Initiative appoints Tom Dodd as national strategy director, IAG nabs Mark Echo as replacement

Media agency, Initiative, has today announced the appointment of Tom Dodd (left) as national strategy director, off the back of the agency’s strong momentum and growth.

Dodd will be based in Melbourne and will work alongside chief strategy and product officer, Chris Colter (right) to further expand the agency’s strategic offering, product and new business growth.

Says Colter: “Tom is one of the most intelligent and charismatic media strategists in the industry, and one of the most awarded. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him join our team and personally, having worked with Tom closely in various iterations, I am pumped to get the band back together.
“Tom is an exceptional collaborator with extensive experience leading agency villages. Balancing that with his ‘client-side’ perspective makes him an invaluable asset to Initiative’s already market-leading strategy team.”

With nearly two decades of media planning and strategy experience spanning senior roles in the UK and Australia, Dodd was most recently head of media at IAG managing the media business across IAG’s brand portfolio (NRMA Insurance, CGU, WFI and Rollin).

Says Dodd: “I’ve loved my time client side, and feel blessed to have worked on such an iconic brand and with equally iconic people.

“These days clients look for interesting ideas and experiences to solve their business challenges, so I’m excited to be joining an agency that has such strong momentum and I think is delivering best in class media thinking.”

Replacing Dodd at IAG will be new hire Mark Echo (above) who joins after a collaborative recruitment process that saw IAG and Initiative join forces to find the perfect person for the role. Echo has almost 15 years agency experience and most recently was a client partner at Meta.

Says Zara Curtis, acting CMO at IAG: “Tom leaves with our absolute blessing to join our agency Initiative and we are thrilled with the smooth hand over and exceptional hire we have made collaborating with Initiative in the appointment of Mark.

“Mark brings a wealth of agency and digital experience chasing growth for some of Australia’s leading consumer brands across multiple categories. He also shares our passion and belief that the biggest business problems are solved through world class creative ideas.

“Mark’s obsession and unique approach to customer centricity using data, tech, creativity and media will help take our strategy, media thinking and data capabilities to the next level to solve even bigger business problems now and into the future.”

Echo was most recently client partner across CPG, Meta with previous roles including head of client services, Bohemia Group and media director Match Media (now Spark Foundry).

Dodd and Echo commence their new roles effective immediately.