GroupM, parnt company of WPP's media agencies, is demonstrating its ommitment to the advertising industry's future stars through its extended participation in this year's Young Lions programme at the 2013 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

Each year, the prestigious Cannes Young Lions competitions, tailored academies, master classes and exhibitions help educate and nurture young talent from around the world.  The goal is for every young delegate to leave Cannes more inspired, more aware and more prepared for the professional challenges and opportunities that lie ahead

Judging:  executives chosen to select this year’s Young Lions regional finalists include MEC UK’s chief strategy officer, Stuart Sullivan-Martin; MediaCom USA’s Chris Pyne, chief product officer; MediaCom Australia’s James Ledger, chief client officer, and Will Worsdell, head of strategy.

Competition: four teams of young delegates aged 28 or under from Maxus, MEC and Mindshare will represent their agencies and countries in the final competition in Cannes this month.  Teams are given 24 hours to work on their media strategies for a charity whose identity and objectives are revealed during the Festival, and then each team has five minutes to present to a four-person panel.  This year’s “final four” are:  

• Maxus UK – Georgia Lindsay and Yewande Sokan
• Maxus Spain – Elena Castán and Azahara Vera
• MEC Germany – Maria Polnjakov and Viktoria Lipps
• Mindshare Argentina – Cynthia Soledad Recchi and Victoria Iviglia

Young Media Academy: MediaCom USA’s CEO, Sasha Savic, will head to the Young Lions Zone on Wednesday, June 19, to share his thoughts on the importance of creativity and storytelling, and to provide his personal take on the future of the media industry.

GroupM’s participation comes on the heels of its 2012 performance, which featured five final teams from across the agencies and a Silver Lion for MEC UK, the first-ever medal for a GroupM UK team in the competition.

Dominic Proctor, President of GroupM Global, said, “Young Lions showcases the best up and coming talent in the world, so it’s a huge accolade to have so many representatives from our agencies competing. I wish all of our finalists the best of luck!”

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the biggest global gathering for professionals in creative communications industries, celebrates its 60^th anniversary this year.

Maxus UK have been shortlisted in 2 categories at this years Cannes Media Lions.

Our work for Mercedes-Benz #youdrive campaign has been shortlisted in the automotive category and 'best use of screens'.

Congratulations to the Mercedes team for all their work onthis campagin.

Maxus has appointed Jenny Smith as Planning Director to join the growing London team.

Smith joins Maxus from PHD, where she was the Global Strategy Director on Unilever, and a board member. Prior to this, she was Planning Director at PHD UK and during her time there, worked across clients as diverse as Cadbury, ING and Warner.

In her role at Maxus UK, Smith will be responsible for delivering brilliant work across the agency’s clients.

Lindsay Pattison, CEO Maxus UK, said: "Jenny is an outstanding addition to our team. Her reputation precedes her – she’s been involved in award-winning campaigns and the development of some of the biggest media strategies in recent years, including the Cadbury Olympic Sponsorship and the Wispa relaunch. We’re really investing in our creative development this year, and Jenny will be instrumental in its growth and success."

Maxus UK has also welcomed back Stephanie Marks from maternity leave to a new position as Head of Client Service. Marks joined Maxus UK in 2010 as a Client Services Director. The new role has been created in order to support Maxus UK’s rapid growth on the back of numerous new business wins.

Lindsay Pattison at Maxus said: "At Maxus we have a strong commitment to outstanding client service. Steph always delivers 10 out of 10 on this, which is integral to our vision. As we continue to grow we want to ensure that excellence in account management remains a key differentiator for us. Steph’s role will be pivotal in this."

Both Smith and Marks will report directly into Maxus’s Managing Director, Nick Baughan.　

Maxus' CEO Lindsay Pattison has been shortlisted in the First Women Awards.

Now in their eighth year, the First Women Awards were created by Real Business and the CBI to recognise the trailblazing women – from finance and media to engineering and public service – whose achievements are inspiring future generations.

Lindsay has been shortlisted in the media category, the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 12th June at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, and is hosted by the broadcaster and sports presenter, Clare Balding.

Congratulations to our very own Yewande Sokan and Georgia Lindsay - the winners of the Guardian's UK Young Lions Competition!

Georgia & Yewande will now compete in the prestigious Young Lions competition in Cannes in June.

We're very proud to announce that our very own Georgia Lindsay & Yewande Sokan have made it through to the final 10 of the Guardian's Young Cannes Lions competition.

A national competition giving the UK's up-and-coming creative and media professionals the opportunity to compete in the prestigious Young Lions competition in Cannes in June.

Well done to both of them.

Maxus employees today took part in Marie Curie Cancer Care's Great Daffofdil Campaign, raising over £1,000 for the charity.

Richard Stokes has been named Global New Business & Marketing Director for Maxus.

The announcement was made by Maxus Global CEO Vikram Sakhuja, who said Stokes will begin his new role in early March. He will be based in London and will report to Lindsay Pattison, the agency’s Global Chief Strategy Officer and CEO of Maxus UK.

“We’re delighted that Richard is joining our team,” Sakhuja said.  “He has all the skills required to help Maxus grow and build on the success we have seen over the last three years.”

Stokes arrives at Maxus with more than 16 years of industry experience, primarily at media agencies but also at media company IPC Magazines, where he started his career as a sales executive in 1996.  He also worked as a strategist for Yahoo! in the UK.

Most recently, Stokes served as head of New Business & Marketing for ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, a post he held since 2011 after joining the agency in 2006 and working his way up in roles of increasing responsibility, based in the UK and Poland.  He also worked as a planning director at Initiative Media from 1998-2003.

