Mike Colling & Co has recruited former PHD chief Simon Foster to head up its new business modelling and data analytics division, M:USE, which it is claimed will allow clients to manage their relationship with consumers, markets, opportunities, risk and rewards.
The agency’s name is derived from its three core services, “understanding”, “scoping” and “evaluation” combined with analytical and creative problem solving, hence the name M-USE; thinking to the power of three.
Foster joins from Oystercatchers, where he had been managing partner since September last year, providing a range of services including agency evaluation, agency search and selection, resource and fee analysis.
Prior to that he was founder and managing director of Foster Media Communications & Data Consulting, a company he ran for eight years. Clients included Belazu Foods, Feather & Black, Gumtree, HiPP Foods, KAYAK, Nutmeg, Prudential, Reckitt Benckiser, Secret Escapes, Tesco Personal Finance, Tobago Tourist Board.
But it is as group managing director of PHD – a role Foster held for four years between 2002 and 2006 – that he is perhaps best known. During this period he managed PHD’s analytics and modelling functions, with team of 20 planners and analysts, and played a central role in winning nearly £100m of new business billings. He worked on BT, eBay, Expedia, First Direct, O2, Prudential, and UK Government accounts.
He has also worked for Performics, FCB Global, Initiative, Mindshare, OgilvyOne and CACI.
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