Following BMW Hire, German Comms Agency Looping Group Expands Into UK

With its pitch win and appointment by BMW Group to support its digital marketing communications, Looping Group, a German communications and production company with offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, has expanded into London. The opening follows BMW's decision in April to form a specialized agency unit, The Game Group, as it streamlined its agency roster. The group will be overseen by Jens Thiemer, svp customer and brand for BMW, and will include Looping Group, which will develop the brand's PR and social media. Also part of The Game Group are Jung von Matt which will handle above-the-line and liganova GMBH which will oversee experiential activity. Ahead of last September's formation of The Game Group, BMW and Mini consolidated its pan-European marketing work within S4 Capital’s creative production business MediaMonks. This was part of the formation of another BMW-focused marketing group called The Engine which was S4Capital joined by Serviceplan and Berylls Strategy Advisors. The restructure comes as the automaker wants all of its future communications to be data-driven and adapted in real-time, servicing 26 European markets including Germany. “There is of course an interlinked cooperation, especially on the topics of strategy, company and brand messages as well as editorial and social media,” said Thiemer in a statement on the “conscious decision” to look to London as a location. “For social media channels in particular, we get a different quality of service there than in Eastern Europe, for example. In addition, from London we can better interact with the international community of all target groups,” he added. Looping Group Expansion Since the appointment, Looping Group has named former CSO Christian Polman as managing director U.K. to lead the new London office and its service of BMW. The move reunited Polman with Looping Group COO Michael Karg, formerly the chief executive of Ebiquity. Also on board is James Walkinshaw has joined from Golin to lead the delivery of digital services as client service director. Erminia Blackden as planning director and Duncan Bone, formerly working for Wieden+Kennedy, as executive creative director among a spate of rapid hires. Robin Houcken, CEO and co-founder of Looping Group, said the investment into the expansion came despite the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and the location was chosen because of its “significant role as a global powerhouse in creativity, media and culture.” “We’re confident that it’s the right home to scale our content-led, data-driven offering to help brands win attention across global platforms," he added. Polman said in a statement that “We have a fantastic team in place, and I greatly look forward to working with the BMW Group and other leading brands with new approaches to solving today’s brand communications challenges.” The business aims to employ 50 people in its London office by the end of the year and has a team with diversity recruitment specialist Hidden to use its bias-free technology and embedding approach. In Germany, Looping Group also works with clients such as Allianz, Deutsche Telekom, Sooner and the Human Vaccines Project. BMW Projected AI-Generated Art Onto Its Cars for New Campaign