In a year like the media and agency businesses have had, all-star caliber executives really come in handy. When your department's been cut down from 15 to three, you have to be smart, patient and resourceful to generate results when others might give up. Jeanine Swanson, one of our dozen 2009 Mediaweek Media All-Stars, lived through that cutback, yet still executed innovative, high-quality out-of-home campaigns for the U.S. Air Force and other clients of GSD&M Idea City.

There's also a bit of a contradiction when one sifts through this year's winners -- but one that makes sense. Clearly, they are all driving clients toward digital solutions or employing technologically advanced devices to better understand consumers. Yet at the same time -- and this is particularly true among our more research-oriented winners, such as OMD's Joe Masucci and MPG's Guy Forestier-Walker -- they are fully aware that human interpretation is key to success. It can't just be about generating better numbers. It's also about divining what those numbers mean and how they represent the consumer. Only human brain power, notes Masucci, lets you "analyze the information and make it usable."

Even our rising star, Initiative's Rebecca Krawczyk, earned her stripes by employing digital media. Krawczyk talked Kia into using hipster music-oriented digital properties to launch its Gen-Y-targeted Soul compact SUV. The result? In a car wreck of a year for automakers, Kia saw its sales actually rise.

Speaking of rising, our executive of the year Matt Seiler, Universal McCann's global CEO, wasted little time hiking the IPG shop's revenue in just over a year. And this accomplishment comes on the heels of having lifted Omnicom's PHD media shop out of obscurity. He's fueled those results with a restless need to change things for the better.

One last note: As you can see, this is the first year in All-Stars history that we've done away with formal media assignations, besides Exec of the Year and Rising Star. Though no easy decision, we forged ahead with it as a way to recognize and reflect the unsiloing of the media agency business itself. Deals are no longer just a TV or print buy. Cross-platform is practically de rigueur, if only because virtually every media campaign for clients has a digital element. We hope you agree with our choice.  And if you don't, you probably need to look at your own shop to make sure it reflects the unsiloed world in which we now operate.

Contents:

Matt Seiler, Universal McCann, global CEO -- Executive of the Year '09

Bryan Wiener, 360i, CEO

Ed Montes, Havas Digital, evp, managing director, digital

Amanda Richman, MediaVest USA, evp, managing director, digital

Jackie Kulesza, Starcom USA, svp, broadcast activation director

Scott Kruse, GroupM, managing partner, director of print

David Lang, Mindshare Entertainment, president

Guy Forestier-Walker, MPG, svp, planning

Shari Anne Brill, Carat, svp, director of programming

Joe Masucci, OMD, director of business intelligence

Jeanine Swanson, GSD&M Idea City, director of OOH media

Rebecca Krawczyk, Initiative, media supervisor -- Rising Star '09



by Steve McClellan

Both personally and professionally, Universal McCann worldwide CEO Matt Seiler has mastered the art of the extreme makeover.

On the home front, over the past dozen years, Seiler and his family have bought, lived in, renovated and resold four homes. "I love taking a house that isn't what it could be and help make it to become that...With God's will and our contractor's wallet," he quips. The latest home redesign will wrap up in a matter of weeks.

Clearly a man who deals with building contractors on a regular basis thrives on chaos. But Seiler sees himself more as someone who heartily embraces change: "I love change. A lot of people hate it. But I hate it when things are the way they are. I get bored too quickly."

Seiler's relatively brief but intense career in the media agency business bears out his philosophy. He has advanced by exceeding client expectations and successfully implementing agency redesigns, all the while navigating the constantly shifting media landscape. In the past five years, he's run two holding company media agencies -- Omnicom's PHD and more recently Interpublic Group's larger UM, where he assumed his current post in September 2008.

In both cases, he's refined the offerings, improved the new business track record and boosted revenue -- considerably. This year alone, UM has raked in $650 million in new business, including BMW ($200 million), Applebee's ($155 million), Charles Schwab ($100 million) and Dyson ($40 million), and retained key client Nationwide ($210 million) after a review.

For the results he's delivered for UM in less than two years, Matt Seiler is our pick for Media All-Stars Executive of the Year.

