Madras Brand Solutions names Mark Cerame head of strategy
Global creative and content agency Madras Brand Solutions has named Mark Cerame as its head of strategy, rounding out its management team in New York City.
Mark Cerame named head of strategy at Madras
Cerame will work out of the New York office, where he’ll team with Madras chief creative officers Bill Davaris and Andrew Ladden and collaborate with Madras offices in London and India.
His appointment marks an important step for the agency, which was launched in January with existing offices on three continents and 1,100 people dedicated to always-on marketing. Madras delivers creative and content for clients by making it financially easy to access strategy and creative continuously, identifying strategic insights and developing creative solutions in London and New York, then executing them cost-effectively via content and production teams in Bangalore and Chennai.
“Strategy can’t be a one-time exercise,” said Cerame. “For brands to maintain emotional connections with consumers, they need to bring creative ideas to market continuously. Madras has built a winning model around this belief.”
For more than 20 years, Cerame has built brands in finance, technology, retail, and heavy industry. His specialty is creating enriched experiences that allow people to connect emotionally with a brand. He believes that strategy lives in the center of all client initiatives, constantly feeding the creative.
Previously, as SVP/strategy lead at RAPP Worldwide, Cerame led a strategy team on such accounts as VISA and Time Warner Cable. Prior to RAPP, he worked for Rosetta/Razorfish, Point to Point, and Ligget Stashower, where he led strategic campaigns for such accounts as Adobe, Nationwide, Fidelity, J.M. Smucker and Sherwin Williams.
“Mark is a business builder, and he has multi-faceted expertise in keeping the strategic process fluid and connected from beginning to end,” said Fred Schuster, chief executive of Madras. “His credentials speak for themselves and he has already made a real impact with our clients. Plus, when I think about Mark’s partnership with Bill and Andy, our strategic consulting and creative capabilities become really hard to match."