i-level names Gutfreund as group managing director

by Staff, Brand Republic 27-Jun-01, 12:05

LONDON - i-level, the digital media agency, has confirmed the appointment of Nick Gutfreund as its new group managing director.

He takes over from Alan McCulloch, the former head of Saatchi & Saatchi's digital unit, who resigned from the agency last week.

Gutfreund joined i-level in 2000 as its international business development director from Publicis, where he set up the worldwide account team and ran the global advertising account for Ericsson.

Prior to Publicis, he had a seven-year spell at Lowe Howard-Spink. At Lowes, Gutfreund was responsible for GM Europe, BSM and Avis Europe.

As a board account director, Gutfreund managed the global account for Saab.Planning director Ed Ling and group head Faith Carthy, who is a former press director at Zenith Media, had also been tipped for the top job.

Charlie Dobres, co-founder of i-level, said, "Nick has a wealth of advertising experience which is essential to forward and support the expansion plans we have in place. With Faith Carthy as deputy managing director, we feel we have the best management team in the UK."

i-level also announced its appointment by Travel Choice to manage a seven-month campaign, starting in July, with a significant six-figure spend. The campaign will target web-savvy users across young professionals, homeowners, couples with or without children, and early internet adopters.

Part of i-level's task will be to manage search engine optimisation. The campaign will run until February 2002.