Steak, a UK-based digital marketing agency, has launched its first US-based office in New York.
The US market is large with a very developed interactive side, so the potential is very attractive to Steak, said Chrysi Philalithes, launch managing director for Steak NY. Philalithes previously worked at MIVA as VP of global marketing and communications.
Steak NY’s first clients are French Connection, a fashion brand; FunkySexyCool, a global mobile-based community; and Myla, a luxury lingerie, body product and sex toy company. Steak will be working with FunkySexyCool on a mobile search campaign, Philalithes said. “It’s one of their key drivers for acquisition,” she said.
Since Steak first launched in London in 2005, the agency has grown “phenomenally,” Philalithes said. “It has billings in 2007 of approximately $50 million,” she said.
Steak received venture capitalist funding last year from Beringea, an international private equity and investment banking firm, to expand into the US and Australian markets. The agency’s new Melbourne office is set to launch at the beginning of April, Philalithes said.
Oliver Bishop, Steak’s CEO, has relocated from the London to New York for the launch.
Noah Elkin, formerly of the digital marketing company iCrossing, has joined Steak NY as VP of corporate strategy and Rick Dalton will be Steak NY’s director of paid search. Dalton previously worked at Didit, a search marketing firm.
In addition to search engine marketing, Steak provides mobile search, online reputation management, affiliate marketing, digital creative, and digital media planning and buying. “We describe ourselves as a search-led digital agency,” Philalithes said.
“We firmly believe that there is an art as well as a science to search,” Philalithes said. “All forms of marketing communications — whether online or offline — should have at their foundation an understanding of what people are searching for and why they’re searching for it.”
