We Are Social Appoints Jerome Courtial

Global social media agency We Are Social has appointed Jerome Courtial as head of strategy.  

 

Courtial was previously lead global planner at Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, working as a global planning director on Coca-Cola and Nokia. Before this, he was engagement planner at BBH London.

 

More recently, he worked as strategy director at Saint and a freelance planning director for agencies R/GA and Sid Lee Amsterdam. He was also instrumental in the success of Glue London between 2003 and 2006, leading accounts and winning pitches for numerous clients including Nokia, Eurostar and Snickers.

 

His work has been recognised with multiple industry awards, including two Cannes gold lions for the ‘hysterical girlfriend’ campaign for Pot Noodle, and a silver lion for Mini Cooper’s ‘ave a word’ campaign while at Glue London. Other awards include The One Show Silver and Bronze pencils for BBC World Cup in 2011 and being the driving force behind the multi-awarded Lynx campaign “Get In There” digital brief which won a D&AD black pencil,  a silver lion and a gold at the Campaign big awards in 2008.

 

Courtial will now oversee planning and strategy responsibilities across the entire client portfolio, specifically looking after the Heinz, Expedia and Heineken brands. He will be responsible for demonstrating the efficiency of social media and delivering creativity and innovation within client accounts.

 

We Are Social has also promoted Jordan Stone from senior account director to strategy director. Stone was an early employee of the agency, joining just over a year after the agency launched. The strategy team now consists of six people, working across all the agency’s clients including global briefs for adidas, Jaguar and Lenovo as well as UK remits for clients such as Heinz, Danone and Unilever.

 

Jerome Courtial, head of strategy at We Are Social said: “We Are Social has built a hugely impressive client list in a short space of time. It’s won clients from the rosters of creative, digital and PR agencies who haven’t adapted to the way that social media has changed the media consumption landscape.  

 

"The attitude that social media offers less opportunities creatively and strategically is completely outdated - some of the most innovative campaigns are now executed on social platforms. I’m looking forward to working with the rest of the team at We Are Social to deliver effective and award-winning work for our clients and demonstrate the creative possibilities of the medium.”

 

Robin Grant, global managing director at We Are Social said: “Jerome is one of the most respected strategists in the industry and he will be a huge asset to us at this pivotal point in our international growth. He’s known for delivering insight that helps create genuinely engaging ideas and has a track record that’s second to none. 

 

"We’ve now built the foundations of a strong and experienced strategy team in the agency, with plans to grow it even further in the coming months. Our clients are really going to see the benefit of these investments.”