Steve Sammartino joins Grey Group Melbourne as head of integration & planning

Grey Group Melbourne has appointed well known and respected digital specialist, Steve Sammartino to the position of head of integration and planning.

Managing partner Luke Waldren described this appointment as a bold move from Grey: “In some ways we’re forging new ground, in that Steve has never worked in an agency. He’s worked with loads of agencies via his client roles at Kraft, Fosters, P&G (Gillette) and Kimberly Clark, but this is new for him. I’m excited by this fact, as I really believe that as everything “advertising” changes around us, we too need to find new ways and recruit people that add another dimension to our business. I really believe that Steve does this and will add to what is a first rate team of people.”

Sammartino has been involved in the marketing and communications arenafor over 15 years. He has a wealth of traditional marketing and clientplanning experience, as well as an enormous amount of knowledge ondigital strategy and integration based thinking.

He has worked with a variety of agencies via his client roles atleading global consumer goods firms. These include Kraft, Fosters,P&G (Gillette) and Kimberly Clark. Steve has worked on many globalbrands both in Australia, Asia Pacific and Europe. Steve has strongbrand marketing credentials, and is also sessional Marketing Lecturerand Tutor at Melbourne University.

Sammartino has spent the last three years building a .com businesscalled www.rentoid.com, a peer to peer renting portal which is now theglobal leader in this category. Through this he has a rare skill setcombining traditional and new media. He has his own blogwww.startupblog.wordpress.com – it is the most followed start-up /entrepreneur’s blog in the world.

He described the chance to work with Grey as an exciting opportunity:”Advertising is going through a generational revolution. Mediafragmentation means that ideas and creativity have to re-gain theirrightful position at the top of the tree. It’s something I want to bepart of.”