Jacob says; “I’m thrilled to announce Kim as CEO for Publicis Media in South Africa. Working with our talented agency brand leads, Kim will deliver our promise to drive new levels of productivity, business transformation, and client value. In Kim we have a proven leader with strong transformation abilities and this appointment sets the tone for our next phase of growth.”
The Publicis Media leadership will oversee all in-market commercial operations. They will be responsible for scaling the strength of Publicis Media across the Group’s four global agency brands - Starcom, Zenith, Mediavest | Spark and Optimedia | Blue 449 - and the seven global practices that support those brand with key capabilities, including: data, content, trading, performance, analytics and business transformation.
Jacob adds; “We are reinventing the agency model. Speed and agile capabilities are what determine client success so we have organised ourselves to bring this to market through a new powerful and simplified model for our clients.”
Weissensee was most recently CEO, ZenithOptimedia, South Africa, where she delivered on her reputation as a proven entrepreneur with a track-record of driving business transformation. Prior to joining ZenithOptimedia, Kim was founder and managing director of Applied Media Logic, a South African media agency that was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2014. AML was recognised as a top agency in South Africa with blue-chip clients that included: L’Oréal, Reckitt Benckiser, FutureLife, Frank.net, House of Mandela, Fedhealth and Nashua. Her appointment to this new role is a testament to the best-in-class talent available within the Publicis Media network.
“I am delighted to be taking up this new challenge. I know that through leveraging the power of our assets within Publicis Media, we can add even greater value to our clients’ business. I look forward to that,” says Weissensee.
Additionally, Nicole Prüsse, who was previously CEO Central, Northern, Eastern Europe for ZenithOptimedia, will become COO, Publicis Media, EMEA. As well as ensuring that all markets have the strongest capabilities, Prüsse will also act as a key lead for integration with the Starcom, Zenith, Medaivest | Spark and Optimedia | Blue 449 brands in the Publicis One markets, ensuring a consistent and unified approach across all markets.
Commenting on this appointment, Jacob says; “Nicole is one of our most accomplished leaders with a strong track record of growing and transforming business and markets. With a focus on strong performance, product excellence and innovation, Nicole is the perfect person to drive our expertise and organisation across the region and I look forward to working with her in her new role.”