Boo.com’s Neser goes to A&B

Swedish interactive agency Abel & Baker is opening a UK office, which will be headed by Charlotte Neser, former European vice-president of Boo.com, the “pure play” dot-com company which collapsed spectacularly last year.

The agency, which has offices in Sweden and Finland, has decided to expand into the UK to meet increasing demand for UK and pan-European campaigns.

Abel & Baker will launch its first UK campaign, for Virginstudent.com, next week. The agency has created light-hearted reminders for students to use SMS messaging and e-mail to exact revenge on partners who forget Valentine’s Day.

As managing director of the UK office, Neser will head a team of eight people hired from Razorfish, UK Smart, Oven Digital, Lewis Moberly and Boo.com.

She says: “Our focus in the UK will be on developing interactive campaigns and sites to help our clients build their brands online.”

The agency, which charges clients on the “value added” to their business rather than the traditional agency time-based structure, already has a number of high-profile clients including Nokia and MTV Europe.

Abel & Baker was formed in 1999 following a merger between three Swedish web agencies, Speedway Digital Army, Nation and Out There Communication.

When she was at Boo.com, Neser was responsible for overseeing European campaigns to increase sales and traffic to the site.

The fashion site became one of the first high profile dot-com failures when it closed last May after running out of money.