Harbinger has announced six new staff hires and promotions in strategic planning, influencer relations and research. The hires reflect the marketing and communications agency’s ongoing shift from a generalist model to a specialist one.
“Not that we call ourselves a PR agency anymore, but our roots are definitely PR. And for some reason, the majority of PR firms tend to set up as generalists versus specialists,” said Jeff Weiss, president of Harbinger. “It’s very much an account management structure and many different functions fall under those roles, from strategic planning, to creativity, to client management… But the reality is you’re not going to find many people who are good at all those things.”
Weiss said Harbinger has “wiped that slate clean” and now operates under four pillars: strategic planning, project management, client service management and program implementation. “So now we’ve got people who, in most cases, are dedicated to one of those four areas.”
In the latest round of new hires, Jennifer Lomax joins Harbinger in the newly created position of vice-president, strategic planning. In the role, Lomax will oversee consumer insight and planning activities, and lead brand purpose engagements. Lomax previously freelanced for Harbinger and was also a consultant at Satov Consultants (formerly Torque Consulting Group). In 2013, she was named one of Marketing’s 30 Under 30.
Lauren Rivietz, previously a client service manager at Harbinger,was promoted to the new position of director, influencer marketing. “We used to split traditional media relations, social and digital and we’ve gotten rid of that,” said Weiss. “The reality is it’s all influencers and it’s a combination of paid, earned and owned.”
To bolster the agency’s research and consumer insight capabilities, Harbinger hired Nelson de los Santos as manager, digital & social insights. Jason Yang joins the team as marketing analyst.
On the client service side, Stephanie Bateman, formerly an account coordinator at Harbinger, was promoted to client service manager. Sierra Koitses, previously a freelancer for Harbinger, has been hired as account coordinator.
