Advertising firm Ogilvy UK has added Larisa Dumitru to its fast-growing ecommerce and DTC offering.

Most recently the Regional eCommerce Director for Omnicom Media Group, she will be designing a market-leading proposition with a social commerce focus before building a team. Dumitru will report into Jai Kotecha, Head of Social and Content at Ogilvy UK.

This follows the recent appointment of Edward Kim, Commerce Leader for the Digital Transformation Capability and Global Principal, Commerce Strategy & Solutions for Ogilvy Consulting.

Driving force

The driving force of the brand to commerce strategy, Kim will partner with capabilities and teams across Ogilvy and WPP to develop innovative, holistic solutions for clients.

He joins from Publicis Sapient where he was Global Strategy Lead for Fashion & Retail, and has held numerous roles client-side.

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Prior to going agency-side, Dumitru worked at Philips, overseeing the entire media mix for the brand and focusing on a compelling ecommerce journey for customers.

In 2018, she joined PHD Global to work on the Unilever account, before quickly expanding her remit to sit centrally within Omnicom.

She created a bespoke ecommerce platform, maintained relationships with media partners and expanded the offering across the group and across markets.

Partnerships

The company said she held the main partnership relationships (Amazon, Kenshoo, Criteo, EDGE), as well as acting as an ecommerce evangelist for the internal teams by running trainings, developing thought leadership pieces and making sure that the group was up to date with all the latest industry developments.

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Clientele

Main clients included Unilever, PepsiCo, SEAT, HP, Henkel, Beiersdorf and VF Group.

Clare Lawson, Chief Customer Officer, Ogilvy UK, said.

“Understanding how to sell or drive sales through social is such a pivotal part of DTC, so we are delighted to have Larisa with us to both help clients think through those challenges, but also put the strategies into practice.”

“She is another piece in the jigsaw at Sea Containers, to put us in a great position to build a truly holistic eCommerce solution for our clients.”

Jai Kotecha, Head of Social and Content, Ogilvy UK, said: “Larisa has a great balance of experience developing a compelling eCommerce proposition, as well as truly understanding client needs through her work with Philips.

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“I look forward to working with her to create a whole new approach, and build an end-to-end eCommerce offering which is integrated with creativity and brand building.”

Commenting on her appointment, Dumitru said:

“I have always admired the creativity and potential Ogilvy UK has to offer, and I’m excited to be given the opportunity to create an offering which maintains that at its core.

“This is a real opportunity to move away build out a creative, integrated offering, and I can’t wait to work with the talented teams and leads to make this a reality.”

Dumitru will be working across Ogilvy UK and Social.Lab teams as part of her remit.