Metro Int chief seeks agency
Toby Constantine, the newly appointed marketing chief for newspaper group Metro International, is planning to appoint brand development and advertising agencies.
Constantine, former marketing director of The Times and Sunday Times, has taken the new position of vice-president of global marketing and research at Metro International (MW last week).
He has been given responsibility to leverage the brand with potential clients and to develop the value of brand extensions, such as the loyalty scheme Club Metro. The publisher, owned by MTG, produces 29 editions of the free newspaper in 16 countries, but it is not available in the UK.
Constantine says: “It is likely that I will be looking to engage a brand specialist for positioning work and possibly a creative agency – most likely a network, given our footprint.” He adds that the appointment of a media planning and buying agency is also on the cards.
Describing the brand, Constantine says: “I think the business has grown to its current size somewhat in ‘stealth mode’. Now, we really need to position the brand as a global media player.”
Metro International has just launched its first pan-European advertising campaign on CNN International. The ads were developed in house and the campaign targets European advertisers and business leaders.
