Kinetic Launches New Global Futures Unit

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Kinetic Worldwide announces the formation of Kinetic Futures, a new global group focusing on the long-term horizon of the media and marketing business.  The think tank will explore the impact of changing consumer behavior, increasingly ubiquitous technology, and proliferating data on the future of communications and commerce.  Jeremy O'Brien has been appointed to head the unit as Managing Director and Global Futurist.

Since its inception in 2005, Kinetic has transformed from the world's largest OOH buying agency to the global leader in understanding how brands can leverage the interplay between lifestyles and environments.  The launch of Kinetic Futures is part of a focus on the company's unique proposition and comes on the heels of the appointments earlier this year of Global CEO Steve Ridley and his senior management team to ensure that Kinetic's opportunities are maximized.  The unit will be based in New York City alongside Kinetic's global leadership.

Speaking from Kinetic's 2010 global conference in San Francisco, Steve Ridley said, "Kinetic has always been a very forward-looking company, and it is a testament to our vision and success that we are dedicating ourselves to exploring the far future of our business.  Jeremy's unique global background and business experience makes him the logical choice to develop this asset in Kinetic's global portfolio."

Jeremy O'Brien commented, "Kinetic's business lines touch on many different areas and disciplines, and it's exciting to concentrate on the way these might intersect in the future.  People today are increasingly capable of acting on the rich commercial and personal data available in the cloud while on the move, and this has incited a sea change in marketing and commerce that is as intrinsic to 'offline' as it is to 'online.'  The divide between the digital and physical worlds is rapidly becoming more permeable, and Kinetic is uniquely positioned to interpret and act on this evolution."

A veteran of the communications industry, Jeremy brings a unique global background to the role.  Raised in Europe and the US, he has worked in Asia and North America and is fluent in English, Japanese, French, and Spanish.  He completed studies for his MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship at the Japan-America Institute of Management Science in Honolulu, Hawaii and holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin.

NOTES TO THE EDITOR:

About Kinetic

Kinetic is the global leader in understanding how brands can connect with people’s lifestyles and the environments in which they interact.  Kinetic’s expertise and insight helps deliver solutions for clients that achieve ambitious brand and marketing goals.  Kinetic delivers wide-ranging specialist expertise through its complementary service divisions including Joule, Aviator, Target Health, Destination Media Group, Kinetic People, Kinetic Intelligence, Kinetic Futures, Zone and Hi Resolution.  Kinetic employs over 900 professionals across 42 offices and is headquartered in New York City.  The agency has global billings of US$4.4 billion.  www.kineticww.com

About GroupM

GroupM is WPP’s consolidated media investment management operation, serving as the parent company to agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, Mindshare and Kinetic.  GroupM is the global number one media investment management group (RECMA 2009).  Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP’s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities.  The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions.

SOURCE Kinetic Worldwide