Levi's Johnson takes top marketing role at Ask Jeeves ahead of European expansion

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 16-Mar-05, 15:00

LONDON - Ask Jeeves has appointed former Levi's marketing director for Northern Europe Rachel Johnson as top marketer in Europe, ahead of the search engine's expansion into five European countries this year.

Johnson, who takes on the role of vice-president of marketing in Europe, joins this week following the departure of Aylin Savkan in January to 192.com.

She will report to Adrian Cox, chief executive of Ask Jeeves who was formerly vice-president of sales and marketing before being promoted to CEO in October 2001.

One of Johnson's tasks will be to assess Ask Jeeves' agency needs as it expands in Europe. It currently retains the Media Planning Group for media planning and buying and TBWA\London for its creative work.

The agency was behind the £2m campaign to promote the search engine's relaunch late last year, and has worked with Ask Jeeves since winning the account in 2000.

As well as external marketing, she will look at growing Ask Jeeves' internal marketing team as it expands, first in to Spain. Currently, eight people report to Johnson including UK marketing manager Andrew Wright and European marketing manager Emma Seward, who joined last month.

Johnson worked at Levi's for four years, before leaving last year amid a restructure of the European marketing director. Before joining the company, she had a background in FMCG marketing, holding roles at SmithKline Beecham and Whitbread.

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