• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 15, 2007

With an eye on the digital future, independent marketing agency imc² has scored Alan Schulman as its new senior vice president, executive creative director.

Schulman's most recent post was chief creative officer for Brand New World -- an agency he co-founded in 2004 -- while he previously served as creative head for Universal McCann Futures, the digital media unit of McCann Erickson Worldgroup.

Well-known in agency circles for leading the industry beyond the 30-second spot, Schulman has headed digital initiatives for top brands, including Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola's Global iMarketing group, and Verizon.

"Alan's creative mind and expertise in emerging media will bring an entirely new level of breakthrough creative to the work we deliver for our clients," said Doug Levy, imc² president.

Those brands include Procter & Gamble, The Coca-Cola Company, Johnson & Johnson, Norwegian Cruise Line, Pizza Hut, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.

Why the switch to a lesser-known agency?

"imc² has one of the best, if not the best, digital strategy groups in the business," Schulman explained. "They've built an organization of size and scale where ideas can come from anywhere."

In addition, imc² is one of the few remaining privately held independent agencies of scale along with AKQA and Wieden+Kennedy. (Sapient is another scalable independent, but is publicly traded.)

Said Schulman: "imc² is one of the last truly independent digital agencies led by a management team that's unencumbered by the biases of above and below the line thinking -- there is no line."

Before Universal McCann, Schulman served as a global executive director of FutureBrand Worldwide, where he developed online and offline brand identity for digital brands, including MSN, Terra and AOL China.