A big new hire. A bigger ambition for Social & Influencer.
We’re very happy to share some big PrettyGreen news: Steve Parker is joining us as Managing Partner, Social & Influencer.
Steve joins the PrettyGreen dream team on 7 September, bringing serious experience in building social and creator businesses and an equally serious ambition for what social, creators and commerce can do for brands.
He joins us from Stripe Communications, where he led the agency’s Social & Influencer business, bringing together social, creators, content and production, while embedding AI into new ways of working.
And he knows a thing or two about building from the ground up. Steve established Cohn & Wolfe’s social practice before social became part of the mainstream marketing mix, before going on to build AllTogetherNow at The&Partnership from scratch.
Along the way, he’s led social and creator work for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Google, adidas, L’Oréal and NatWest. His work includes launching Google Pixel with a creator community and leading the social activation for Lexus’ hoverboard campaign – picking up an impressive 92 international awards, including a Cannes Lions Gold.
Why Steve. Why now.
Steve’s arrival marks another important step in the evolution of our Fame That Performs proposition.
We’ve always believed in the power of ideas that get brands talked about. But the way fame is created, and the way it drives growth, is changing fast.
Creators now shape culture, discovery and purchasing decisions. Social can take an idea from conversation to consideration to conversion. And the opportunity for brands lies in connecting all of that rather than treating each part as a separate channel.
Following our acquisition of PinPoint Media in January, PrettyGreen now brings together social and influencer strategy, creator marketing and content production with paid social and performance media expertise.
In other words: we can create the fame, distribute the fame and make the fame perform.
And we’re already seeing that connected approach come to life.
Earlier this year, Unilever’s Dove Division appointed PrettyGreen following a competitive pitch spanning influencer marketing, content creation and ecommerce strategy. That work has since expanded into micro-influencer activity and TikTok Shop, connecting creator content directly with commerce.
Steve’s appointment gives us even more senior specialist firepower across that ecosystem – spanning influencer, organic social, content, paid social and social commerce.
It’s a significant hire for PrettyGreen and an exciting next chapter for our Social & Influencer offer.
Jessica Hargreaves, CEO at PrettyGreen said: “Influencer isn’t an add-on anymore. Creators influence what people discover, consider and buy so PrettyGreen is building an offer around that reality.
“We’re already seeing that with Dove, where the work now stretches from creator content into TikTok Shop. Steve has built social and creator businesses before. He knows how to turn that capability into something clients can use and grow.”
Steve Parker, incoming Managing Partner, Social & Influencer at PrettyGreen, said: “What attracted me to PrettyGreen is the ambition to think much bigger about the role social and creators can play for brands. The industry is moving beyond influencer as a reach channel. Creators now shape everything from discovery and culture to consideration and commerce, and the opportunity is to connect those things to drive genuine growth.
“PrettyGreen already has an exciting combination of creative thinking, earned expertise, social, influencer and performance capability, alongside clients who want to push into new territory. I’m looking forward to building on that momentum, developing the team and helping create an offer that delivers creatively and commercially.”
