BRUSSELS - 31/05/2021 - Semetis, Belgian leading Digital Marketing Agency, is delighted to announce the appointment of Dhan Claes and Jennifer Hubert as Directors in their responsibility of the agency’s new leadership as of June 1st. 

New leadership team

Dhan Claes and Jennifer Hubert are the up-and-comers set to accelerate Semetis growth, building on the agency's outstanding reputation. Yes, they are in their early 30’s, and yes they are women.

Semetis cultivates, for over a decade, a strong culture of co-leadership. Effective June, Dhan Claes and Jennifer Hubert will operate in what’s been called the “two in a box” model. Dhan Claes, as Managing Director, and Jennifer Hubert as Operations Director, committed to leading the agency together to the next level.

Ambitiously determined to bring business growth for its clients through exploration, Semetis enlists visionary and critical thinkers who believe in its core values. Jennifer and Dhan grew along with the company. While many millennials are known as job-hoppers, both Jennifer and Dhan started in entry-level positions at Semetis. They started as eBusiness Analyst, setting-up and optimizing digital advertising campaigns and analytics. Evolving to top performing consultants they evaluated, developed and operated digital marketing activities, resulting in delivering growth and value to their clients. They have a deep understanding of how a client’s business operates and how to overcome their digital challenges. Over the years they rose to management roles, overseeing both a team of a dozen people. They know the ins and outs of the business across teams and departments.

“Having been here for a long time, I have seen that people at Semetis constantly intend to push the limits. What I have learned is that creating and maintaining our culture and environment of growing, failing and belonging is a very important part of leadership. This allowed us to overcome the humble beginnings and climb the ladder” says Jennifer Hubert.

For the last few years, Dhan Claes has played a crucial role in the development and innovation tracks of data-driven marketing at Semetis, making sure Semetis is pioneering together with its clients in areas they see great value in. In her new position, she will drive business development and the commercial aspects of the agency. Over the course of the last few years, Jennifer Hubert became a pivotal part in the growth of Semetis by carrying out the organizational changes. In her new role, she will be focusing on the beating heart of Semetis: people’s growth, operational excellence and service quality. They will be supported by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Head of Strategy, and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Head of Analytics, focusing on the development and expansion of the different services. 

Women leadership

Omnicom Media Group and the Semetis Board of Directors are proud about this new era of women executives at the head of Semetis. Women bring different perspectives, structural and cultural differences, which ultimately drive effective and innovative solutions. 

Semetis is strong and growing

“A little over a year ago COVID19 was just starting to take hold, and it created a world filled with great uncertainty. But what did not change is the sense amongst the Semetissians that the best is yet to come. With that mindset, we booked a record year in terms of revenue in 2020 and generated +30% growth in the first quarter of 2021. The numbers continue to prove that youth is not wasted on the young.” says Dhan Claes. 

Semetissians are a digital first generation, and that is clearly a strength they build on. The facts speak for themselves. “As our business continues to grow, we have been heavily investing in our employees to reflect our ambition. In the last 12 months we have recruited 16 talents.”, says Jennifer Hubert. Next to that, Semetis continues exploring solutions to bring business growth to their clients and drive innovation in a suitable and sustainable way. The agency is pioneering in emerging technology such as artificial intelligence. Through their department ROBOT, consisting of data engineers and data scientists, AI is used to help advertisers. Innovating with adtech got Semetis listed four times as nominee for the AMMA Awards of 2021.  “We don't always brag, but when you win three AMMA Awards, there is something. It is a testament that our work is among the best in the industry. “ says Dhan Claes. 

Commenting on the appointment, Omnicom Media Group Belgium CEO, Sonja Klein says: “I am delighted that Dhan Claes and Jennifer Hubert are taking over the leadership of Semetis. Semetis has clients that are digital, media and tech savvy, open to innovation, with the pandemic needing to even further accelerate their digital transformation. The strong experience of Semetis and the new management team will be vital to guide those clients and deliver on their digital challenges.”.

The digital marketing agency, Semetis, which was already in the lead with 4 nominations, managed to convert 3 of those. No less than 2 Gold AMMAs and 1 Silver were won by Semetissians. "Winning 3 AMMAs is proof that our work is among the best in our sector," says Dhan Claes, eBusiness Consulting Manager at Semetis.

Semetis dominates the podium in the "Best Use of Data and Performance" category.

