Following the announcement of its expansion into Melbourne, national independent media agency The Media Store (TMS) has confirmed its first Melbourne staff appointments.
Head of digital Ally Cooney and group business director David Lodge (pictured above) will lead the Toyota and Lexus accounts in Melbourne under the direction of newly appointed Melbourne general manager Stephen Leeds.
With 17 years’ experience across multiple countries, Cooney has led a number of successful pitches for TMS including Toyota Motor Corporation, Australia’s SEM business and ghd (Australia and New Zealand).
Lodge specialises in cross-functional leadership across paid, earned and owned channels, and has worked with TMS team to drive such campaigns as Sealy’s ‘3 Million Club’, Sharp’s ‘Big Is Too Small a Word’ and Toyota’s ‘Megafactories’ and ‘New Generation Camry’.
TMS chief executive Craig Jepsen said: “With the addition of Ally and David, The Media Store’s Melbourne headquarters is quickly laying the foundation for driven and innovative teams that deliver results and efficiencies for our clients.
“Ally and David have collectively dedicated 21 years to The Media Store, and during this time, both have contributed heavily to the growth of the business and our strong culture.
“We are also excited to be on the look-out for additional team members to grow our Melbourne team while servicing two of the leading brands in Australia.”
Cooney and Lodge will be joined in Melbourne by Jen Nicholls and Richard Lowe, business managers on the Toyota account; and digital planner/buyer Sam Coughlan – all of whom currently work at the Sydney office.
The staff announcement comes as TMS commences strategic research and brand strategy for new client Fletcher Insulation.
“With the recent addition of Fletcher Insulation to our client list and more new business activity, our next steps are to find dedicated, hard-working and innovative staff reflective of our ethos to service The Media Store clients in our ever-expanding Melbourne and Sydney offices,” Jepsen said.
In addition, TMS is leading a national-first partnership for Toyota Corolla with Here, There & Everywhere using technology that enables Adshel’s Live digital panels to be triggered to display contextually-relevant creative when Australian Radio Network stations broadcast the creatively-synched radio ad.
“This campaign gives The Media Store an opportunity to not only use HT&E’s relevant, high-reaching and impactful radio and out-of-home assets, but to also connect with consumers simultaneously via two different channels, activating both audio and visual memory encoding,” Jepsen said.
The campaign rolls out this month.
