Ruth Allchurch joins WE as UK general manager

WE Communications has appointed Ruth Allchurch as general manager of its London office.

She will replace current UK general manager Marcus Sorour, who is set to become vice president, international, client services at the agency. Both Sorour and Allchurch will be based in London and report to Alan VanderMolen, WE’s president, international.

A consumer and FMCG comms specialist, Allchurch was previously managing director at Burson Cohn & Wolfe, where she led the agency’s UK consumer brand practice.

Allchurch says brands must work to win consumer trust

This appointment comes during a period of dramatic change in how brands are perceived in the consumer landscape. Allchurch stressed that brands today must understand the high expectations consumers have of them and tailor their communications accordingly.

“We are now seeing brands having to work harder and harder to win consumer trust in this era of transparency,” she said. “Our job in 2018 is to ensure brands stay true to the role they can play in consumers’ lives and not behave like something they aren’t.

“Fundamentally, brands in 2018 need to be clear on their purpose and increase integration across the entire media ecosystem (paid, earned, owned, experiential and search).”

She added: “It is about creating meaningful content which provides useful product and service information or is entertaining or serves some sort of higher purpose.

“Content delivered by a brand should be targeted to the customer’s needs and be in real-time. SEO targeting and retargeting are critical and brands need to anticipate these micro-moments to provide the right information at the right time to build stronger customer relationships.”

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