Accenture Interactive Operations has hired two industry veterans to lead new roles, with Caspar Schlickum in the role of regional managing director for APAC and Peter Kolster Hansen as managing director and worldwide lead for next-generation content services, based in New York.
Accenture Interactive is the marketing-focused arm of the consultancy that aims to help brands make sense of the ‘experience activation’ trend using its ‘human + machine’ model for data-driven marketing.
The hires are indicative of a serious push into APAC for Accenture Interactive, says Accenture Interactive Operations (AIO) chief Nikki Mendonça in an interview with The Drum.
“A lot of the conversations are starting with the plumbing and the technology that is needed behind the foundational infrastructure to build more effective marketing operational models so he will be working hand-in-hand with Accenture Interactive to help clients get the plumbing across the region absolutely correct and to create a more effective and bespoke operating model out of APAC to some of our global clients,” she said.
Schlickum joins from Wunderman, where he was chief of its APAC operations. Prior to Wunderman he launched and ran Xaxis in Europe.
Hansen joins Accenture from Adobe, where he most recently served as the global head of creative agency partnerships for its Creative Cloud business. His role will be to lead the businesses data-driven approach to dynamic content creation and customization. He’ll, therefore, be looking at linking artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies to Accenture’s programmatic, digital marketing and e-commerce offerings.
“Peter’s appointment provides clients globally with an expert to help ensure the integrated deployment of multi-channel content creation. With analytics, automation and applied intelligence as the new competitive advantage, we can now activate a cost-effective hub-and-spoke marketing operating model for the world’s most notable brands,” said Mendonça.
Wunderman Thomson (as the company has become known since merging with JWT) succeeded Schlickum with Annette Male who joined from Digitas.