• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 4, 2007

Continuing to build up its digital base, Havas' Arnold, New York late last week announced several key hires beginning with Troy Kelly as senior vice president, director of interactive marketing.

Kelly, who most recently served with Ogilvy & Mather's interactive arm, will now oversee Arnold's client sites, along with their email and Web campaigns.

Nate Swenberg, being brought on as vice president, director of multichannel strategy, will be expected to improve consumer brand experiences across various media channels.

While at Ogilvy & Mather, Kelly worked on accounts such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Six Flags.

Swenberg has served under the flags of several agencies, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Digitas, Eleven and JWT.

In addition, Om Prakash Arora and Mamta Patel have joined Arnold as business strategy managers, and will be expected to direct clients' strategies and market relevance.

The string of hires comes less than a month after Arnold appointed former DraftFCB executive Jonathan Sackett as its chief digital officer--a new position. Sackett reports to Pam Hamlin, president of Arnold's headquarters office in Boston.

At Interpublic Group's DraftFCB, Sackett directed mostly online efforts for Kellogg and Procter & Gamble, among other clients. In his new position with Arnold, Sackett's purview includes online and mobile marketing, Web site design and social networking.

Nearly every agency today is on the lookout for digital leaders to help them face the challenges of mounting interactive work.

Earlier this year, for example, agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners picked up Tribal DDB executive Mike Parker as its director of digital strategy.

Also, Jean-Philippe Maheu, one-time chief executive of Razorfish, was recently named chief digital officer of WPP Group's Ogilvy North America. Maheu's job is to work with both clients and senior Ogilvy managers to develop digital ad efforts.

In addition, Wieden + Kennedy late last year brought on Renny Gleeson as its global director of digital strategies. Gleeson came over from Carat Fusion in New York, where he served as senior vice president, managing director.