Profero have today announced that they have not launched a Social Media department.

Instead they have put a name to a team that already lives across the global group (including their strategic partner Plan.Net) - The Hive.

The Hive is a team of over 50 people from strategy, media, creative and technology running through Profero’s global team. It also incorporates Profero’s partner in Europe, Plan.Net, who have teams in Hamburg, Moscow, Munich, Paris and Zurich. Each Hive member has an unparalleled understanding of, and insight into, the benefits that social media can bring to specific brands at specific times, insight that has already led to some of the most successful campaigns that the agency has run for, among others, Buena Vista International (Singapore), Channel 4 (UK), COI (UK), Universal Music (Australia) and Universal Pictures (Spain).

The Hive will act as a focal point for any clients looking for advice within Social Media and will continue to deliver a broad range of solutions, including Content Creation, Paid Social Media Involvement, Seeding and Social Media Monitoring. The team will aim to both deliver at a local level and to share learnings from other markets to maximize these cross borders. It will initially be driven by Daniele Fiandaca, CEO (Europe), although each local team will have a strategic lead.

Channel 4's Disarming Britain campaign, with social media at its core.

Daniele comments "Over the last 12-18 months there much written around the growing number of agencies that have created bespoke social media offerings, or developed new departments within their existing business, all in response to rise of social. This makes little sense to us as it should be across the whole agency and should not sit as a stand-alone department. Of course, there should be specialists but these should be drawn from the whole team. The purpose for us in The Hive is to create a real focus for conversation across the global team as well as making it clear to clients that we have a really strong offering within this area, which we will continue to invest in."

Jamie Coomber, Digital Strategist in London, comments, "We have been delivering social media solutions to clients for years and, as an agency that has always incorporated media, creative and technology, it has come naturally. However, I think it is equally important to look at the work we have not done for clients - we have refused a number of opportunities to build irrelevant social networks for brands and certainly do not believe in brands building blogs merely for the sake of it."

Xu Rui, Regional Director Asia speaking from Shanghai, stated, "It is interesting in China that we often hear North American and European agencies talk of social media as if it stands alone. What is described as social media is so ingrained and impossible to differentiate from a China and wider Asian cultural perspective. Look at how Naver in South Korea employs search and one can easily understand that behaviour here is far ahead of what is happening in Europe and the Americas. This provides our teams with a very interesting context"

Wayne Arnold, CEO (North America) commented. "As the need for expertise in social media becomes a core competency of the more progressive global digital agencies, we are delighted not be launching a new product, confident that, having been thinking differently for ten years, we will continue to deliver extraordinary social experiences for our clients anywhere in the world whenever they are required."

Mike Zeederberg, MD in Sydney, comments, "Given the fantastic success we've had incorporating social media into the campaigns we've been running for Universal Music and Movie Network over the last couple of years we're looking forward to ensuring our clients understand that this week's latest buzz-word - "Social Media" - is in fact something that's been part of the fabric of Profero's offering for some time."

Some of The Hive members

Ernesto Alegre, Head of Strategy, Madrid, comments, "We believe we have long been immersed in an environment where it is no longer a matter of buying time or space in media but more winning a place in the socialogue - the most powerful renewable energy of smart content; the oxygen of communication in the next few years...

John Ng, MD of Profero Singapore, says, "People spend half or more of their time online talking. The inherent nature of the Internet as a medium nurtures this. For me, good digital strategies should trigger conversations both offline and online and because Profero has always done that, from the very beginning, The Hive is our way of reinforcing this commitment."

Elisabetta Oldrini, MD of Profero Milan comments, "With the Asian and American markets moving at a faster pace than Italy's. The Hive provides us with amazing insight into what is to come within the local market, where social media is only just taking hold. This puts us in a very strong position within the market as we are including more Social Media thinking into our solutions, except we are doing so with the backdrop of experience from the other teams across the world."

Manfred Klaus, MD of Plan.net, Profero’s European partners, said, "Social Media has been an important component of online communication strategies for Plan.Net and our clients for many years. The Hive enables us to profit from global experiences and trends and to go forward in this area with great confidence."

* Through partnership with Plan.Net (www.plan-net.de).