Initiative Melbourne promotes group digital director David Lee to the role of digital lead

David Lee has been appointed head of digital communications at Initiative Melbourne. He is an executive with 12 years’ media experience and is formerly a co-founder and managing director of Australia’s first influencer network Nuffnang.

Lee has been group director digital at Initiative Melbourne for the past three years and has also served an interim role as managing director of IPG Mediabrands’ socially led marketing agency Society in Melbourne.

Says Shaun Briggs, managing director, Initiative Melbourne: “We are promoting David into our lead digital role simply because of his performance and impact on our clients’ accelerating digital portfolios. Our clients’ digital investments have grown rapidly in the past three years and David has been pivotal in the strategy and execution of those budgets.”

Lee co-founded Nuffnang in 2008 and worked in the business for more than five years. It was launched with modest seed funding and secured one million dollars in sales in the first 18 months from tier one advertisers. Nuffnang later became Australia’s largest influencer network with 6,700 blogs reaching 12 million monthly views.

Since joining Initiative Lee has created solutions for clients such as digital footfall attribution, incremental TV reach through online video, combating decline in newspaper sales with digital solutions, brand safety and quality in digital. He has developed many integrated cross-channel campaigns for clients across social media, display, programmatic, mobile, search, affiliates, CRM and content marketing. He already a member of Initiative Melbourne’s management team.

Melissa Fein, CEO, Initiative Australia, said Lee has led by example in the development of digital communications: “David is a stand-out talent and his rise to our lead digital role in Melbourne also means he will have considerable impact on our national capabilities.”

Lee’s appointment is effective immediately.