He also generated serious results while at PHD USA, which Seiler joined as president in September 2004. He honed the shop's offering with the development of a robust communications planning capability and reorganized around what he called the lead agent system, which put one senior executive in charge of each major account who could then tap various specialists at the agency in order to service client needs. The upshot: more than $1 billion in net new business and an almost 30 percent revenue jump (to $300 million) in his first two years on the job. For his efforts he was elevated to North American CEO in the spring of 2007.

Meanwhile, as Seiler set about retooling PHD, UM was facing its own serious challenges. The low point, perhaps, was 2005 when the shop lost close to $1 billion in accounts, including Lowe's ($315 million) and a portion of the General Motors buying business ($600 million).

When Nick Brien joined the shop as worldwide CEO late in 2005 (replacing Robin Kent, who was ousted earlier that year), he spent a lot of time putting out fires on major accounts, including Microsoft and Sony, which had become dissatisfied. In 2006, the agency effectively declared a moratorium on new business efforts as it sought to shore up its offering and make sure existing clients were being serviced to their satisfaction.

In 2007, near disaster struck when Johnson & Johnson put its $3 billion global media account in review. UM was the incumbent on the lion's share of the U.S. business and spent most of the year defending it (successfully) and putting in place the extra resources it had promised to retain the account going forward.

When Brien was elevated to CEO at Mediabrands in July last year, he hired Seiler for the global UM CEO role.

Brien relates that he was impressed with Seiler's work at PHD to "build a business with a very distinctive proposition." Beyond that, Seiler has a "breadth of experience" that also spans senior level positions at several creative shops (including BBDO New York), coupled with personal traits such as curiosity, drive, optimism and "a fearlessness to take risks" that are necessary today for global CEOs. Seiler, he says, has a "rare combination" of talents. "He is a visionary who can execute, and clients are stimulated by that."

Seiler is the first to acknowledge that his predecessor (and boss) Brien and the IPG financial team laid a solid foundation for his most recent agency remodeling efforts.

"IPG cleaned up their act squeaky clean," he explains, referring to the separate P&L that was set up to separate UM from McCann World Group a few years back. "Nick stabilized the big clients, and I came into a really healthy opportunity."

The first thing he set out to do was to create a new positioning statement for the agency that let the outside world know "who we are and what we stand for," recalls Seiler. Before he joined the agency, he was asked what his impression of it was. "My response was I didn't have any impression of UM," he bluntly declared. As a way of communicating the shop's worldview to outsiders, Seiler came up with the positioning statement "Curious Minds for Surprising Results."
 
And clients like it. "It's really true of them," says Steve Petitpas, general manager for Microsoft's global marketing communications group. "I do think Matt is transforming UM into an agency that is grounded in curiosity and intelligence about customers and how they interact with media."

Earlier this year, Seiler put his new management team in place -- a combination of new and existing managers at the agency, which has estimated worldwide billings of $15 billion. In some cases UM veterans took on new roles. Case in point: Scott Tegethoff, an account executive who is now chief marketing officer but who still oversees the global Coca-Cola account.

"Sometimes you have to redeploy people in order to stimulate them," says Seiler. "Here's a guy that is so creative and energetic and passionate about the brand, and we hadn't used him for that. So we moved him into the CMO role, and he's terrific."

In May, Seiler hired Jacki Kelley from the vendor side -- she had run the sales operation for Martha Stewart Omnimedia -- to run UM U.S. as president.

And while some in the industry didn't completely get the hire at the time because Kelley lacks agency experience, Seiler counters that her experience makes great sense given his "deep interest in connecting with media owners in a way that nobody else has." And he made a similar move in Europe for the same reason, hiring Jim Hytner, the former ITV and BskyB executive, to oversee UM's Europe/Middle East/Africa region.

Petitpas applauds Seiler's decision to bring in new people from outside the media agency world -- to him, Kelley is a "great hire." The shop has "a lot of people that we can get into the really good discussions" that run the gamut of strategic marketing and communications. While Microsoft may have been dissatisfied a few years back, that's clearly no longer the case. "UM is a very important relationship, and I'm a genuinely happy client with Matt," he adds.
 
Those words clearly constitute a client view Seiler hopes doesn't change.

