Endemol Taps Di Gioacchino for Branded Entertainment Role

HILVERSUM,
May 15: Endemol Group has appointed Marco Di Gioacchino to the newly created
role of executive director of branded entertainment, based in London.

The move represents the
start of a global initiative by Endemol to significantly expand its
advertiser-related business activities. In his new role, Di Gioacchino will
work with Endemol’s operating companies around the world in partnering leading
brands with the Group’s entertainment properties.

Endemol
has already had success with branded entertainment partnerships in the U.S. and
in Europe, with recent credits including the Vodafone Live Music Awards for Channel 4 in the U.K.; Sears’ sponsorship of Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition for ABC in
the U.S.; Band in a Bubble,
sponsored by Dr. Pepper for MTV in the U.S.; and Life and Cooking with
Unilever for RTL4 in the
Netherlands.

Di Gioacchino was formerly
the new-media marketing director at Publitalia, an TV advertising company
within Italy’s Mediaset, where he provided advertisers and media agencies with
integrated communication solutions for on- and off-line media. Prior to that,
he worked as a management consultant at Deloitte and Touche, where he was
engaged in a wide range of marketing projects for the consumer products
industry.

Marco
Bassetti, the COO of Endemol Group, commented: “Branded content is an area
where we see a fast-growing number of opportunities in key markets around the
world. Marco has an impressive track record of working with leading brands and
I’m delighted to have him joining us.”

—By Irene Lew