Volcano Group CEO, Peter Jackson, has been appointed to the board and unanimously nominated as Regional Director: Africa for the ICOM+IN Network. The announcement was made at the network’s EMEA Regional meeting held in Milan, Italy last week. The Volcano Group was also appointed lead agency for the region in recognition of its standing as SA’s leading independent and multi-award winning agency.
The ICOM+IN Network, the largest of its kind globally, is made up of more than 100 independent agencies across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the EMEA region. “The understanding of the growing importance of the African region together with the outpouring of support from the ICOM+IN management team and the international network members for the development of the region has been overwhelming,” says Peter Jackson.
“Peter has made a strong impression on the working committee since the merger of the ICOM and IN’ networks in July this year,” says Gary Burandt, Executive Director of ICOM+IN. “He came to the recent meeting with great enthusiasm and positivity, and a sound objective to unify and assist the current Sub-Saharan members of the network, as well as recruit members in countries not yet represented. Africa is an increasingly important part of the world and we plan to have the strongest group of independent agencies there to serve our international clients. With Peter as Regional Director, we are optimistic with future growth prospects of our network throughout the entire continent.”
For the Volcano Group, the appointment comes well-timed, as the agency prepares to gear up for further sub-Saharan growth by creating and implementing a number of campaigns for existing clients. “As we grow as a communications group, having a reliable and professional African footprint has been our goal and I look forward with great optimism to developing the ICOM+IN county network with our African partner agencies. In recognising the uniqueness of the various markets, we have developed three regional hubs strategically positioned in the West, East and Southern African regions of the continent” adds Peter Jackson. “Tapping into the existing ICOM+IN Africa network and being afforded the opportunity to drive further growth across the continent is a great prospect for all of us, as we continue working towards our long term vision of being the leading independent agency network servicing our local clients regionally and beyond.”
Discussions are already underway with a number of major key agency players in the region, with the announcement of a new ICOM+IN network member, Tanzanian-based full service agency Spearhead Africa, this week. Further additions will be announced soon, signalling an exciting prospect to brands wishing to take full advantage of the African marketplace, with the added benefits that independent agencies bring. “For the region this is a positive development that has to date largely been the domain of the major international ad agency groups. However, this is about to change with the advent of the largest network of the best independent agencies working closely together with some of the leading media, eventing and promotions associate companies, enabling the network to provide our international clients with the largest African communications footprint available,” concludes Jackson.
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