The Digitas camp let us know that CMO Seth Solomons will be leaving the agency, but not going too far as he’s launching CRM365 within VivaKi. What’s CRM365, you ask? Well, according to the parties involved, it’s an “always-on” CRM operation that’s part of an effort to take a bigger piece of the pie in the $3 billion CRM market.
Why now? According to Solomons, who will serve as CEO of CRM365, “In a meeting a couple of weeks ago, a client said ‘I have buckets full of data and I don’t know what to do with it’. The pain that this particular client highlights is one that is shared by many in the industry. And this is what some have called the ‘Big Data Challenge.’ And ‘big’ is now bigger with social and mobile data. And this is the opportunity.”
The NYC-based CRM365 will launch with 45 staffers in tow (both full-time and consultants) and the new unit will partner, not surprisingly, with fellow VivaKi agencies including Big Fuel, Razorfish, StarcomMediaVest and yes, Digitas. Under Solomons’ and Digitas CEO Laura Lang’s watch, there are already plans to expand CRM365 globally in countries including the U.K., France and Germany by next year.