Ed Abis joins never.no as VP EMEA

By Jenna

5 June, 2015

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Former Nike And ITV Marketeer Edoardo Abis Joins Social TV Pioneers never.no

International sports marketing expert to drive growth in EMEA territory from never.no's MediaCityUK base

Pioneering Social TV specialist never.no has announced the appointment of Edoardo Abis to head up EMEA business development.

Edoardo, or Ed' as he is known throughout the sports and media industry, was previously Head of Business for the Nike-managed Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) coaching experience globally.

During his three and half years in the role he successfully developed and extended the reach of the brand in Europe and Asia as well as creating new consumer and commercial mobile platforms to increase revenues.

Prior to joining Nike, Ed worked for Perform Sports Media - a global sports media business which specialises in the development and distribution of premium sporting content for digital and broadcast platforms.

He also spent several years as the Commercial Manager of Sports Services for ITV where he worked on securing international sponsorship deals, licensing partnerships and the sale of broadcast rights for Arsenal and Liverpool Football Clubs.

In a newly created role Ed will now lead never.no's ambitious growth strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa including the sales and marketing of never.no's market-leading social content application STORY.

STORY allows TV producers, creative directors and advertising executives to gather, aggregate manage, render and insert user-generated social content directly into live, as live and pre-recorded TV shows, sponsor breaks and advertising spots.

STORY has already been utilised by many of the world's media owners and channels, including NBC Universal, QVC, Viasat, CBC, Sky, BBC, Al Jazeera, Fox Sports, MTG, Viacom, ITV and MediaCorp, to enhance their programming, increase viewer engagement and drive second screen audience conversations.

In addition, global brands such as Coke, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble, Jeep and Intel have all used STORY to create highly personalised TV ad campaigns which use social content to boost audience interaction and build brand loyalty.

Ed will be based at never.no's office at The Landing at MediaCityUK where he will work closely with never.no's CEO Scott Davies.

Ed said of his appointment: Through my experience of working with global sporting brands over the last 15 years I have seen how social media and peer-to-peer dialogue has transformed the way organisations, products and services are perceived by the public. It's also no longer enough to simply assume your past reputation, or a huge above the line advertising spend, will get you the customers base, market share or the ROI you expect.

That's why the opportunity to work with never.no is so exciting as they have tapped into the public appetite for social shares, selfies and instant conversations and through the STORY application have developed a way to channel this quickly into TV and video broadcasts..

With so many advertisers and TV executives all desperate to find ways to retain a viewer's attention and create points of difference the potential growth for never.no is immense. I'm therefore greatly looking forward to helping them take the STORY product into new markets and territories through my role as the new VP for EMEA.

Scott Davies, CEO of never.no, said: One of never.no's key markets is sports so clearly Ed's background in such a global, popular and multi-billion dollar industry will be very helpful.

However I also believe that his insights into how brands like Nike and Manchester United have adopted new and innovative ways to communicate with their audiences can be applied to other types of businesses and sectors, which is why I'm delighted he has joined the never.no team at this transformational time for the company.

One of Ed's first tasks will be to communicate to existing never.no clients the raft of new features and benefits which have recently been added to the STORY product. These include quicker gathering, filtering and rendering of social content - to allow for almost instantaneous broadcast - and a social response function that allows STORY clients to converse with individual viewers who submit social content to them on either a live chat or automated basis.

For more about never.no, its work or client case studies visit www.never.no

LINK:	http://blog.never.no/2015/06/ed-abis-joins-never-no-as-vp-emea/...
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