Sarah De Martin joins digital agency Artefact in London
Artefact, a digital agency and data consultancy, has appointed Sarah De Martin as a managing director in the firm’s UK office.
Sarah De Martin has over 15 years of experience in media and marketing. Prior to joining Artefact, she was managing partner at communications agency OMD, and before that she served IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative and Starcom Mediavest Group. At the agencies, she worked with several large clients including tech giant Amazon, consumer goods players Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo and Unilever, and UK food retailer Tesco.
“Sarah has the skills and drive to help us build on our offering and future ambitions. We deliberately take a very different approach to the traditional marketing groups, and she offers a unique take that our clients will find invaluable,” commented Tom Cijffers, Artefact’s CEO for the UK.
Building on its heritage in France, where the firm is listed on the French Euronext Stock Exchange, Artefact launched in the UK in October last year, following the acquisition of 4Ps Marketing. The company positions itself as a mix between a management consultancy and digital marketing agency, blending the best of both worlds into its offerings. Cijffers, who prior to joining the firm was Chief Client Officer at MediaCom in the US and UK managing director at Zenith, added that the firm builds on a strong data science footprint. “We use the expression ‘marketing engineers’ because Artefact begins with technology underpinned by data and AI. It’s about bringing an engineering mindset combined with a consulting approach to digital marketing.”
De Martin further brings a background working with consulting firms to the agency, having previously worked on extensive projects with two of the globe’s most prestigious strategy consultancies: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Strategy&. When PwC acquired Booz & Company in 2014, the news rocked the consulting world. Valued at roughly $1 billion, the deal was orchestrated by an army of M&A-advisors and external PR/communication consultants, with De Martin serving as a marketing lead on the project. She was also involved in Booz & Company’s subsequent rebranding as Strategy&, as part of Booz’s contractual agreements with Booz Allen Hamilton, which had been struck when the firms split back in 2008.
Working for BCG, De Martin was a marketing-lead on a project that looked at the optimisation of investment across multiple markets for a particular client. She also looked at opportunities to streamline operations, develop better processes and deliver efficiencies. With more than 16,000 employees across 90+ offices in 50 countries, BCG is after arch-rival McKinsey & Company the globe’s second largest strategic consulting firm.
Commenting on her new challenge, De Martin, who has become part of Artefact’s UK leadership team, said: “What excites me about Artefact is that we have an entrepreneurial spirit at heart, with the agility required in order to really drive growth. Successfully integrating consulting and digital marketing is something the industry is talking about constantly. However, Artefact is actually doing it.”
At the end of last year, Artefact hired Ashish Sidhra to lead its consulting arm in the UK.
