MediaCom has appointed Marcus Le Clair as group director of digital to drive the business through a digital transformation process.
In a separate move, Alex Kirk has been promoted to head of systems and automation to help streamline processes across the agency.
Le Clair has a diverse background across agencies and in-house in Australia and globally. He is an expert in digital communications and systems integration.
Most recently Le Clair was senior manager of Ernst & Young's performance improvement business unit, advising clients on all areas of digtial transformation, including digital strategy, innovation, CX, marketing and digital risk and governance.
He has also previously worked at Suncorp, AKQA, Starcom, OMD and Publicis.
"We believe that the learning he brings from managing the likes of Coke and McDonald's in multiple markets around the world will take our capability in the category to the next level," says Willie Pang, MediaCom’s chief digital officer.
"Most importantly, Marcus represents the new breed of business leader in the media industry. A digitally savvy management consultant, who is a strategist and technologist all at once. Everyone is searching for a unicorn but we think we've actually found one."
Le Clair adds: “The future of digital media is changing and companies are looking for organisations that can help them transition into a truly digital world, from customer engagement to operational effectiveness.
"In all my experience, MediaCom is one of the few companies I have worked with that are truly capable of aligning that strategic vision to a deep-laid plan that is future proofing the organisation."
A 'fire hose' of data
Kirk's role is to better organise and automate (where possible) vast volumes of information across MediaCom. After a decade of “exponential growth”, the way data has been stored across the enterprise has become increasingly complex and convoluted.
“The aim is to spend less time preparing the data reports and more time analysing and thinking about it," Kirk tells AdNews.
“The technology has outpaced the human ability to process what we generate. When you think about the days of client just having a PR, creative and media agencies, today you've got all-stop digital, a search agency, a programmatic agency and so on.
“Just the sheer volume of metrics means client agency teams are staring at a fire hose of data coming at them; the systems that were in place 10 years ago just aren't fit for purpose.”
The amount of time it takes to prepare competitive reporting is just one of the areas Kirk has identified that can be streamlined significantly.
“About 80% of data presentation is data preparation, which means 80% if the time preparing a report is spent wading through sheets of numbers. That's not what we pay our staff to do," he explains.
Kirk says he has run similar programs with clients, resulting in data preparation time reductions of anywhere between 30% to 80%.
“Fundamentally, if I get my job right, everybody goes home on time,” he adds, a pledge that is sure to be welcome news to colleagues and clients alike.
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