Rakuten Marketing today announced the formation of a new digital marketing division and the appointment of its first CMO, Jessica Joines, a cofounder of Digital Marketing Review (DMR) with 15 years’ experience in strategic positioning and media buying.
The newly formed division combines the company’s search marketing, lead generation, and mobile businesses with its LinkShare, MediaForge, and PopShops acquisitions under the name Rakuten Marketing. Rakuten’s stated purpose is to create a one-stop shop for digital marketers.
Before helping to form DMR, Joines served in both creative and media roles at Reprise Media, Universal McCann, and DDB. She is said to have played key roles in client wins for these agencies that included Bayer, Charles Schwab, Johnson & Johnson, Gillette, Nationwide, and BMW.
This is the second big move in the past week for Rakuten Marketing’s parent Rakuten Inc. The owner of the Rakuten Eagles Japanese League baseball team also collected about $20 million from the New York Yankees for the rights to sign ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka.
