Publicis Media appoints chief commerce officer from EssenceMediacom

Publicis Media has appointed EssenceMediacom’s Steve Ricketts as chief commerce officer and promoted Ian Black to the new role of head of retail media.

Ricketts was previously global head of commerce and retail media at EssenceMediacom.

From 2011-21 he ran his own ecommerce consultancy, Atao, and worked with brands such as EE, The National Lottery and Morrisons.

In his new role he will oversee a team of commerce-focused experts and implement solutions to help clients grow online sales.

Ricketts said Publicis Groupe’s specialist tech platforms CitrusAd and Profitero made the network “well positioned” to help clients unlock commerce growth and added: “I can’t wait to get started, to help build on these solid foundations and push the boundaries even further for clients in this growing area.”

Black has been promoted to head of retail media from his previous role as head of performance media.

Black joined Publicis Media in 2017 as a paid search manager for Procter & Gamble and previously worked for McCann Worldgroup.

Working alongside Ricketts, Black will unify Publicis Media’s retail assets and support Publicis Media agencies (Zenith, Starcom and Spark Foundry) in accelerating growth across their clients’ retail media platforms.

Black said: “I am thrilled to be able to work with Steve, along with the brilliant talent in our agencies and the wealth of technology available across Publicis to help our clients to navigate and ultimately deliver in this space.”

Sue Frogley, chief executive of Publicis Media UK, said: “With Steve and Ian now in place, alongside our well-established commerce capabilities and technology, I’m confident that our clients now have the best in the business to help them transform and grow their business further.”