Clients: Sony, Microsoft, BMW, Charles Schwab, Nationwide, Applebee's

Years in Biz: On the media agency side: 5; in advertising: 25 years

Signature Achievement: Landing or defending $850 million in business for UM

What the Boss Says: Nick Brien says Seiler possesses "a fearlessness to take risks" and calls him "a visionary who can execute, and clients are stimulated by that.



by Brian Morrissey

Back in '92, Bryan Wiener was a fresh-faced Syracuse University grad breaking into marketing. His first job with sports marketing firm PSP Sports wasn't what you'd call glamorous. He traveled to events venues around the country to promote Kool-Aid. It soon got even less glamorous. Budget cuts meant Wiener's team could no longer hire an out-of-work local actor to dress like the Kool-Aid mascot. For the next few months, Wiener took his turns donning the suit. "It was like 100 degrees in there, and kids would literally knock me over," Wiener recalls. "That's being the lowest guy on the totem pole."

No longer. Wiener is now president of 270-strong New York digital shop 360i -- or what you might call the top of the totem pole. He's brought the scrappy ethos of his first stint to the digital world, as 360i looks to out-hustle bigger rivals in finding the next big opportunity in media, from search marketing to social.

360i is not your typical media agency. In fact, it's not really a media agency at all. Its roots are in helping advertisers mine the algorithms of search to connect with consumers. It's hard to recall now, but in the early part of the decade, most agencies saw search as a direct-marketing backwater, the Val-Pak of the Internet. That left the fertile open territory for a cadre of specialist firms that sprung up to help clients master the science of showing up high in search listings and navigating the advertising auctions run by Yahoo and Google to determine placements. It now boasts search clients like Saks Fifth Avenue and NBC Universal.

"We knew the capabilities and skills to be successful as an agency in search were very different than what the entrenched competitors built their businesses on," Wiener says.

Wiener, 39, is a native Long Islander, where he lives with his wife and two children, both under 10. On the weekends, he coaches football, basketball and baseball. He calculated last year he spent 48 weeks of the year coaching. It's a pleasant distraction that's also taught him useful business lessons. Case in point: "The more disorganized the kids," he says, "the more organized the leader has to be."

Wiener's career has tracked the arc of the Web. A graduate of Syracuse University, he earned an MBA from New York University. He spent the dot-com boom days as general manager at ill-fated community site TheGlobe.com. That site flamed out, but Wiener moved on to management positions at voice-over Internet-protocol provider Net2phone. Wiener was part of a management buyout of Net2phone's ad network business, which it subsequently moved fully into search marketing by acquiring 360i in 2003 and taking on the name.

After building a solid search business, Wiener turned his attention three years ago to social media where he saw similar dynamics as the early search market. Just like in search, there was a small but growing market that didn't neatly fit into the existing agency blueprint because of its mix of public relations, media and creative. He led 360i headlong into social media, hiring ex-journalists and PR specialists.

"His strength is seeing opportunities before anyone else does." says Sarah Hofstetter, vp of emerging media at 360i, who joined the agency's social practice after working with Wiener at Net2phone. "He sees where trends are happening and capitalizes on those opportunities."

And it's starting to pay off. 360i is proving out the concept of earned media with work such as H&R Block's social campaign for the 2008 tax season to raise awareness of its online tax services. Rather than funnel users to a brand site, 360i sprinkled H&R Block content and applications across the Web, using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and embeddable widgets. The results: Brand awareness increased 52 percent.

The firm's expertise is helping it win clients in areas far from the algorithms of search and more rooted in the person-to-person skills of social. 360i worked on search for Alamo for eight years. It proved its mettle during a search agency consolidation two years ago that brought it the duties for fellow Enterprise Holdings brands National and Enterprise. Then, when Enterprise decided to dip its toes into social media with a customer social network called Alamo Avenue this past August, 360i got the assignment on the basis of a superior strategy, according to Brian Curtin, vp of marketing services at Enterprise Holdings. "They came in and demonstrated an expertise in the space," he says. "They had a specific plan."

Wiener is winning more clients over to his formula of taking media dollars and redeploying them to earning attention. Reckitt Benckiser, a CPG giant that said in April it plans to earmark $20 million of its TV budget to digital media, added 360i to its roster for its social media expertise. Search remains the dominant part of its business, but social media billings will rise from 5 percent in 2008 to 20 percent this year.

