IPG Shop Initiative Names Leader of Social Media Practice Prophesee

By Joe Ciarallo on February 8, 2010 5:03 PM

“Answering business questions is key,” says Raquel Krouse, the newly minted Senior-Vice President, Director at Prophesee, the social media division of IPG (NYSE: IPG) agency Initiative.

“There are a lot of tools out there that run reports. But what does that mean to your business? Our analysts provide that. They enable you to make sense of the data,” says Krouse, when asked how Prophesee is different from other social media-centric agencies.

Previously Vice-President, Practice Lead, Social Media at IPG’s Emerging Media Lab, Krouse recommended various IPG agencies to current and potential clients. She has always been impressed by Prophesee in part because they will not settle on one tool when it comes to social media monitoring. “They don’t believe there is one tool that will answer every business question,” she says.

Krouse will dive in with Initiative clients including Hyundai/Kia, Vivio and Best Western.

We asked her about PepsiCo Global Director of Digital and Social Media Bonin Bough‘s recent comments, that the strategy of using a TV spot and then making that spot into an online or Facebook strategy “does not exist anymore.”

“I disagree, social media is a way to extend the reach of other campaigns, but it has to be dimensional-ized and changed,” she said, and added that she “loves” the work Bonin and PepsiCo have done.

“I think he is saying that one-way communication doesn’t translate into a two-way space. The way it is, he’s right, but if you ad interactive elements to it, there is a way to expand the story.”