketing agency SOCiETY. She will lead SOCiETY’s team of 40 social marketing experts, with offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

Blakers is a highly experienced business executive, having previously been managing director of data-driven creative agency RAPP DDB and before that she was managing director of Mark, M&C Saatchi’s digital agency.

She has extensive experience in building brands through social and other digital marketing in a 20-year career, working with a variety of clients including Westpac, McDonald’s, Gumtree, Google, Telstra, Optus, Woolworths, AMEX, Microsoft, News Limited, Volkswagen, Qantas and Nestle. She has been based in Australia and Europe.

Her achievements include managing American Express’ global best practice centre of excellence; launching the world’s first Microsoft Windows Smartphone across EMEA; leading Mark to become one of the world’s top 10 direct agencies and delivering globally awarded projects for Google including Build with Chrome.

Says Dan Johns, group commercial director, IPG Mediabrands: “We were attracted to Simone because she is a highly successful and experienced agency leader with strong strategic, creative and data-driven credentials. These experiences are exactly what we need to lead SOCiETY into the future.”

Says Blakers: “As a strategic marketer at heart, I’m excited to be joining SOCiETY at a time when social marketing is coming of age. The industry has evolved to move beyond organic engagement, providing huge opportunities to not only achieve great reach and performance but also effectively utilise rich data insights for creative storytelling.”

Blakers joins SOCiETY this week and reports directly to Johns.