Spearheading the positions of head of strategy and head of planning are two well-respected industry individuals, Lia Smit and Lucinda Langford respectively. And the specialised Out of Home unit is being headed by Kirsty Carlson who returns to SMG.

Smit’s 20 years of experience in the media industry spans across several local and international clients, including her winning work on the Coca-Cola business for six years. In her role as head of strategy at SMV Group, Smit and her team are responsible for SMGs global network clients, designing product excellence, integration of tools and driving global best practices. Connected to SMV Group’s Global Product Committee, Smit will lead integrated insights and the strategic framework in South Africa.

Langford started her career in advertising 26 years ago and until recently she held the position of client lead director at Unilever South Africa. As Head of Planning at SMV Group, Langford is responsible for engineering the rigors and discipline into the agency’s planning product. She is in charge of streamlining processes and rolling out advanced optimisation tools and techniques in the market.

Carlson returns to Starcom where she worked her way up to the Africa account manager role. She carries a wide array of experience within media and the out of home industry particularly in the areas of media planning, buying, strategy development and account management across over 50 African markets with varying challenges, languages, cultures and legislations. In her role as head of outdoor SA and Africa, Carlson will be responsible for overseeing the Out of Home practice within SMG, developing creative solutions, driving excellence in process and structure and leveraging her experience to identify new revenue streams for the group.

"Consumers are moving at a much faster pace where their relationship with brands is constantly changing. This is causing marketing and media models to either evolve or break making our lives as media experts more complex. We are gearing up for the challenges that lay ahead of us," says Ravi Bhaya, MD of SMG. "Aaron and I are really excited to welcome our new members and look forward to their valuable contributions in 2015 as we continue to evolve SMG in this era of Velocity Marketing."

For more information, like SMG South Africa on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.