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Online campaigns require top skills

Acceleration assembles top experts for specialist online media unit

Online media planning is now a specialist discipline, underscoring the fact that Internet advertising and marketing is increasingly about managing technology, with detailed measurement and tracking tools. This in turn implies that data management and information flow is critical to the success of online media channels. It is more about campaign analytics, optimization and establishing marketing ROI than any other channel available to marketers. With this in mind, Acceleration has established a dedicated online media unit and recruited some of the top talent in the business.

The unit is headed by Julie Jeancolas whose responsibilities include managing the dynamic eMedia team and developing the company’s portfolio clients in the US, Europe and South Africa. Jeancolas, a French national, is used to working with heavyweight clients. “Our key accounts in this division include Thawte (Verisign Group), Distell, Alamo (US and UK) and CCB Paris (Group L’Oréal).” Before establishing the media unit at Acceleration, Jeancolas was the group account director at Outrider, responsible for clients like Xerox, UIP, Sony Ericsson, Star Alliance, Ericsson Corporate, BBC World and Reebok. “I worked with the management of these firms to continuously expose them to the benefits of digital communications,” she says. Jeancolas holds a marketing and finance degree from leading French business school, ESC Reims.

Andrea Mitchell, is Acceleration’s senior online media planner. Well respected by the online and eMarketing community, Mitchell is in charge of online media strategy for South African based clients as well as media planning and buying. “This entails assessment of the brief/target market and developing a strategy, analysis of which environments to advertise in order to meet the objectives of the campaign, through to creative execution and negotiation of media rates. In addition, I monitor and analyze all campaigns in order to optimize them where necessary, and to ensure the objective of the campaign is being met in the most cost effective manner - whether it be pure branding or acquisition based,” she says. Before joining Acceleration, Mitchell was self-employed and consulted on online media strategy and planning to the likes of Internet Service Provider UUNET and advertising agency, FCB. Mitchell has worked with the likes of Arthur Goldstuck, and for 3 years, ran a successful online advertising agency.

Jacqui Boyd is a media planner who brings a wealth of experience from the US where she worked for Carat Interactive in Santa Monica. Clients included adidas, Hyundai, Kia and New Line Cinema. She went to the US from South Africa on a four-year tennis scholarship and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Marketing degree from the Marshall School Of Business at the University of Southern California.

Wayne Lieb, is campaign manager and, through third party and in-house tracking software, generates tracking codes for web-based media placements as well as newsletters and e-mails, and trafficking campaigns within given deadlines. He’s also responsible for some international online media planning and buying. Lieb holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Communications) from RAU.

Says Jacques van Niekerk, Acceleration’s CEO: “E-marketing and online advertising require specialist skills and we have put together a world-class team to compliment our leading-edge marketing technology solutions. Our team has the skills, experience and drive to deliver the most sophisticated and results-driven online marketing campaigns.”



About Acceleration
Acceleration is a company of highly talented digital marketing specialists who view the digital channel as an integral part of marketing mix. With offices in New York, Cape Town and Johannesburg, Acceleration creates digital campaigns that deliver measurable results across global territories for world-class brands and eBusinesses. Acceleration is South Africa’s only digital marketing company that has worked across multiple product and service categories – from financial to FMCG - and has created and implemented campaigns across territories as far flung as Russia, China and Brazil. Acceleration clients include the likes of Alamo Car Rental, National Car Rental, Thawte, WebMD, Christies, Old Mutual, Truworths, and M-Web . Acceleration specialises in digital marketing service from campaign management, knowledge and research, email marketing and list management, search engine optimisation to consulting. Tracking and reporting on campaigns are a major focus for Acceleration who uses DoubleClick’s acclaimed technology platforms. Founded in 1999, Acceleration was elected as one of South Africa’s top ICT companies by the Corporate Research Foundation, and sits on DoubleClick’s Advisory Board in New York.