Ambassador Theatre Group powers up marketing dept with AMV BBDO hires Hervé Hannequin and Oliver Clark
Former AMV BBDO planner Hervé Hannequin has joined the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) as group customer officer. He is tasked with launching and leading a new client services division.
ATG
Oliver Clark also joins from AMV BBDO as group marketing director, having previously worked with a broad range of major brands, including: Unilever, Stella Artois, Innocent Smoothies, Lloyds Pharmacy, Kia and Magners Cider.
As a global planning director at AMV BBDO, Hannequin has 25 years in the ad industry under his belt having gained experience working with clients such as Diageo, Procter & Gamble, GSK, BMW, LVMH and Samsung.
He will take this experience forward to run the group, and its tens of venues across the world, to shape how it “presents, promotes and provides” its services to existing and potential customers.
On his appointment, Hannequin said: “I’ve always thought of myself as being in the storytelling business: the business of telling carefully crafted stories about brands, stories that generally resonate at least as much at an emotional as a rational level. It’s an exciting business to be in. It always was but the recent explosion in the number of tools and techniques at our disposal has made it even more so.
“Theatre is a storytelling business, too, of course: one of the very oldest and, at its best, surely the greatest. That’s why I am so looking forward to this job. Live theatre is storytelling royalty; and ATG is the king of live theatre companies. ATG and live theatre, live theatre and ATG…: two amazing brands with amazing potential.”
Clark, on the other hand, is tasked with creating marketing strategies, ensuring coordination across products and the customer base, handling business clients and prospects, and market research.
He said: "The digital world has changed the marketing business out of recognition: created fresh challenges and opportunities, and radically new ways of thinking and communicating. And yet, there are some things digital hasn’t changed. Live performances have something – an authenticity, an emotional energy, and a place at the heart of human experience – that digital can’t replace any more than film could. It’s difficult to think of a sector I would rather serve."