Blue 449 has enhanced its central team in London with the creation of two new global roles. Nadine Young has joined the network as Global Head of Strategy, and Estelle Carrasco as Global Head of Data & Insights.
Reporting to James Shoreland, global managing director, Young and Carrasco will play key roles in developing the new network’s Open Source approach to communications.
Young joins Blue 449 from Vizeum New York, where she was chief strategy officer, responsible for leading the strategic thinking at the agency and managing a team of senior strategists. While at Vizeum New York, she played a key role in new business and helped the agency to double its billings over her two years as CSO.
Prior to working at Vizeum, Young was group communications planning director at Mindshare US, and before that she spent six years at ZenithOptimedia in London, as both a Planning and a Business Director. In her new role at Blue 449, Young will work closely with the central team to build a strong strategic planning approach for the network and with the planning leads of each Blue 449 offices to foster cooperation and drive best practice. She will also lead strategic planning for key global clients, developing solutions that deliver tangible benefits.
Taking up the role Global Head of Data & Insights, Carrasco will help deliver Blue 449’s Open Source approach by working with brands to develop their data strategy across disciplines, including: technology and tools, insight generation, communication orchestration, effectiveness measurement and ROI optimisation.
She will also take responsibility for defining and delivering Blue 449’s network infrastructure for data and technology. Carrasco joins Blue 449 with 17 years’ experience of business intelligence and digital innovation. Before starting her new role at Blue 449, she worked at Publicis Groupe as a senior advisor on data and digital development, working across key international accounts. Prior to this, she spent six years at Microsoft, where she was market intelligence lead, Microsoft France.
Blue 449 – part of the ZenithOptimedia group – was launched in March of this year, which saw the rebranding of Walker Media to Blue 449 UK and the opening of the French office. Since then, Blue 449 has opened offices in Italy, Germany and Australia, and will have a total of 17 city hubs by the end of its first year.
Founder & CEO of Match Media and part of the Blue 449 network John Preston said, “ I am extremely impressed with the level of expertise Blue449 are gathering at a global level. Our team in Sydney have been engaging with Nadine and Estelle to share our work and thoughts on disrupting the existing legacy agency models.
“For Match, as relatively new entrants into the global arena, I am excited about what this level of talent will bring to the Blue449 network and our clients.”
Blue 449 global MD James Shoreland added, “Nadine and Estelle are vital additions to the Blue 449 team. They have considerable experience in communications disciplines that will help us really develop our unique Open Source approach.”
Young said: “There’s an amazing energy around our new network, a real desire to change the agency model to deliver on our Open Source proposition. Estelle and I both believe that great things can happen when our different skill sets are combined, so I’m incredibly excited about working with her and the broader team.”
Carrasco also said: “At Blue 449, we have a rare opportunity to hack the traditional agency model. Working with Nadine and the rest of the team, I am going to be focused on the broader business context for clients and putting consumers at the heart of everything we do through smart use of data and insights.”
