Dixon turns to Dodds for marketing services offensive

Serial entrepreneur Nick Dixon has drafted in “serial winner” and former Proximity Worldwide global chief executive Mike Dodds to boost the senior leadership team at his new venture, The Salocin Group, as he steps up his quest to muscle in on the marketing services market.

The move, which comes just weeks after Salocin snapped up Edit from Kin + Carta for £14.8m with private equity backing from NVM, sees Dodds become an advisory board director.

In his new role Dodds will assist with The Salocin Group’s growth strategy as it embarks on an ambitious buy-and-build plan to create a unified, multidisciplined, data-powered marketing group; he will report to chairman and CEO Dixon.

Dodds’ remit also includes working closely with the leadership team at Edit, with a core focus on building and increasing the value of the agency through new business, new capabilities, and new talent.

Edit was formed in 2018 from the merger of Occam, Response One and Amaze One. It can trace its roots back to 1993 with the launch of Occam, which went on to be one of the first companies Kin + Carta (then St Ives) bought to diversify away from its printing operations, in a 2010 deal worth £12.6m.

St Ives then bought Response One, which was launched in 1998, for £19m. Meanwhile, Amaze One was launched as a joint venture between Occam and Amaze in 2015.

Edit works across sectors including retail, automotive financial services, and not-for-profit with a 120-plus strong team of data scientists, engineers, technology strategists, and planners based in London and Bath, with a client list that includes Jaguar Land Rover, Tesco Bank, The British Heart Foundation, and Shell.

Dodds, who describes Edit as “a hidden gem”, left Proximity Worldwide as CEO in January 2021 to launch his own consultancy. He has more than 30 years’ agency experience, having started at Ogilvy before rising up the ranks to become chief executive of its DM agency OgilvyOne.

In 2008, Dodds switched to Proximity London as CEO before being promoted to MD of Europe, global president and then global CEO. During this period he also played a key role in many of those agencies’ significant relationships with brands including the BBC, Lloyds Banking Group, BT and VW.

Dodds said: “I’ve been around the block enough to recognise that Edit is a hidden gem that we will be hearing a lot more about over the next couple of years. This, combined with Nick’s ambitious plan to build a significant connected customer experience offering, is going to create another very significant player in this dynamic sector of the market.”

Dixon, who has worked in the industry for over 35 years, is one of the sector’s most successful entrepreneurs, having led the turnaround and subsequent sale of both Colorgraphic and Howitt, as well as the major expansion of Blueberry Wave, now HH Global Interactive. He launched Salocin in 2020.

Dixon said: “Mike is a serial winner with an enviable track record of building fantastic businesses and driving growth in this sector. He’s worked with the biggest clients and led two significant agencies in the connected customer experience space.

“We can’t wait to tap into that knowledge and expertise. Mike’s arrival couldn’t be better timed in terms of accelerating the plan we have put in place for The Salocin Group and Edit.”