Along the way, the soft-spoken Wiener has encouraged his young employees to learn the lessons of his own humble start -- those sweltering hours spent in a Kool-Aid mascot costume. "We've stayed humble, and we haven't been afraid to adapt to change," he says. "The one constant in this space is that change is always coming."

Clients: Saks Fifth Avenue, NBC Universal, Coca-Cola and Borders, among others

Years in Biz: 15

Signature Achievement: Spotted the social networks as a trend as early as 2006 and added it to 360i's practice. As a result, his firm is now one of the foremost pioneers in helping brands develop social programs.

What the Boss Says: Wiener is the boss, but his vp Sarah Hofstetter says, "His strength is seeing opportunities before anyone else does. He sees where trends are happening."



by Mike Shields

Ed Montes' career has rarely gone according to plan. He was supposed to be a big-time corporate lawyer. He might have been a mergers and acquisitions maven. He could have been an online gaming mogul.

He definitely wasn't supposed to be an agency guy.

But he is -- even if he doesn't like to admit it -- and his career, not to mention the online ad industry, is better for it.

Montes, 37, the evp and managing director for Havas Digital, has become one of the more respected and skilled professionals in the digital media space. A former lawyer, he's praised by peers and colleagues as being a big-picture, bottom-line oriented thinker, someone who brings a strong sense of discipline to the agency business. He's also known as someone who regularly challenges convention and looks to innovate -- always aiming to do nonagency things with the traditional agency structure.

"People get lost in what we're trying to do here sometimes," says Anthony Rhind, co-CEO, Global, of Havas Digital. "They love the craft. They don't always focus on the end goal. For Ed, everything has to be about business results. Ed is far more professional than the rest of us."

Since becoming the managing director of the Boston office of Havas' Media Contacts in 2005, both the agency's billings and staff have swelled, doubling every year since Montes joined the agency. Over that period, Montes helped the company land several high-profile clients, including Sears, Schering Plough and First Marblehead Corporation. By 2007 he was promoted to lead all of Havas' digital operations in North America. Then last year, he spearheaded several expansion efforts, including the acquisition of demand-side ad platform company Adnetik and the rollout of two new agency divisions, one dedicated to social network advertising and mobile marketing.

But again, this wasn't supposed to happen. Four years ago, Montes had three job offers, and Media Contacts was clearly third on his list. "I'm not gonna work at an agency," he recalls thinking. Montes had had a great interview with Y2K, a startup Web publishing firm founded by several Harvard MBA graduates.

However, he was most enthused about a startup gaming software firm GameLogic -- particularly having the chance to work with the company's talented svp of corporate development, Bijan Sabet. The entrepreneur in Montes was certain he was headed to GameLogic when he got a call from Sabet. "I'm literally getting on a plane to Italy" for vacation, says Montes. Sabet told Montes he got the job, but that he was leaving the company. That was a nonstarter for Montes -- agency life it was.

This wasn't the first time Montes' career took a fairly dramatic left turn. Back in 1997, he was most certainly headed toward a life as a corporate finance lawyer. But the company that he worked for during law school, The Boston Company -- the firm that was likely to hire him -- was sold to Mellon Financial Corporation.

"I didn't want to move to Pittsburgh," says the Boston native.

On a whim, he took a meeting that a friend had arranged with legendary Boston District Attorney Tom Reilly -- a guy from his old neighborhood in Brighton, Mass. He got an unexpected offer and had 24 hours to decide. Goodbye corporate law, hello three years of getting thrown into the fire at the DA's office, including working on Boston's infamous British Nanny trial.

"This was like doing a medical residency," he says. "I became a different person. I learned how to think and communicate on my feet, and always be analytical. And this was serious work. You were dealing with people's lives."

Then, around 2000, Montes made another unexpected move, joining the IT-focused technology publisher TechTarget in the midst of the dot-com craziness. After several years working on various acquisitions and site launches, Montes was assigned to handle a content partnership TechTarget was exploring with Yahoo. Another serendipitous moment arrived, and Montes was hired by the then still fast-growing Web giant.

At Yahoo, Montes dove into some of the company's less glamorous but meaty businesses, including its now-defunct direct marketing group Yahoo Delivers, as well as several service and subscription businesses.

