Sid Lee is placing a big bet on content marketing.
The agency announced a new content marketing division Thursday to be run out of its Toronto office. The unnamed division will be run by Joseph Barbieri, who left Bespoke Group, the boutique content marketing he founded, to take on the newly created role of managing director of content and media partnerships at Sid Lee.
Barbieri has long worked in the branded content field, serving as senior vice-president of marketing and business development at Totem (formerly Redwood Custom Communications) and vice-president of content solutions at TC Media. He has overseen content programs for brands such as P&G, Sobeys and Geico. He’s also a member of the board of directors for the Custom Content Council in New York, where Bepoke has an office.
Barbieri will work out of Sid Lee’s Toronto office in collaboration with Sid Lee Toronto president Vito Piazza.
In a release, Piazza said the new division will tie together many of the agency’s other initiatives, such as events and entertainment, by documenting them via branded content. “We are committed to a reengineering of brand content that puts transformative customer experience at the centre and that brings together various Sid Lee disciplines including, video production, entertainment, technology, architecture and events,” he said.
Unlike the agency’s other operations such as Sid Lee Architecture, Sid Lee Entertainment or Jimmy Lee, the content division will be a “fully integrated part of the company,” rather than its own entity.
