Media agency MediaCom North Group has named Paul Cooper as its new chief operating officer, as part of a raft of senior promotions across the group.
After joining MediaCom North as regional head of digital in 2011, Paul launched i-LAB, MediaCom’s digital performance specialist division, and oversaw the merger of the business’ digital, direct and TV operations into a fully integrated communications agency – more than doubling it in size.
He played a leading role in the acquisition and integration of digital agency Code ComputerLove in 2016 and creative agency Cheetham Bell JWT in 2018.
Going forward, Paul will be responsible for leading the group – which consists of media, digital and creative businesses MediaCom North, Code and Cheetham Bell. Key to this will be evolving the group into a business that works with clients seamlessly across all areas of their marketing ecosystem, helping to deliver business transformation and growth.
Evidence of the growing importance of MediaCom’s regional operations to the UK business, Paul also joins the executive committee for MediaCom UK, which has recently been ranked number one media agency in the UK by Campaign.
Further promotions include Nicola Marsh, who becomes managing director of MediaCom Manchester.
She now takes full responsibility for the Manchester office’s operation while retaining overall accountability for the group’s digital media proposition, centralised in the Manchester office. Having previously led i-LAB, Nicola has been deputy managing director of the Manchester office for the last 18 months.
Matt Hatton becomes group managing director, commercial & trading, having been responsible for all commercials, contractual and trading across MediaCom North’s media businesses for the last two years. Matt brings a wealth of experience to the role, ranging from TV investment to agency management, and will also join the boards of Code and Cheetham Bell – giving him a commercial view of the group as a single entity.
And Ffion Turner has become the managing partner for MediaCom North’s Business Intelligence division. Previously Business Intelligence Board Director, Ffion has been at the business since 2004. She will also join the MediaCom North board.
In other group moves, Danielle Bateman has been named deputy managing director at MediaCom North’s Leeds office. Danielle joined the business as an account director in 2011 and has since held a number of roles within the business, most recently as managing partner. In her new role, Danielle will be supporting managing director Simon Price with the day-to-day running of the business and will be playing a larger role in the direction of the Leeds operation.
In response to the changes, Paul commented: “I’m excited to take on the role of COO at a time when MediaCom North continues to see significant growth. In the past three years, we’ve grown from an agency of just over 250staff, to over 400 today. As a result, 2018 was the most successful revenue year in MediaCom North’s history.
“Investing in our senior team will help us shape the business for continued growth in a rapidly changing environment. We will also continue to focus on making MediaCom North a great place to work, in line with our philosophy ‘people first, better results’. Through this, we can continue to achieve fantastic outcomes for our clients.”
