Name With The Face: Marie-Madeleine Salmon
Job Title: Head of Information Center
Organization: Publicis
www.publicis.com/corporate/en
Job Function: Marie-Madeleine Salmon is transforming the classical information center at Publicis in Paris into a more modern organization. Salmon, who has degrees in information science and marketing, says her knowledge of the advertising industry is critical. “I’m heavily involved in the advertising industry because my internal clients are in advertising,” Salmon says. Publicis Groupe, the fourth largest communications group in the world, includes the Publicis, Leo Burnett Worldwide, and Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide advertising networks.
Salmon is a pioneer in using branding, advertising, and marketing techniques to promote the information center. “We are planning a new information portal, and my team created a positioning and messaging platform, branding of the information department, and our own logo,” she says. Salmon says all information professionals need to promote their services and products and to be in touch with their internal clients. “I develop a marketing view of information, and I think about promotion and organizing the information center internally as a brand.”
In A Day’s Work: “I have a team of four people, and our main responsibility is for France,” Salmon says. “But I also work with my colleagues in the U.S. and U.K. on worldwide projects for clients like Renault and Lancôme. We manage major information sources such as Factiva, advertising specialized sources, and targeted information for the businesses of Publicis clients, such as automobile sources.”
Salmon and her team interview her internal clients. “We want to know about their relationships with the computer,” she says. “Is it easy or not? How do they use information and content?” She uses marketing segmentation techniques to identify distinct needs of demographics such as top managers in Paris and people in the field. “I think this is very rare. I hope that the community of information professionals will learn about this technique, and we can help one another.”
View From The Desk: “We are located at the top of the Champs Elysées, a very strategic space. All of the office materials are in wood. When people visit from other countries, they are very surprised at the warm ambiance of the agency.”
Outside Interest: “I’m passionate about opera. When I am in New York, it doesn’t matter what opera is being performed, I run to hear.”
If Not Econtent, Then What?: “I’d be a musician. At Publicis we make music with each other like different instruments in an orchestra.”
