M&C Saatchi direct marketing outfit Lida coming to Australia
M&C Saatchi has revealed it is opening a division of its direct marketing outfit Lida in Australia and will fold its existing digital, data and direct business, Mark, into the new entity.
Chairman Jeremy Sinclair announced the news at the company’s annual general meeting in London yesterday, before the Australian division of the company had officially announced the news.
“LIDA, our Direct Marketing shop, which was awarded Agency of the Year in 2013, has continued its run of new business wins , including Land Rover (Dealers), Odeon Cinemas and the Alzheimer’s Charity. Following our policy of exporting the company’s successful brand Add News, Lida A is opening in Australia and Sweden,” he said in a statement.
M&C Saatchi said Mark would be folded into Lida Australia with all Mark staff employed in the new entity at the agency’s 99 Macquarie St office. Group managing partner Christine Gardner will run Lida Australia with Mark’s existing group head Kristy Schwind taking the role of General Manager.
Lida is well established in the UK where it runs campaigns for high profile clients including IKEA, pharmacy chain Boots and The National Trust.
Al Mackie from LIDA UK has relocated to Sydney as LIDA Australia Creative Director. A spokesman for M&C Saatchi said Mark creative director Chris Little had already moved on to other roles within the company some time ago.
M&C Saatchi Australia CEO Jaimes Leggett said the move would bring world-class customer engagement capabilities in the areas of CRM, Data and loyalty to the Australian market.
“Lida will add many dimensions to Mark’s offer by expanding its strategic and analytic resources, skills and tools,” he said.
Gardner was formerly group head of the company’s Optus business.
“Christine is the perfect person to fulfill the growth objectives for Australia and complement the global Lida network,” Leggett said.
“Apart from being a brilliant and inspirational leader, Christine’s customer engagement expertise, experience and sheer marketing acumen, is second to none.”
On the appointment of Mackie Leggett said: “Al brings incomparable smarts, skills and experience to the Australian market.”
In recent months a number of M&C Saatchi Australia’s clients have engaged LIDA’s services, the agency said.
Robert Burton-Bradley
LIDA are CRM guns, killing it in the UK – this is a big move – well played
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These guys are a seriously slick outfit. Will be interesting to see how they shake up the CRM market over here.
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LIDA are the best CRM outfit in the UK, this is a great move for M&C, brands will sit up & take notice of this
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Lida and Christine Gardner: winning combo!
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First three comments sound similar.
Personally, never heard of them. A quick google search turns up little news (outside of this announcement) or indeed much of a presence.
Mark was a digital powerhouse under Whittle. This looks and sounds pretty basic.
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Wow Anonymous, you need to get out more. The industry has changed. Our competitive set is far broader than these shores. Do a proper search on Google and you’ll see that LIDA are heavy weights. Actually they are Campaign UK’s reigning CRM Agency of the Year.
You are right about one thing though, Mark is a powerhouse and by the sounds of this article will continue to be under the LIDA umbrella.
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‘Personally Ive never heard of them’ carps Anonymous-no doubt with one hand on hip.
Another self important f@#%wit with an inflated view of themselves.
‘Ooooh big knob me has never heard of them so they must be crap’
The arrogance is sick making.
And of course he’s anonymous -they always are.
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Let’s just wait and see, shall we?
Business logos/names don’t do the work – people do.
It wouldn’t be the first time people have got caught up in the hype of a business name/logo, only for it to be unable to reproduce the work it does elsewhere. That’s because the work is a product of the individuals doing it, and not anything else.
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Tim, I don’t often comment but your overreaction is quite something. Firstly, putting ‘Tim’ doesn’t make you braver than anyone else on here. You’re obviously a festering little candy-hole of the highest order. Get your panties all bunched up about the business credentials of some UK CRM company why don’t you mate. I hope you (comment edited by Mumbrella on grounds of offensive language)
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