"Ed took on projects that weren't the natural ones -- tricky things that have a lot of potential," says former Yahoo sales chief Greg Coleman, now president and chief revenue officer, The Huffington Post. "He raised his hand and really dug in the middle of our organization."

"Coleman basically let me loose," says Montes. "I got to see how publishers built their businesses -- not just from the perspective of an advertiser. I got to learn things like the lifetime value of a user."

All that inside knowledge served Montes well in his new agency world. As did his legal turn and his experience with acquisitions, business development and startups -- all chops most agency guys don't have. At the same time, Montes    didn't have to compromise his need to try new things.

"The thing I love about Media Contacts [and now Havas] is that it's entrepreneurial," he says. "I can go to my bosses and say, 'Let's build an ad network. Let's start a mobile practice.' I have great exposure to management. Those kinds of projects are very synergistic to my skill set."

Clients: Sears, Schering Plough, Fidelity, AutoZone, Virgin Mobile, Dannon

Years in Biz: In the digital media industry since 2000; joined Havas in 2005

Signature Achievement: Acquisition of demand-side company Adnetik and the rollout of social media and mobile marketing units

What the Boss Says: Anthony Rhind says, "People get lost in what we're trying to do here sometimes. For Ed, everything has to be about business results."



by Alex Palmer

"Mariah Gritty or Glam?" "Detox Dos and Don'ts" and "High-Tech Accessories" are a few of the choice videos posted to The Thread compliments of Procter & Gamble's Olay. The Thread is a "star styles and celebrity trends" site available at Yahoo's women-targeted site Shine. Created by MediaVest, a division of Starcom MediaVest Group, The Thread was originally supposed to be one Webisode created for P&G's Herbal Essences.

But Amanda Richman saw a larger opportunity -- a trait that has become her trademark. MediaVest's evp, managing director of digital, took a single idea and turned it into a franchise. The Thread is now a regular series with new episodes that air several times a week while at the same time allowing a range of P&G brands to be featured. The product is synched with the particular personality or topic of the day.

Having recently completed its 100th episode, The Thread offers the kind of expansive content that Richman has become known for. "It creates something larger that scales and can be easily distributed across the Web versus just being located at one destination," she says. But this isn't a boast. She doesn't need to; the site's success speaks for itself, having received Mediaweek's Media Plan of the Year Award in Digital this year.

"There's a lot of people who claim to be experts at digital and talk a big talk, but Amanda actually does understand this business and she truly understands where it's going," says Jeff Levick, president of global advertising and strategy for AOL, who has worked with Richman for several years on a number of campaigns, most recently collaborating for P&G work. "She has the unique ability to create mutually beneficial partnerships that really prove and preserve the value of what agencies' roles are and how agencies really can help grow this business rather than fighting against the tide."

Richman's comfort level with all things digital is contagious even when it comes to megaclients like Walmart. She helped engineer and execute an "Earth Month" program for the retailer last year, targeting moms through the Web site CafeMom. The program included citizen bloggers, green tips and opportunities to make a difference to the green movement online. It won a Gold Lion at Cannes this year.

"What was most rewarding there was how Walmart embraced social media," says Richman. "It can be a daunting space, and they really understood how to use it to listen and help moms, and enable them to better connect with each other to support the much larger cause of going green."

Richman's successes earned her a promotion in June when her responsibilities were expanded beyond her role as svp, managing director of digital, which she had held since 2007. She currently heads the company's 125-person digital team, overseeing MediaVest's digital capabilities, product and investment for more than 20 clients including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Walmart and Wendy's.

Bill Tucker, MediaVest's CEO, says Richman has not only changed how clients perceive digital content, but also how the agency's people as a whole do their jobs. "Digital is at the core of everything we do, and Amanda has played such a central role in the digitization of the entire agency's mindset and product," says Tucker. "She's helped drive industry-leading initiatives like the groundbreaking MediaVest/Hulu online video partnership [and] developed online content compelling enough to sustain a franchise in two languages, like she did with The Thread."

Just as she encourages clients to get comfortable in new media, she has helped to keep her own team and company on the cutting edge of the digital space. She has brought digital training and innovation to the agency by helping develop MediaVest's "Cross-Athletes" program, which trains the media buyers to work across platforms. "Amanda was pivotal to developing next-generation talent with Cross-Athletes -- a workforce fluent not just in online or offline, but in all media," says Tucker.

