For the past several years Lilley, who once ran the in-house media department at Combe Inc. and headed the media departments at two SSC&B/Lintas and Kenyon & Eckhardt, has worked as a marketing and media consultant to several top marketers.
The post reunites Lilley with Optimedia CEO Mike Drexler, whom he worked with during their salad days in the Ogilvy & Mather media department.
Lilley says the timing of his appointment makes sense, because Optimedia has completed a cultural transition from its founding chief Gene DeWitt (who moved on to a short-lived stint as president of the Syndicated Network Television Association, MediaPost Aug. 5) to Drexler and the agency is now ready to go out and position itself as an alternative to some of the mega media agency brands: big, but not too big and with a creative approach to media planning and buying.
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"Our strategy is that we're in the results business," says Lilley. "In fact, we should call our selves a marketing services company, not just a media company. We're not about how low the CPM is, but what the return is on someone's media investment."