Balfour (pictured) will work across all Engine agencies, which include Jam, Partners Andrews Aldridge and WCRS. He will liaise withclients and position Engine as a thought leader on digital.
Reporting to Debbie Klein, the Engine UK chief executive, Balfour joins as the group looks to grow digital revenues, which currently account for 60 per cent ofits fee income.
Balfour has operated as a consultant since the end of the Olympics.
He previously worked as aproducer on the launch of The Guardian’s first website and was a co-founder of CricInfo, which was sold to ESPN in 2005. Between 2006 and 2012, Balfour led a LOCOG new-media team that delivered 77 digital channels to a worldwide audience of more than 150 million.
Balfour will work as part of a central team alongside Klein and Pete Edwards, the strategy director. Engine, whose clients include the UK government, BSkyB and BMW, employs 450 people in digital roles.
Balfour said: "The task is to support Engine by giving work a higher profile to help itto become better-known as a digital operator and to ensure that digital work delivered at all levels is of the best quality."
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