Richman was also key to bringing MediaVest's "Digital Mandate" to life, which makes a digital education a priority for every employee within the company. This has included the education series "MobileVest Day" and a "Life at MediaVest" user-generated video contest, incorporating the use of Yammer's internal microblogging service.

Prior to joining MediaVest in 2005, she held positions at The Interpublic Group's interactive firms -- most recently as vp, account director at Zentropy Partners, developing media programs for Johnson & Johnson and launching Microsoft's Xbox Live. Before Zentropy Partners, Richman served as managing director of Thunder House where she managed interactive investments for such top clients as Coca-Cola, Unilever, L'Oréal and Mastercard. She also held a range of marketing and business development positions at Time Warner.

But it's less about the resume and more about the results she has generated for A-List clients. Other recent accomplishments include the Diet Coke Style Series, a live and online entertainment and lifestyle program that debuted in December 2008. Then there was a video mash-up campaign for Gillette, hosted on SI.com. It allowed users to edit, choose music for and publish their own online videos featuring shoots from Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition.

But even as Richman works to stay at the forefront of her industry, keeping a focus on how clients, media partners and staff can innovate further, she sees her work and accomplishments as based on certain constant principles.
 
"We try to steer our clients from asking what's the next thing to really looking at what matters," says Richman. "It's coming back to the insights that we can garner from data and new means of buying and how this marketplace will be evolving in ways that both drive scale and better target our audience."
 
Clients: Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Wendy's

Years in Biz: 14; at MediaVest since 2005

Signature Achievement: The Thread, a 100-episode (so far) Web series produced with client P&G

What the Boss Says: Bill Tucker explains: "Digital is at the core of everything we do, and Amanda has played such a central role in the digitization of [our] mind-set and product."



by Anthony Crupi

In an era of unwieldy titles, Jackie Kulesza may be one of the few agency executives who isn't dragging a freight train of modifiers in her wake. While overstuffed job descriptions have become the norm, Kulesza's title befits her forthright manner.

As senior vp, broadcast activation director of the Chicago-based media agency Starcom, Kulesza, 37, places billions of national TV dollars for a roster that includes Allstate, Bank of America, Hallmark Gold Crown, Nintendo and Kellogg's. Much as she loves the art of the deal -- ad sales execs say the mental toughness the media buyer brings to the table is matched only by her equanimity -- Kulesza is less concerned with the immediacy of price than in ensuring that her clients' messages find their way to the right screen, and at the right time.

Take, for example, an integration Kulesza engineered for Hallmark a year ago. As the client was readying the launch of a new line of recordable greeting cards, Kulesza worked out a deal to showcase the novelty offering in the sixth season of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Midway through the Dec. 7, 2008, episode of Extreme Makeover, Hallmark played a part in helping a group of young music students stay in touch with their teacher who suffers from a rare heart condition. Dipping into a box of recordable cards donated by Hallmark, each student created their own greeting, wishing her well and letting her know that she was missed.

"When Ty Pennington and his team begin fixing their house, the family is sent out to Niagara Falls for a vacation," Kulesza says. "We delivered the cards to them, and she got all choked up. It was a nice moment, and because the integration ran during the holiday season, it hit their sweet spot."

Which isn't to suggest that Kulesza is a big softie. Those seated at the other side of the table say the buyer is one of the toughest deal makers in the business. "Jackie is a formidable negotiator, and she's emerged as one of the agency's best strategic thinkers," says Linda Yaccarino, evp/COO of Turner Entertainment ad sales/marketing. "She's tough as nails but fair. Price is critical, but you're not going to walk away thinking she tried to CPM you to death."

Besides providing Extreme Makeover with one of its signature Kleenex-depleting moments, the Hallmark integration stands as a prime example of how Kulesza continues to help her clients bust through the cluttered TV space.

This year, Kulesza and her team joined forces with Nickelodeon, taking the wraps off a cooperative research effort on how the recession has affected family spending patterns and consumer-brand relationships. Chief among the study's findings was the assertion that consumers were beginning to question their long-standing brand loyalties. The joint study also suggested that the drain on dollars has had an impact on media consumption. For example, there has been a significant uptick in co-viewing habits, as reduced entertainment budgets have encouraged parents and kids to watch more television together.

