Dentsu’s media arm Carat has today announced a number of new appointments designed to strengthen its strategic and planning capabilities.
Linda Fagerlund (right in main photo) joins as Chief Strategy Officer, Danni Wright (left) has been promoted to National Head of Strategy & Comms Planning, and Cameron Law joins as Strategy Director, Carat Queensland.
Fagerlund will work closely with Carat ANZ CEO, Sue Squillace, to drive Carat’s brand strategy and focus on elevating and amplifying its product solutions, processes and behaviours to accelerate growth. Fagerlund has a hybrid and integrated experience in strategy, having worked for 14 years in senior strategic roles across media agencies, creative agencies and the publisher side including Leo Burnett, News Corp Australia, Match Media and Ikon.
Prior to joining Carat, Fagerlund was National Head of Strategy at Spark Foundry Australia, where she built the strategic product and team with a focus on integrated strategy models that bring together media, creative, data and technology capabilities.
Fagerlund will be supported by Carat’s Danni Wright, who has been promoted to National Head of Strategy & Comms Planning. Wright will continue to lead Carat’s national strategy team with an extended remit signalling the agency’s renewed focus on the discipline of Comms Planning. This role highlights the importance of connecting brilliant strategic thinking with smart and sophisticated media implementation and ecosystem design.
LAw joins Carat following seven years with Ikon as Communications Director, with the last three years spent leading the $40m Flight Centre Travel Group account.
Sue Squillace said: “There is no doubt the appointment of Linda and promotion of Danni will further strengthen our integrated strategic and planning capabilities. They both have backgrounds brimming with client success stories and a huge passion for building brands. We are looking forward to their invaluable contribution to the next phase of Carat’s journey. I also welcome Cameron to our team in Queensland whose appointment reinforces our commitment to growth in this market.”
Fagerlund added: “I’m thrilled to join the team at a very exciting, transformative time for Carat both globally and locally. It’s rare to have an opportunity to help redefine an agency brand that has such a remarkable legacy and scale. I feel privileged to work with Sue again to help take Carat to the next stage of its success.”
Wright said: “Even the best comms strategy is meaningless if it doesn’t influence what people actually see or hear from a brand. This is why doubling down on our connections planning function is critical to do justice to the strategic powerhouse we have at Carat. I’m so proud of the Carat Strategy Team and believe that by bringing the distinct role of connections design into the wider team we are going to see their thinking result in even more meaningful outcomes for our clients.”
Law added: “Now is the perfect time to be joining Carat, both at a national and a local QLD level, as we enter what will be a defining time for the business. I’m lucky to be joining such a close-knit and future-focussed team.”
Both Fagerlund and Wright will join Carat’s executive national leadership team, putting strategy firmly at the core of the agency whilst driving increased diversity.
To drive the Comms Planning discipline, Carat’s strategy department will be joined by new planning specialists. This includes Katy Kamaee and Jay Patel in Sydney, and in Melbourne Jimmy Diamond and Chris Carey, supported by a national comms planning community.
