Wax Communications has snapped up Arc marketing director Matt Tabb to take over from Sam Jordan as managing director at the Media Square-owned promotional marketing agency.

Matt has spent the last ten years at Arc, arriving as an account executive when the agency was still IMP, and working his way up to the role of group account director, gaining broad experience of integrated promotional marketing along the way.

He played a crucial role in developing one of the agency’s most prestigious accounts, Procter & Gamble, working on high profile brands such as Ariel and Flash, winning industry plaudits and commercial success for his work.

Ariel’s hugely successful ‘Championship Whites’ initiative helped Ariel to the top spot in the detergent market and picked up a number of industry awards, as well as becoming the benchmark for integrated promotions throughout P&G.

Since January 2006 Matt has held overall responsibility for developing new business for Arc in the UK as marketing director, winning significant business from brands including HBoS, iShares, Guinness and Coca-Cola.

A member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Matt is passionate about the industry and its people and as such is a regular ISP awards judge. He was recently a mentor on the IPA/NABS ‘Fast Forward’ course for rising industry stars.

Commenting on his appointment Tabb says:

“My plan is to build on the great work Sam Jordan and his team have done since Wax’s inception, take the agency forward and compete with the best in pitches and awards. The vision for Wax is to become the number one agency in the world of promotional marketing and an attractive proposition for clients and agency people alike.”

Bruce Winfield, chairman of Media Square’s Marketing Division, says:

“Matt’s channel expertise, his experience and creative approach to integrated marketing will allow us to take Wax’s offer into new areas and across different platforms and that is an exciting prospect for us and our clients. Bringing someone with Matt’s talent on board will allow Wax to play on a bigger stage. We are delighted to welcome him.”

Matt will report into Bruce Winfield, divisional CEO Marketing Services at Media Square.

Digital choice: bbc.co.ukby Phil Pawsey, Creative director, Wax Communications Marketing 11-Mar-08

I must admit that I was recently taken aback by the new-look BBC homepage. I guess you get used to things as they are, especially when it comes to Auntie, but having taken a quick tour, I confess that I am a convert.

The new BBC landing page is customisable, comprising a series of movable widgets that can be linked to favourite programmes. The page’s content and colours can also be customised, putting the user in complete

control. Users can receive feeds from blogs produced across the BBC, ranging from Newsnight to Radio 1’s Chris Moyles, as well as localising news and weather feeds and dictating the number of headlines that appear.

Personalisation is top of the agenda here.

The page itself is huge, taking into account the prevalence of big computer screens, and allows pictures to make a real impact on design – something that is often lost onscreen. The downside is that you need to scroll down to unveil the site in its full glory.

There is a nice retro touch in the top right corner in the form of an analogue clock, which immediately took me back to Saturday nights, my nan’s sandwiches and Basil Brush.

In design terms, it is clean and enticing, and inoffensive enough to look like it has always been that way. And with a host of features such as live radio, the BBC is moving with the times.