FCB Inferno Wins Major Clients & Welcomes Five Senior Hires

Following the agency’s continued investment in its interactive offering and their content creation team, FCB Inferno has been awarded 3 major international clients. 

FCB Inferno has been named lead social agency for flip-flop brand Havaianas EMEA, tasked to deliver social content across all major platforms as well as create editorial for the Havaianas Europe blog.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments, one of the world’s largest asset management houses with £341bn of assets under management, has appointed FCB Inferno to be lead agency for digital and integrated marketing services across EMEA.

Sailor Jerry rum, belonging to the William Grant & Sons family and cousin to the agency’s existing Grant’s Whisky client, has briefed FCB Inferno to deliver on-going strategy for the brand’s entire global digital presence.

Since the start of the year, FCB Inferno has been expanding its interactive offering with 5 senior hires, completed last month. Reporting into CEO Frazer Gibney, Paul Blundell has been appointed as Director of Interactive & Innovation. He heads up a permanent team of 30 interactive specialists covering Technology, UX, Design, Delivery, QA, Social & SEO/PPC. They sit as a "mesh" across agency functions rather than a separate distinct offering/ team - they work hand in hand with Planning, Strategy and Creative in a collaborative and integrated approach. Paul joins from BMB where he was Head of Interactive. 

Other senior hires include:

- Adrien Friend, previously Technical Director at Isobar, has been appointed Head of Technology;

- Gilles Bestley, joins from AMV BBDO where he was a senior designer specialising in Motion and Digital Design, he now acts as Head of Interactive Design;

- Lee Whitelock, who has 17 years’ experience in Design and UX, has been appointed Head of User Experience; 

- Jonathan Acton, FCB Inferno’s Head of Interactive Delivery, brings with him 20 years of experience from agencies including Digitas LBi, WCRS and Profero. 

Paul Blundell, Director of Interactive & Innovation, says “Our recent run of success proves we have the right culture and skills required of an agency to be successful in today’s ever changing landscape. We have ‘interactive’ sitting as a mesh across all agency functions, which might mean UX and Technology specialists helping shape thinking with the Strategy team, or with Creatives and Developers working together to deliver rapid prototypes to help convey our ideas to clients. It’s this level of collaboration that helps us unlock our clients’ business problems”. 

Tim Palmer, Digital Creative Director, who has been with FCB Inferno for 6 years, says “We are an integrated agency with digital at the heart of what we do. Interactive and innovation is not a last thought, but instead included at the briefing stage and ideation, and it is something that each and every employee at FCB Inferno understands and delivers upon.