Kat Callow Joins Inside Ideas Group as Social Media Director for Global Clients

Kat Callow has joined the Inside Ideas Group (IIG) – the in-housing marketing group comprising OLIVER, Dare, Adjust Your Set and Aylesworth Fleming. 

The social innovator – celebrated for rebranding the iconic mobile game Snake as a Facebook AR game, breaking the platform’s record with 668 million organic plays – brings with her a decade’s worth of creative and technological experience spanning immersive social, AI, voice and digital media strategy. She is tasked with helping the group’s largest clients gain speed, agility and more control across all creative touchpoints globally. 

IIG and OLIVER’s CEO for global clients Richard Stainer said: “Our industry is experiencing a rapid shift in relationship between brands and their preferred agencies. It’s therefore imperative that we continue to hire the best talent as well as continue to give brands back control of their creative futures. It is in this vein that we’re thrilled to welcome Kat to the team. Contributing to seven Cannes Lions wins, she is a rare breed with the ability to merge and maximise creativity, technology and digital strategy for our most ambitious clients.” 

Callow moves from HMD Global where she served as director of digital adventures, running online advertising for the next generation of Nokia Android devices – even announcing its relaunch live on stage at the Mobile World Congress (a global audience of 1.4 million people). Her previous team holds the JD.com site record for fastest e-commerce sell out (12 seconds).

She said: “My focus is on powering brand campaigns from the inside, pushing creative standards using the technology available to us today, and showing the world that in-house teams are the new creative heavyweights. I’m excited to be working with IIG’s global marketers to deliver brilliant work that’s more targeted than ever before, and I hope to push the team to reach the industry’s highest standard.”

Callow’s clients and background spans Unilever, Ferrero, Nintendo, EBay and Google. She’s spoken at the industry’s largest conferences in over 100 countries. Her digital and social commentary has featured in publications such as the FT, The Guardian, The Economist, Vice and BBC World Service. 

The appointment follows the acquisition of IIG to brandtech firm You & Mr Jones in January. The firm, founded by former Havas SA chief executive David Jones, acquired a majority stake in IIG to further help brands build their own internal marketing capabilities.