CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) has hired digital
advertising and strategy experts from Buzzfeed and Box Plus as it continues to
increase its multi-platform capabilities for advertising partners.
Brandon Keenen joins as Senior Digital Commercial Director.
Formerly a Senior Director at Buzzfeed Europe and with stints at AOL and Gigya,
Keenen brings a wealth of media experience spanning 15 years in sales,
management and tech roles.
In this newly-created position at CNNIC, Keenen
leads a global team of Digital Directors working closely with CNN’s advertising
teams to create cross-platform campaigns for a wide range of brands and agency
clients. Keenen is also tasked with growing CNN’s client base of
digitally-focused advertisers, identifying and building new revenue
opportunities beyond traditional advertising models, and leading digital-first
go-to-market strategies.
Pippa Scaife also joins CNNIC in another new role as
Commercial Director focusing on growing brand partnerships for Great Big Story,
the independent global media company dedicated to cinematic storytelling, which
recently received a $40m second round investment from CNN to launch an
always-on network in late 2018. She will also lead CNNIC’s commercial strategy
around the emerging CNN business Beme News, the technology and media company
driven by YouTube personality Casey Neistat. Scaife works with Keenen, CNNIC’s
Digital Directors and global advertising sales teams to develop brand
solutions, building on successful partnerships such as All Nippon Airways,
Genesis, Dubai Tourism and Korean Air. Scaife was previously Head of Business
Development at Box Plus, the UK’s largest music TV network, and previously held
roles at SonyPlaystation and Spotify.
Both Keenen and Scaife are based in London and report to Rob
Bradley, Vice President, Digital Commercial Strategy, at CNN International
Commercial. They will work closely on digital and multi-platform initiatives
with CNNIC’s senior advertising leadership team of Sunita Rajan, Senior Vice
President, Advertising Sales APAC, Petra Malenicka, Senior Vice President
Advertising Sales, Western Europe and the Americas, and Cathy Ibal, Regional Advertising
Sales.
“These appointments are part of a wide-reaching
transformation across CNN International Commercial as we focus on doubling our
digital business while continuing to lead the traditional pan-regional TV
advertising market,” said Rani Raad, President, CNN International Commercial.
“Brandon and Pippa will play an important role in achieving this by working
with our global ad sales teams to ensure that clients benefit from our combined
offering of rich data and targeting through digital and our brand-building
scale across TV. We are already seeing huge growth in digital-first campaigns
and three quarters of all advertising now spans TV, digital and social. I only
expect this to grow as we add more firepower to our offering.”
About CNN International Commercial
CNNI Commercial (CNNIC) is responsible for CNN’s
intercontinental commercial operations, spanning a diverse multiplatform
portfolio across five continents. Its strategy is to grow CNN’s dominance in
the pan-regional TV market while accelerating growth through digital and data
capabilities. This includes monetising and growing linear and digital news
brands such as CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Arabic, Great Big Story,
CNN Style and CNN Money, and a number of other verticals and local properties. CNNI
Commercial delivers best-in-class, award-winning cross-platform ad sales, brand
and marketing solutions underpinned by advanced digital expertise and data
insight. It operates a Content Sales and Licensing business called CNN Access,
which offers a suite of consultancy, content and CNN-branded initiatives around
the globe as well as establishing strategic partnerships to serve new
audiences. The organisation’s branded content studio, Create, has been
producing award-winning multiplatform content for clients for over ten years.
CNNI Commercial is part of Turner, a Time Warner company. For more information,
visit http://commercial.cnn.com