3 Selects brand and advertising director

Telecoms operator 3 has appointed former Sony marketer Gary Pepler as its brand and advertising chief to replace Julian Hough, who is returning to the company’s advertising agency WCRS.

Pepler joins the third-generation mobile operator as director of brand and marketing communications and will be responsible for its &£39m advertising budget. He will report to marketing director Graeme Oxby.

It is understood that Hough, who has been on secondment for the past two years (MW May 27, 2004), will take up a wider group role at the agency’s parent company Engine later in the summer.

It emerged last week (MW last week) that 3 was looking for a senior marketer to fill the gap left by Hough’s return to his agency and the departure of chief operating officer Gareth Jones, who left at the end of last year.

Pepler, who was previously director of marketing communications for Sony Europe and director of global advertising for Nortel Networks, says of his appointment at 3: “There is no other business or industry where communications, entertainment and information are converging in a way that brings so many benefits to the customer.”

Meanwhile, 3 is poised to hand its multi-million-pound direct marketing account to Claydon Heeley (formerly Claydon Heeley Jones Mason) following a pitch handled by the AAR.