Karim Marucchi

Crossmedia - More then 14 years of branding across new and traditional media…

Born in Rome, Italy, I started my professional career with an education in architecture. While working and traveling on multinational architectural projects in the early 90s, I became an AutoCad expert and was invited to lead architectural conferences and workshops for feature developments in CAD for Autodesk. Through this experience, I developed a passion for the marketing, branding, and technological aspects of my profession. Of particular interest to me, was a then newly emerging technology – the Internet.

In 1995, I saw that most large agencies were not able to keep up with this new branding medium. Sensing this upcoming need, I co-founded The MetNet Group, one of Los Angeles’ first Web marketing firms, which became known for its ability to handle complex production and project management on major accounts including Disney, Disney Online, Nissan, Porter-Novelli, Sprint PCS, and Sony Pictures. This led to a series of awards starting with the 1996 Advertising Age Magazine’s “Intranet of the Year” and continuing through the 2001 Cannes Cyber Lyons for Paramount pictures.

Moving into corporate life, I joined USWeb/CKS as an account director responsible for corporate accounts in southern California. After successfully managing complex large scale projects for clients like the Times Mirror Companies (including Los Angeles Times), Qualcomm and Toshiba, I was asked to join the management team of the Santa Monica Office and then helped establish a new presence for USWeb/CKS in Irvine, CA.

With major account and project management experience in place, I then launched Velodea, an international new media agency with the backing of WPP Group, one of the world’s leaders in marketing communications. Along with my CEO duties at Velodea, I also was also asked by WPP Italy to sit as a board member and a guiding influence of an Italian sister company, Inferentia (now known as FullSix) through multiple European M&A’s and a public offering on the European markets. While working on top name branding campaigns, such as Nike, Fiat, Barilla, in Europe, and Sony, Miramax, Nissan, and others in the U.S., I developed Velodea by bringing together innovative leaders in their respective fields of online design, marketing, and business development to establish a leading global network of creative companies. The result is fourteen years of multifaceted experience working in European, Asian, and American branding and marketing fields and specializing in cross media promotions.

After successfully building Velodea and negotiating a merger with an Italian advertising group, I returned to California and then re-launched The Velodea Group locally as an employee-owned marketing production agency specializing in cross-media promotions and also serves on the board of ei2025.org, a non-profit focused on energy independence.