McCann Central has expanded its media division, UM, promoting Kevin Murphy to the role of Group Managing Director, Media across its offices and launching a new media offering at McCann Leeds.
Kevin, who has been Managing Director of UM Birmingham since 2009, will now oversee the successful, 60-strong media operation across the Birmingham, Bristol, Demand (London) and Leeds offices, supported by the senior team.
- The newly launched media division at McCann Leeds will be headed up by Helen Payne who joins as Media Director from Havas, having also spent time at McCann Manchester.
- Ruepal Aujla and Lisa Barrett succeed Kevin Murphy in his Birmingham role to become Joint Heads of Media – having amassed a combined 20 years between them in their previous Managing Partner roles at McCann Central.
- Grant Crymble has been promoted from his Birmingham role as Managing Partner, Broadcast to the newly created role of Group Head of Media Trading and will lead offline media trading across all McCann Central offices.
Dean Lovett, CEO at McCann Central commented: “Our Media operation in Birmingham has gone from strength to strength under Kevin’s leadership, and we’re delighted to be promoting him to this new Group role, overseeing our media teams across all of our offices – which includes our new media operation in Leeds.
“In recent years, Leeds and the wider region has become one of the leading creative hubs in the UK and since we opened the doors to our new office there in 2019, we’ve seen this first hand.
Having enjoyed great success in the region, launching a media offering was the logical next step as we continue to support our clients with truly integrated, first-class marketing solutions.”
Kevin Murphy, Group Managing Director, Media commented: “We’ve seen significant client growth in the last few years which has allowed us to invest in our team, tools and the range of media services that we offer. As well as being a core part of the McCann Central full-service offering, we’ve developed a reputation as a thriving media agency in our own right, primarily under the UM brand. This is thanks to a genuinely integrated media approach and our ability to analyse and optimise across the entire media mix – something that has really resonated with clients.”
In addition to Ruepal Aujla and Lisa Barrett in Birmingham and Helen Payne in Leeds, the Media senior leadership team also includes Andrew Coroneo, Managing Partner at McCann Demand and Georgia Vine-Thomas, Associate Director at McCann Bristol.