Nick Durrant joins Initiative as partnerships and investment lead
Nick Durrant has returned to Mediabrands to become Initiative's national chief partnerships and investment officer. Durrant will help lead analysis and fusing of data with the agency’s national trading capabilities. He joins from News Corp, where he has been national general manager of trading for the past two-and-a-half years. Durrant has previously worked as a head of trading at Mindshare and spent six years at UM leading the Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola accounts.
Seven hires OTT video digital sales director
Seven has appointed James Bayes as digital sales director of OTT video as the network moves further into OTT delivered video content. Seven is pushing out more of its video content via OTT, including the Rugby League World Cup, Commonwealth Games and other major sports events. It will also launch a new OTT product later this year. Bayes joins Seven from Unlockd in New York, where he is senior VP of international business development, overseeing Unlockd's expansion into SVOD and OTT. He has previously worked with Southern Cross Austereo, Starcom Mediavest and OMD in London.
The Works looks to fill 15 positions
The Works is looking for 15 new people to join its Milsons Point office in Sydney. The agency, which was recently acquired by digital consultancy RXP and named in the top 15 Best Places to Work in Australia, is on the hunt for a number of creatives including copywriters, art directors and creative teams, creative project leaders (group account director equivalent), a social media manager and digital producers. The Works, which is now in its 15th year, has clients including Optus, News Corp, ING, Masterpet, Tetley and Visit Canberra. Apply here.
Instant Articles pulled from Facebook Messenger
Facebook has removed Instant Articles - Facebook’s self-hosted, faster-loading article format for mobile - from Messenger. Facebook confirmed the move to TechCrunch, saying it was opting to focus on Instant Articles in the main Facebook's app. Facebook expanded Instant Articles to Messenger a year ago as part of a wider strategy to enhance content on its popular messaging platform. While Instant Articles launched as an additional revenue stream for publishers, many have shunned the format due to lack of monetisation and reporting issues.
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