Starcom Australia today announced its new ‘People Powered Growth’ positioning and strengthened agency structure.

The developments include two key hires and the promotion of Mark Duffy to the new, integrated role of National Head of Investment and Digital.

On the announcement, Starcom Australia CEO, Nick Keenan, said: “To further enhance our positioning and point of differentiation in the market, we’ve combined People Powered Growth with the best of our existing strategic framework. Globally, Starcom is known as the Human Experience Company. This is who we are, and People Powered Growth is what we deliver. We believe the growth opportunity lies in people – understanding and anticipating human desires to create experiences of value.”

More than a positioning, Keenan said People Powered Growth is a framework the agency is using to develop its talent and deliver the best business and human outcomes for its clients.

“Our approach builds on our Return on Experience research which we previously conducted with Forrester. Through our findings, we know that growth lies in people, and by focusing on both the human outcome and business outcome when activating a campaign, it produces better work and consequently more positive personal experiences that have 10 times more impact on brand choice. So People Powered Growth is grounded in fact. And that fact is human experiences and people’s interpretations are now more important than ever.”

Meanwhile, Keenan said what People Powered Growth means for its talent is “a focus on cross-functional training to develop diversified skillsets”. Key staff changes include:

Mark Duffy, who joined the agency earlier this year as National Head of Digital, has been promoted to the new role of National Head of Investment and Digital. The integrated role has been created to deliver more digitally-led investment solutions. Duffy will also lead the development of bespoke ecommerce, hyperlocal, digital and technology solutions for Starcom’s clients.

Louise Romeo has been appointed Chief Client Officer. As part of the new role, she has been charged with leading collaborative opportunities with other Publicis Groupe agencies, new business development, and working as the client lead for P&G. Romeo has held key roles across a number of agencies, and joins from Vizeum where she was General Manager.

Sally Christian, Starcom’s National Head of Strategy, will now add experience design and data science to her remit in a bid to bring the disciplines closer together and strengthen the agency’s strategic hub.

Joining Christian’s team is Roger Lintzeris, who has been appointed to the new role of Head of Strategy in Melbourne. Lintzeris has worked for a number of agencies, as well as Head of Strategy & Insights at News Corp.

“I’m excited to announce these new appointments, with Mark and Sally leading multi-disciplined teams; while Louise is charged with identifying opportunities to tap into Publicis Groupe’s connected platform of capabilities.

“At Starcom, we’ve created teams that are broad in knowledge and multi-skilled, but each having a specialism at their core. This is all driven by People Powered Growth – bringing human thinking, human experience and human interpretation to create multi-moment customer journeys, linked to delivering on our clients’ growth ambitions,” Keenan said.