Vive Unruly France!

Proving the point that social media can be a difficult beast to control, we've excitedly pre-announced this information a couple of times on Twitter already (!) but we're stoked to announce the launch of our first international office in Paris.

We're delighted to welcome Dorota Smaggia to head up the new team. Dorota is a Skyrock alumnus who knows online and social inside out.  As COO of France en Ligne, she ran one of the first online portals in France, and more recently headed business development for free music community Jamendo and video distribution service AKA.

So why France? And why now?

During 2009, we worked on several significant French campaigns, including Evian's spectacularly successful Roller Babies, for BETC EuroRSCG, Paris. While we've been happily running multi-lingual pan-European campaigns out of London for several years, the scale of the opportunity and the need to form closer ties with French influencers, key bloggers and social media properties has drawn us to set up a local presence.

Add to that the incredibly vibrant social media landscape in France, where we've had great feedback and support from bloggers and media owners. Pub-news.fr,  VincentAbry.com and Ibuzzyou have covered the launch, and we're looking forward to a productive Spring time in Paris. You can find the official press release here and if you'd like any further information, just shout!