FCB Inferno Ramps up Communications, Influencer Marketing and Innovation

FCB Inferno has today announced a number of promotions and key hires to develop and expand its Strategy Collective and further integrate its communication offerings, including publicity and social media, alongside partnerships, influencer marketing and the latest in innovation. 

CC Clark (right) is announced as EVP communications EMEA: PR, Partnerships, Social and Influencer. CC, who joined FCB Inferno in 2017 as EMEA director of communications and PR, began her career in entertainment, building award winning music campaigns before setting up the digital communications division of Think Jam in 2006, establishing them as a market leader in digital for the UK film industry by the end of her tenure in 2014. Her next stop was Channel 4 to head up corporate and consumer communications for all Comedy and Entertainment programming including the channel’s online branded short form content. 

At FCB Inferno, CC has led EMEA communications across the FCB network and has been instrumental in driving recent collaborations such as a three-year partnership between Michelob Ultra and Virgin Sport, a global partnership with Unibet to launch a card game for International Women’s Day and bringing deaf charities across Europe onboard for StorySign. In her new role, CC will drive tactical communications and social whilst retaining responsibility for corporate communications across EMEA. CC continues to report into FCB Inferno CEO and EMEA chief growth officer, Frazer Gibney and global chief communications officer, Brandon Cooke. 

Reporting in to CC to assist with the growth of communications and spearhead the agency’s influencer marketing strategy is Sami Westwood (left), who is FCB Inferno’s new associate director of communications and influencer marketing. 

Sami joins from leading entertainment agency Think Jam, where she established a reputation for consistently exceeding client expectations across digital publicity, social media and influencer engagement, and was twice shortlisted for Online Campaign of the Year (Screen Awards). Taking on the role of publicity director in 2016 saw Sami take responsibility for influencer strategy and engagement within the business, building knowledge and developing key relationships with creators and agents. 

FCB Inferno has seen huge success over the last few years with its influencer outreach work, which has included campaigns for the likes of UEFA and Huawei. UEFA’s #WePlayStrong won a Bronze Lion in the Multi-platform Social category at Cannes 2018 whilst Huawei’s #SparkARenaissance campaign utilised 50 influencers across 10 territories to generate an incredible 1.23 million competition entries. The competition was the world's first judged by a phone – which used Huawei’s AI capabilities for the judging process. In addition, the agency orchestrated the recruitment of on-the-ground ambassadors for the Home Office’s #KnifeFree campaign and enlisted content creators for the agency’s latest campaign for This Girl Can; using creators to generate contextual content to demonstrate to their audiences how they fit activity into their days in an authentic way.

Finally, Laura Visick (centre) has been promoted into the role of director of innovation, a key role within the strategy department that also works alongside the communications team to grow and enable the expertise within the agency across platform change and new technology, ensuring new innovations act as a springboard for approaches and ideas, keeping FCB Inferno and its clients ahead of the pack. 

Laura joined the agency in 2015 as social media director, and has been heavily involved across many of the agency's clients including BMW UK, UEFA, Oreo, Havaianas Europe and This Girl Can. In the past year, she has been named one of Campaign’s Faces to Watch and the Drum’s 50 under 30 list, as well as winning a Cannes Lion for UEFA’s Together #WePlayStrong campaign. 

Frazer Gibney, FCB Inferno CEO explains, “Partnerships, influencer marketing and innovation are three of the most key areas in our business today. The synergy of these disciplines, embedded both as part of the Strategy Collective and as a standalone team, will shape the agency long term as well as enabling the agency to be reactive and tactical. In CC, Sami and Laura we have exactly the type of strategically creative and forward-thinking talent we need to strengthen integration and keep us nimble in these fast-moving arenas.”