LONDON: Edelman has hired Thomas Crampton, global principal at Ogilvy Consulting in London, as global chair of its digital practice, effective in January.
Crampton, who most recently led the marketing transformation practice at Ogilvy, will be based in London and report to Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the eponymous marketing communications shop. He will succeed former digital chief Kevin King, who left Edelman this summer after nearly 15 years.
Previously, Crampton served as the global MD of Social@Ogilvy, where he led a team of 1,500 social media experts across 60-plus territories. Before that, he launched Social@Ogilvy in Asia-Pacific, growing the offering from two people in Hong Kong to more than 400 across 23 cities.
"[Crampton] has strong experience in running a global digital team; he has a background as a journalist and a storyteller; and most importantly, he believes that digital should be integrated into the main house rather than a standalone entity," Edelman said. He added that Crampton, who he’s known for about 20 years, is a global citizen, having lived in Asia for years, now living in Europe, and being from America.
"We’re having a time of extremely rapid change in terms of technology and customer habits, and many organizations were frankly created in the era of the fax machine," said Crampton. "These organizations need help adapting, so it’s about helping them understand where they stand right now and coming up with the right strategies."
Edelman’s digital practice has more than 700 staffers globally and manages $200-million-plus in paid media. Paid media clients include Olive Garden, Sunkist, Go Hawaii, and Dairy Management Incorporated.
Digital, however, touches more than just paid. It’s integrated across creative, consulting, brand safety, and other areas. Edelman said the agency is in a unique position to focus on brand safety, having handled crisis comms for the likes of United Airlines and Starbucks.
Edelman’s digital practice has attracted high-level professionals with non-PR backgrounds recently, such as former national head of search and social at GroupM Chris Humber, former Digitas VP Rhian Ryan, and former iProspect VP Erica Barth.
This story first appeared on campaignlive.com.
