TCS Media promotes three in restructure

The London-based agency has promoted senior media planner buyers David Price, Justin Mallinson and head of digital Ciaran Deering to associate directors.

The three will still assume their daily responsibilities but the appointments are for a succession management team to be in place, said TCS Media managing director Simon Parker, should they wish to propose a management buyout.

The agency was established in 1977 and has an annual turnover of £58m. Parker and fellow directors Peter Smith and John Hounsell completed an MBO of the agency in 2007.

Parker said: "The appointments are the starting process of structural changes within the agency that will include new staff in the digital department. We are grooming these future directors should a future MBO opportunity arise we can keep it in the family."

Mallinson has been with the agency for more than 15 years, while Price was drafted in from Brand Connection in 2006. Deering, after a brief sabbatical from heading up Tribal DDB, was hired to run the agency's digital department.

In December 2009 TCS Media was appointed by London's Southbank Centre to handle its £1m integrated media account following a competitive pitch process.

Three unnamed agencies were said to be vying for the account, believed to include three-year incumbent Total Media.

The review was handled by the centre's interim director of marketing, Jenni Carbins, and other campaign managers on the team.

The centre spent £900,000 on media between 1 October 2008 and 30 September 2009, according to figures from The Nielsen Company.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk