Doreen Dignan appointed to head of research and evaluation at M4C

Doreen Dignan has been promoted within Group M to head of research and evaluation at M4C.

Dignan will move from her current business planning role at Mindshare to M4C, which was awarded the Central Office of Information (COI) four-year advertising account in February, on 1 June.

“I am hugely excited about the move which, among other things, will involve developing new research into how communications can bring about behavioural change,” Dignan said.  “Given the pressure on COI budgets, it will be even more important to understand how consumers engage with different media channels and apply that knowledge to future campaigns.”

Earlier this week, the new coalition Conservative/Liberal Democrat government announced plans to freeze its annual marketing budget for the current financial year, which runs until the end of March 2011.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said the government hopes to achieve a reduction of marketing and advertising spend “in the region of 50%” from government departments and other agencies, although it will continue to run campaigns that are deemed “essential”.

The COI is currently the UK’s largest advertiser, spending more than £222 million on traditional ads in 2009 alone (according to Nielsen).

Group M’s M4C pitched for the COI account, which was worth £250 million at the time, alongside other agencies including Starcom MediaVest Group and i-Level (under the name of Smile).

The current COI account represents the first time that the office has consolidated its entire media buying business, which was previously split into individual media.