Leading interactive thinker joins Designworks
Russell Douglas
"I always knew I was going to come out to New Zealand, because my wife's a kiwi."
Good news for Designworks clients, as Russell Douglas, the newly appointed Head of Interactive at Designworks brings with him more than 17 years top creative agency experience and a rare blend of management, creative and marketing skills.
Working with some of the U.K.'s most recognised and admired brands – such as Barclays, Dorling Kindersley, 02, Radisson Edwardian, Standard Chartered, Vodafone and British Airways –Russell has held positions that range from MD, to Creative Director, to Digital Marketing Consultant, to Client/Partner – so he knows digital marketing from all angles including the client perspective.
Now working alongside Designworks heads of business strategy, creative strategy and design, Russell describes himself as 'the glue' that binds the disciplines in the online world.
"I see interactive as a combination of smart thinking, smart creative and smart technology. My job as a digital marketeer is to make sure we connect people, brands and technology in a relevant way – with the emphasis on relevant. It's got to work and deliver the results we’ve set out to achieve for our clients."
Designworks Group CEO Sven Baker says, "The moment Russell's c.v. and portfolio arrived on my desk out of the blue, I knew we had to have him! We're all aware of how small the talent pool of world-class operators is in New Zealand, so when a talent like this shows up you grab it if you can. Russell's appointment is a key step in our plan to launch a dedicated Designworks Interactive division – as a logical consequence of the rapidly growing desire from our clients to deliver their brand experience in the virtual world.
"We see this offering as a natural extension to our current interactive capabilities. We’re delighted Russell made the choice to join our team despite having multiple other offers. He and Rob Brough, our Head of Technology, will make a brilliant team to lead our interactive division."
From 2008 to late 2010, Russell was the Managing Director for a division of 'World Archipelago (WAI) a digital agency based in London. During his time there he was responsible for increasing divisional revenues by 39% and 'money while you sleep' revenues such as hosting and licence fees by 18%.
Prior to WAI he was an independent marketing consultant working with Strutt & Parker, one of the largest premium real estate agents in the UK, leading their digital marketing planning, strategy and tactical initiatives to transform their entire digital offering – pretty much within a 12 month time-frame. Russell put in place methods to identify ROI from digital channels and his work resulted in an increase in digital revenue contribution to GBP 1.8m.
A CIM Marketer, for the majority of his career, Russell has been a Creative Director and led several teams, from the award winning Dorling Kindersley to Black Sun plc. For client British Airways, he helped implement their website and set of interactive recruitment challenges that resulted in savings of GBP 10k per graduate and significant management savings due to the psychometric testing and self-selection aspects of the site.
His work has been recognised with numerous judging positions in the UK and industry awards including first place in the Guardian CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards for his work with British Airways.
