Yves Baudechon is a serial entrepreneur with a 30-year track record in creating and developing start-ups in the communication sector. When he created Social.Lab in September 2010, with co-founder Gilles Bindels, they had the ambition to build a different type of social media agency, combining engaging content ideas with intelligent social targeting to drive results, while bridging the traditional divide between media and creative agencies.

Under Yves leadership, Social.Lab developed a strong “Social CRM” offering, based on an integrated approach that focuses on acquiring and retaining customers, growing sales and advocacy. In this customer-centric model, content is customized, assuring greater relevance and engagement. Social.Lab was acquired by WPP/Ogilvy in 2013. It has offices in New York, London, Paris and Amsterdam, with global headquarters located in Brussels, and will soon expand into Asia and the Middle East.

The Social.Lab adventure

From a few Belgians passionate about social networks to a network of 500 experts in 11 countries.

What are …

• the keys to the success of exporting a model on an international level?
• the opportunities for Belgians abroad and the challenges for our start-ups to thrive internationally?
• the recipes that drove Ogilvy/Social.Lab to win so many awards in 2019?

Yves Baudechon

Yves Baudechon started his career in the nineties with the creation of Marketing Power, a direct marketing agency that he sold to DDB Belgium. In 2000, he became the CEO of DDB Belgium, until 2007. Also in 2000, Baudechon co-created JustForYou, the largest email marketing program in Belgium, which was sold to the leading Belgian Telco two years later. In 2008, he also co-founded Radionomy, a worldwide platform that provides people with the tools and infrastructure to create, broadcast, promote and monetize their own online radio stations. This was sold to Vivendi late 2015.