Hirsch, who brings 25 years media industry experience to the role, takes over as Chairman from Clare Broadbent, CEO of Cedar Communications, and will hold the position for the rest of 2014. He will work with Clare Hill, MD of the CMA, to promote the effectiveness of content marketing to brands, as well as expanding the association by attracting new members.
Hirsch has been at John Brown Media for over 20 years and as company CEO he focuses on new business and helping new and existing clients get the very best from their communications.
The agency has grown its multi-channel service offer in recent years and boasts some of the industry's best editorial, design and strategic planning talent. Current clients include Emirates, Waitrose, Royal Bank of Scotland, John Lewis and Shangri-La Hotels.
Having led a management buyout of John Brown Media in Oct 2004, Hirsch then completed the acquisition of Code London, a leading catalogue specialist in 2006 and then in 2007, creative communications agency Fingal. All branches of the business now operate as John Brown Media and in the last five years Hirsch has established standalone offices for the company worldwide, including in Hong Kong and Cape Town, with 25% of profit coming from overseas.
Speaking of his new role, Andrew Hirsch said: “The CMA has been at the forefront of the content marketing revolution, acting on behalf of member companies who provide multi-channel content for some of the world’s leading brands. I am looking forward to working with the CMA team to continue promoting the vast potential of content marketing, leading the charge as the content marketing industry continues to grow.”
Clare Hill, Managing Director of the Content Marketing Association commented: “With content marketing budgets up 25% in the last two years and 4 billion now spent annually on owned media in the UK, it’s a time of large growth for the industry. With Andrew’s fantastic experience and expertise in the content marketing space, having him on board as Chairman will be a great addition for the CMA in what is a very exciting year for the association.”
About CMA
The CMA says: “The Content Marketing Association (CMA), previously the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) is a not for profit organisation representing the content marketing industry. The overarching aim of CMA is to promote the use of editorialised content as an effective marketing tool to client-side marketers and showcase the range of channels that can be used to editorially engage customers from digital - such as smart phone apps, tablet-enabled microsites and branded TV - to the more traditional customer magazines.”
