Rapp boosts top strategy team as Parkes moves on up

Omnicom agency giant Rapp UK has bolstered its strategy team with the two key appointments as Caroline Parkes moves up to the role of UK chief strategy officer, spearheading a team of 50 specialists across diversity strategy, social and content, UX, brand and CRM.

Jonathan Lemze (pictured, far left) joins the team as head of social strategy from Havas Blink, where he was head of strategy. Prior to this, he had stints at Starcom and Digitas, having switched from being a journalist for a number of Israeli news outlets.

At Rapp, Lemze will focus on growing clients with and without existing social footprints, as well as creating a strong sense of purpose within the social strategy community. The agency currently delivers social and influencer marketing for clients including Samsung, Ikea, the BBC and Virgin Media 02.

Meanwhile, Jon Pollard (pictured, far right) has been promoted from strategy partner to head of strategy and is tasked with boosting the opportunities to fuse strategy with marketing science and technology.

Pollard, who joined Rapp in 2015, was previously a co-founder at BrocklebankPenn and has held senior digital roles at GyroHSR and Bluewave.

Rapp says his promotion is recognition of his experience in digital transformation, as well as for pushing the team to deliver ground-breaking and effective work.

Finally, as chief strategy officer, Parkes’ role will be to inspire her team to create customer experiences that fuse creativity, data and tech capability to build brands.

She has been at Rapp since 2018, following a career which has seen her hold top planning and strategy roles at Lida (now M&C Saatchi), Joshua G2 (now G2 Joshua), Proximity London and Craik Jones (ultimately both agencies were folded into Rapp).

Parkes (pictured, middle) said: “I am proud to be leading an amazing kaleidoscope of strategists who are all constantly pushing for better work and creating ever more inventive customer experiences.

“I believe that brands are created from a million different customer touchpoints, so really understanding how brands work, a focus on creativity and the possibilities of data and technology, is super exciting for me and exactly in my sweet spot!”

Parkes will continue to report into Rapp’s global chief strategy officer Shiona McDougall.