I’ve heard a lot about James Scroggs, from a lot of disperate people including Mr Networker himself, Oli Barrett. When Oli’s talking about someone — and actually takes the time to call you up to discuss the person, you know it’s good news.
So here we have it officially. James, formerly VP of Marketing at MTV Networks UK & Ireland, is joining SpinVox — one of my all time uber-brilliant favourite services.
He’s an interesting chap. Have a read of this:
Scroggs joined MTV Networks UK & Ireland in 2002 and as VP of Marketing Scroggs spearheaded its brand strategy and activation. MTV has been voted the Worlds Most Valuable Media Brand by Interbrand/Business Week. He was responsible for all advertising, digital, events, products, brand experiences and corporate social responsibility initiatives. He launched a multitude of key brand initiatives and TV franchises, including Pimp My Ride and the BOOM education programme and was the key spokesperson for MTV’s 25th Anniversary celebrations.
Scroggs started work in advertising in 1993, firstly as a Graduate Recruit at DMB&B and as the Account Manager on the Mars Bar ‘Work, Rest and Play’ and Budweiser ‘Genuine Article‘ campaigns. He then joined Lowe Howard-Spink as the Account Director on Stella Artois. He was the anchorman of the consistently award-winning Stella Artois ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ campaign, including the famed Stella Bottle campaign, which won a Cannes Grand Prix, and the launch of the multi-award winning ‘Stella Screen’ film programme, all of which contributed to Stella becoming the UK’s most valuable beer brand.
He’s the guy who anchored the Reassuringly Expensive one, eh? He’s also the one to thank for the wicked Channel4 movies brought to you by Stella. See. It does work, brand building. I remember’em.
He then moved on to the ill-fated ONdigital as Senior Brand Manager, drove its relaunch as ITV Digital with the genesis of the still famous ‘Al & Monkey’ campaign, recently redeployed for PG Tips, before joining MTV. He is on the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Director of Robin Wight’s ‘Ideas Foundation’ and patron of a high profile Mental Health charity CALM – Campaign Against Living Miserably.
I’m really excited to see what he cooks up at SpinVox. Kudos to them for hiring him.
Just in case you’re on the hunt for a SpinVox primer:
SpinVox launched the world’s first voicemail-to-text service in 2004 in the UK and this year has launched its service in North America with further deployments scheduled for South Africa and Canada in the coming months. The company expects to go live with 12 deals in 2007, reaching an initial potential customer base of six million.
SpinVox services enable both Wireless 2.0 and Web 2.0 businesses with its range of voice-to-screen products which convert any voice to text and deliver it to any screen – mobile, computer or PDA. The most recent SpinVox deals include its launch with leading blog provider Six Apart to provide its 12 million LiveJournal customers with voice-powered blogging and the launch of its voicemail-to-text service with Cincinnati Bell in the U.S.
Go ahead and get yourself a test account at spinvox.com. It’s pure brilliance, the service.