"One of the takeaways is that kids TV is particularly efficient because, for the most part, all the ads are targeted to them. So everything in the pod is relevant," Kulesza says. "The trouble is, marketers see that there's more co-viewing and they want to target the parents with their ads for phones and washing machines. And when that happens, as much as you're bringing in nonendemic business, you're making the pods less relevant to the kids."

Shortly after the study wrapped, Nickelodeon began discussing the findings with its clients, which in turn allowed the network to help sponsors fine-tune their messaging. (Starcom and Nick have been crunching the numbers for the last few years; in 2007, Kulesza helped develop a minute-by-minute ratings research initiative that formalized the industry's currency debate.)

Few buyers have been as proactive in their push for greater accountability. When C3 ratings were established as the coin of the realm, Kulesza characterized the new metric as a stop-gap measure. (At the time, Starcom had already cut a number of deals based on Nielsen minute-by-minute ratings, a far more granular measure than C3.)

Starcom's quest for heightened accountability was frustrated by the never-ending upfront stare down of 2009. As haggling over price became the primary concern in the summer bazaar, loftier issues were tabled. "We pushed on better data, but we didn't get very far this time around," Kulesza says, and even at a remove of a few months, her voice still betrays a note of aggravation. "Having said that, I think conditions are ripe for another debate in 2010."

Chris Boothe, president and chief activation officer, Starcom, says he expects Kulesza will be "relentless" as she works to elevate the industry standard. "Her desire to continually reinvent herself is what makes Jackie such a terrific leader," Boothe says. "She's nimble and daring, and she never limits herself to just what she's supposed to be doing. She's always out ahead, carrying the torch."

Clients: Allstate, Bank of America, Hallmark Gold Crown, Nintendo and Kellogg's

Years in Biz: Joined Starcom in January, 1995

Signature Achievement: Showcased Hallmark's recordable cards in sixth season of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

What the Boss Says: Chris Boothe says, "She's nimble and daring, and she never limits herself to just what she's supposed to be doing. She's always out ahead, carrying the torch."



by Lucia Moses

As a diehard Red Sox fan in Yankee territory, Scott Kruse is used to staking out unpopular positions.

A few years ago, the managing partner and director of print for GroupM was going to bat for one of his clients, GlaxoSmithKline. Condé Nast wanted to expand its ad base outside its core categories like auto and luxury, and Glaxo was looking for a rate cut for its disclaimer pages, those gray pages filled with warnings that by law must accompany prescription drug print ads.

Glaxo represented "an enormous amount of business," says an ex-Condé publisher who was there at the time and spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The line was drawn in the sand."

Condé Nast was "one of the holdouts," recalls Kevin Holowicki, Glaxo's senior director of advertising and media. "[Kruse] pushed that and he pushed that and he pushed that, and he finally got them to agree. He's tenacious. They created a pharma rate, and it benefited GSK and it benefited Condé Nast." Condé Nast sees it differently.

"In regards to Condé Nast's alteration of rates for disclaimer pages, this change was a direct result of internal discussions within our organization and not a result of conversations with any third party outside the company," a spokesperson for the Condé Nast Media Group says in a statement.

Kruse, 42, demurs on the subject. "I think the goal is always to try to be innovative and work for new ways with publishers to drive efficiencies," he says. Either way, the story illustrates Kruse's low-key style and directness that have earned him respect from players on both sides -- and why he's a Mediaweek 2009 Media All-Star.

"Even when negotiations get tough, he's a person you want to do business with," says longtime acquaintance Jeannine Shao Collins, svp, Meredith 360, the company's cross-platform sales unit. "He's always a gentleman."

Kruse is a "smart, creative professional to a tee," agrees MaryAnn Bekkedahl, executive vp, group publisher, Rodale. "He applies traditional, consumer-facing values to media planning, and a traditional, strong business mind-set to best align with media on his clients' behalf."

In another carryover from baseball, Kruse has a knack for retaining copious magazine data-a skill he honed as a young Sox fan growing up outside Boston and memorizing stats. Kruse's boss, Jeanne Tassaro, COO, GroupM Implementation, saw this ability while working with Kruse on the Kraft AOR years ago. "We tracked over 130 magazines," she says. "You could ask Scott what was the CPM of any magazine, and off the top of his head he could tell you what it was and how it had changed over the years. The Kraft guys would ask him on a random basis, to see if they could trip him up, and they never could."

