Earlier this month, Palm unveiled former Nokia marketer Simon Lloyd as its EMEA marketing director. He left the directory-enquiries company 118 118, where he was commercial director, in August.
Lloyd is planning to create a roster of agencies to handle below-the-line retail, digital and experiential marketing across Europe. RKCR/Y&R last year picked up the first pan-European above-the-line account for Palm. However, Lloyd said it would not be submitting a pitch for the latest portion of business.
He admitted that Palm's European marketing had been 'dormant', but would be bolstered by the fresh activity and the arrival of sales director Paul Ghent, the former UK executive director at handset maker HTC.
Lloyd said: 'We are looking to review our activities as we have no formal network of agencies for Europe. I want to create integrated campaigns across Europe, starting with new products such as the Treo Pro smartphone.'
Replacing Mark Doorbar, who left Palm in January, Lloyd said the company, which has just launched Treo Pro on the Vodafone and O2 networks, needed to 'better engage with consumers in the retail environment'.
He added:'BlackBerry and Nokia have taken a stronghold. It's time to redress the balance.'
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