Peppercom Adds MIT Researcher as Director of Customer Insights

New York ? May 28, 2008 ? Peppercom, a strategic communications firm headquartered in New York, today hired Sam Ford as the Director of Consumer Insights.  Ford, former project manager for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?s Convergence Culture Consortium and MIT Comparative Media Studies instructor, will play a key role leading Peppercom?s PepperDigital practice in research and analysis of audience behaviors and media trends.

In his new role, Ford will work across the agency to examine changes impacting communications programs in order to identify opportunities for clients to leverage the shifting media landscape to reach and influence target audiences.  Ford?s deep expertise will provide unparalleled insight for clients grappling with the proliferation of new media offerings, including Web 2.0 and other digital tools, as well as how those tools co-exist with traditional media.  Ford will play a pivotal role advising clients how best to leverage digital communications, including search engine optimization, social networks, blogging and podcasts, to achieve real-world business goals.

?Sam?s deep knowledge in the emerging Web 2.0 world will take Peppercom?s digital practice to the next level,? said Steve Cody, co-founder and managing partner at Peppercom.  ?We?re offering our clients an academic with a background and knowledge base that enables us not only to forecast digital trends, but to also examine and leverage the ever-evolving, current digital marketplace.  As far as we know, we?re the only communications firm with this type of expertise on staff.?

In the past three years, Peppercom has focused on making strategic, non-traditional hires to offer clients high-end consultative services that address their business? bottom lines.  Ford follows the hire of Gene Colter, former business editor of the Wall Street Journal and Matt Purdue, former editor of Worth.  Ford will help clients find new ways to relate to customers, manage brand messaging, create two-way, interactive experiences, and develop strategies to rise above the cluttered media environment and leverage technological trends.  Just as Colter and Purdue bolstered Peppercom?s financial and editorial expertise, this position will enhance PepperDigital?s ability to help companies use digital communications strategies to achieve business objectives in alignment with their ongoing traditional programs.

During his time at MIT, Sam served as project manager for theConvergence Culture Consortium (C3), which explores the ways in which the business landscape is changing in response to the growing integration of content and brands across media platforms and the increasingly prominent roles that consumers are playing in shaping the flow of media.  C3 connects researchers and thinkers from MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program with companies looking to understand new strategies for doing business in a converging media environment.  Their current partners are Fidelity Investments, GSD&M Idea City, MTV Networks, Turner Broadcasting, and Yahoo!

Sam holds a Bachelor?s degree from Western Kentucky University and a Master?s degree from MIT?s Comparative Media Studies Program.  He will maintain the title of research affiliate at MIT, through which he will continue presenting and publishing academic work.