 At the AMMA Awards, this is the first time that an agency has won multiple top spots in a category.

The case "Ardennes-Etape: Reducing advertising waste by predicting user score" was awarded gold. With this case, Semetis is a pioneer in the use of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. "At Ardennes-Etape, we have implemented OKRs to accelerate our digital transformation, where data activation is essential. Those who really try to put data at the centre of their organisation realise that they quickly hit a wall. The abundance of data is simply too much for people to handle. Thanks to the cloud for marketing infrastructure that Semetis has set up for our daily management, we have managed to supercharge our marketing," says Philippe Neumann, CEO of Ardennes-Etape.

Semetis also won the Silver award for its DMLights case: "Fully Automated Profit Engine". "This case proves that we continue to look for solutions for sustainable and profitable growth for our customers", says Dhan Claes. Frederic Palella, senior eBusiness consultant at Semetis, adds, "By fully exploiting the automation capabilities, we have created an SEA engine that maximises both revenue and profit. This has not only allowed us to increase ROI, but also to shift our focus from heavy operations to strategic thinking.”

Gold Award for "Best Use of Interactive & Social Media”.

"The end-of-year period is extremely competitive in the telco sector. To open a dialogue with our core audience, we opted for conversational marketing using social channels and interactive advertising formats such as Cavai®", explains Margaux Marien, Senior eBusiness Consultant at Semetis. VOO was able to differentiate itself by engaging in real-time conversations with its core audience. This was also recognised by the AMMA jury. 

Innovation can never be achieved alone

"But we didn't do it alone. Our clients dare to take risks and we are very grateful for that. This allows us, as an agency, to continue to explore solutions and stimulate innovation. We would like to thank DMLights, Ardennes-Etape and VOO for their willingness to take risks together," says Dhan Claes.

After an atypical start during the confinement, the media and creative ecosystem that VOO formed last spring is proving to be stronger than ever. By surrounding itself with Semetis for its digital media, Dentsu International for its offline media and by continuing with Happiness on the creative side, VOO has taken the bold step of having 3 agencies work in perfect osmosis, including the 2 media agencies from totally distinct communication groups, among the largest groups in the world (Omnicom Media Group and Dentsu International). 

And it's a winning bet! 

"Semetis, due to its status of pure player, is used to working hand in hand with multiple actors of the media and creative world. We have therefore worked with our partners to set up an efficient and pragmatic collaboration process. The goal is to allocate the best possible resources to each partner in order to focus on VOO's business objectives, which are common and known to all" explains Doriane Magnus, Managing Director of Semetis.

On a daily basis, this translates into a rationalization of meetings and their follow-up, of briefings but above all into joint proposals, and finally a perfect alignment of media and creative tactics, upstream of the campaigns, thanks among other things to solid retro-planning. While certainly not sweeping away the agility and short term reactivity inherent to the telecom sector.

Moreover, a common work in real time and throughout the campaign is also carried out. This involves shared dashboards but also constant alignment during the course of the campaign on the actions to be taken (adjustment of the budgets invested on each channel thanks to "free" budgets left for this purpose, creation of new visuals during the campaign, potential extension of actions based on the results, etc). Transparency (since the budgets are known by all, the documents are saved on shared folders) but also reactivity are the key words of this ecosystem led by Happiness, which acts as a "time master", but where everyone keeps his own pole of expertise.

As proof, the first exceptional results of the back-to-school campaign! Online traffic has increased by nearly 20% compared to 2019. But above all, the capture of new customers through the digital funnel is also clearly on the rise, with an increase of more than 20% compared to the ambitious target set.

"We can only be delighted with these results, which fully support our choice of a daring ecosystem! Congratulations also to our trio of partners for having efficiently ensured the effective implementation of this fully integrated alliance in the very short term (one big month), moreover in partially confined circumstances”, tell us Jacques Ohn and Pauline Kinet, respectively Head of Media and BrandCom Director at VOO.

{snippet dorianemagnus-en}

This is a first in the world of pure player digital agencies. Semetis has won Infrabel's media pitch and thus becomes for the first time responsible for the management of the digital and the offline media budgets. 

Semetis will of course rely on the strike force of its OMG group, its central buying office and its expertise. But above all, Semetis will be able to ensure a perfect integration of all the media while bringing its data-driven philosophy and its quest for excellence.

Some great multi-channel campaigns are already in preparation. Stay tuned!