In his new role, Stokes will be responsible for leading all aspects of the Maxus network’s new business and marketing program, driving continued business growth, and marketing Maxus across the 70 agencies in its global network.  His key duties will include heading global and multinational new business pitches and assisting in key local market pitches and overseeing all Maxus branding, marketing and messaging.

“I am hugely excited to be joining Maxus at such a pivotal point in the network's development,” Stokes said.  “The agency's philosophy of leaning into change is inspiring, and Lindsay and Vikram are very clear that the next phase of growth will be driven in part by a strong new business performance.  That will put great focus on my role, which I welcome enthusiastically.  The entire network has real momentum, and I look forward to continuing this growth curve.”

Lindsay Pattison, Chief Executive of Maxus, said: "The pitch process was a fantastic experience and allowed us to really understand the businesses in the [ABF] Group and we’re thoroughly looking forward to getting started."

Sarah Arrowsmith, chief executive of ABF UK Grocery, said: "We saw some excellent thinking from all the agencies we evaluated but concluded that Maxus offered the most consistent balance of overall strategic and creative insight; with exceptional capability in relation to digital media channels in particular.

"We were also impressed with how Maxus recognised the unique requirements of the individual businesses within our group and adapted their internal structures accordingly."

Maxus were awarded a 'Highly Commended' at last night's Campaign Media Awards.

Their work for Church & Dwight's MyWay Electric Toothbrush launch was recognised in the Fashion, Beauty and Healthcare category.

Well done to everyone that worked on this campaign.

BT has extended its contract with Maxus for media planning and buying until 2016. 

Read the full story on brand republic :

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1160619/bt-extends-relationship-wpps-maxus/

At Campaign’s Digital Spotlight event in Singapore, Maxus unveiled its global technology R&D division, Metalworks. The founders of Metalworks – Tom Kelshaw and Nico Abbruzzese -- demonstrated some recent Metalworks projects, including sensor-equipped cricket equipment and apps, Twitter-powered vending machines, facial recognition systems for retail environments and out-of-home media.

“So many innovation units or digital “labs” simply talk about ideas. And that’s where it stops. With Metalworks we wanted the focus to be on utility and delivery – actually taking ideas all the way through to implementation. The Metalworks global headquarters is here in Asia – where we can deliver innovation to our global network with more speed and efficiency than anywhere else in the world.” said Nico Abbruzzese, AP Head of Digital for Maxus and the inspiration and driving force behind Metalworks.
“Asia in particular is already well beyond the “cusp” of new technology possibilities – we’re right in the thick of it, and it’s time for brands to get involved.” said Tom Kelshaw. “We’re working with a global network of developer communities, scientists, inventors and startups to bring clients innovative and useful technology within marketing budgets and timeframes. ” Kelshaw, who has a background in digital production and development, was most recently Head of Digital for Maxus Australia. He relocated to Singapore this month to lead Metalworks full-time.

Demonstrated at the event were a range of Metalworks’ projects covering a spectrum of digital innovation. From SmartSearch, an iPad app that empowers marketers and non-specialist agencies to easily plan Search campaigns to a Twitter-powered vending machine that dispenses drinks in the office whilst tracking its users.

Also on display was Maxy, the Virtual Receptionist using Microsoft Kinect technology and facial recognition to automatically phone the desk of the most appropriate staff to come to greet you. This affordable and efficient new receptionist will be appearing in Maxus offices around the world and in retail point-of-sale.

Neil Stewart, Asia Pacific CEO of Maxus said “I am delighted that we have the Metalworks unit here in Asia to support our clients and local teams. We have access to people with great digital ideas born out of an intimate knowledge of what is possible at the cutting edge of technology. But more importantly a team that is focused on making those ideas real… From PowerPoint to making stuff happen!”
 

Maxus has promoted Lindsay Pattison, its UK Chief Executive, to the new post of Global Chief Strategy Officer.

Pattison, who starts her new role immediately, has been the Chief Executive of Maxus in the UK since 2009 and will retain these duties while taking on global responsibilities.

The move follows last week's announcement that Vikram Sakhuja, currently the Chief Executive of GroupM India and South Asia, will succeed Kelly Clark as the Global Maxus Chief Executive later this year.

Pattison will continue to be based in London and will now take responsibility for the agency's global planning, data and insights, digital, marketing and new-business functions. She will also play a leading role in the agency's global client relationships, many of which are based in the UK.

Pattison said: "Leading Maxus in the UK has been incredibly fulfilling. We have enjoyed transformational growth and built a great team. I'm excited to help shape the Maxus offering and to drive success for our clients while still leading the UK agency."

Vikram Sakhuja, currently CEO of GroupM India & South Asia has been appointed as the new Global Chief Executive of Maxus.

Kelly Clark, current Global CEO will take over from Rob Norman as CEO of GroupM North America and Rob Norman becomes GroupM's first ever Chief Digital Officer.

Dominic Proctor, President of GroupM Global said "Vikram is the perfect candidate to take on the Maxus role from Kelly.  Maxus has a great management team and a lot of momentum. I have no doubt that Vikram will continue to build a great agency.”

Sakhuja will remain in his current role until his successor is announced.

All three will report to Proctor.

Maxus are delighted to announce the appointment of Oliver Wood as Search & Biddable Director.

Maxus has seen significant growth in the PPC, Biddable and SEO arena for their clients, which include BT, Barclays and Mercedes-Benz.

He will oversee the now 30 strong search and biddable team alongside Mark Pain who continues in his role of Head of Search and Juan Vargas as Head of SEO.

Wood joins Maxus from GroupM where he has been Search Operations Director for the last 2 years and prior to that at i-level and Sony UK.

Tim Irwin COO said “We are delighted that Oliver has agreed to join us. Our search and biddable teams have more than doubled in size in the last 12 months. Oliver is a brilliant operator and will allow us to continue to push forward over the next 12 months.”