Having that ability to retain a lot of detail won't hurt, now that Kruse's oversight has expanded. For the past eight years, he directed the buying at MediaCom for AOR assignments including Glaxo, ConAgra and Shell as managing partner, director of print investments. He just picked up Sprint, American Express and Church & Dwight as a result of GroupM's consolidation of its print units in August under Kruse and (fellow All-Star) George Janson.

Kruse says the integration was designed to identify best practices across the group. "Out of best practices come better research, tools and analysis, and a standardized negotiation approach," he says.

GroupM chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni said at the time that the move was aimed at bolstering GroupM's clout with publishers to raise the level of magazine accountability and research.

Those are particularly topical, given the brutal year magazines have been having. Kruse says the medium is at a crossroads, with ad spending sinking, ROI pressure greater than ever and more closures likely. "We certainly have been challenged by our clients about the validity of magazines," he says. "Magazines do seem to have a bigger advertising issue than a consumer issue." Yet like many of his print brethren, Kruse is an optimist about the medium, where he's spent almost his entire career, beginning with a stint in the planning training program at Young & Rubicam.

Back then, print buying and planning were just starting to become specialized, he recalls during a conversation in his office. To underscore his point, he spins around in his chair and pulls out a 1980 brochure on evaluating consumer magazines from the AAAA's. Flipping it open, he points to a page that shows, by today's standards, how laughably simple frequency discounts were. "It's really going back in a time capsule when you look at this," he says. Kruse believes new issue-specific magazine ad measurement services could help buyers.

He's also watching the e-readers with interest, but doesn't think they'll come close to replacing the experience of reading. "Want to take your e-reader to the beach or the pool?" he asks. "High-quality brands with unique consumer touchpoints will continue to be there," he adds. "I just think it's going to evolve into something new."

Clients: GlaxoSmithKline, ConAgra, Shell, Sprint, American Express and Church & Dwight 

Years in Biz: 20 years with WPP's Y&R, MEC and MediaCom; joined GroupM in 2009
 
Signature Achievement:  Instrumental in creating a special pharma page rate with publishing giant Condé Nast

What the Boss Says...Jeanne Tassaro says, "You could ask Scott about the CPM of any magazine and off the top of his head, he could tell you what it was and how it has changed."



by Noreen O'Leary

David Lang remembers his first job as a UCLA graduate. After serving as sports director of the campus radio station and sports editor of The Daily Bruin, he wanted to take a shot at TV. The sociology major landed a gig at ABC affiliate KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Ark., as a sports reporter and anchor. Little did he know that it would put him on the path to branded entertainment greatness.

During his stint at KHBS, Lang got the chance to report, produce and front his own award-winning sport features. Within those 210-second segments, a career was born.

"It was great because it was a small market where you could learn how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together all at once," Lang recalls. "The storytelling bug got me. If I could do this in three and a half minutes, what could I do in 30 or 60 minutes?"

He's been exploring those possibilities ever since. After Arkansas, Lang moved into entertainment, becoming a producer at Al Burton Productions/Universal Television and then his own company. A six-month consulting offer in June 1996 brought Lang, who was raised in Marin County, north of San Francisco, east to Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video, where he earned an Emmy for work on Rosie O'Donnell's show.

That short stint turned into seven years at Broadway where he developed programs ranging from documentary and talk to comedy, music and game shows. Some of them were funded by advertisers. So when Lang was looking for a new career opportunity, branded content seemed to be the next logical step.

He took his first agency job in 2005, joining Mindshare Entertainment as director of programming. In 2007, he was named president, an acknowledgement of both his personal success and the growing importance of content development at the WPP Group unit. Lang's team has developed over 40 projects for clients -- 14 alone in this economically dismal year -- which combine multiple platforms and intricate marketing strategies. Not only has Lang gotten sponsors to work together, but they've also been pleased enough with the results to sign up for second seasons.

"David is that rare blend of creative skills, client-facing skills and managerial skills which make him as good as he is," underscores Peter Tortorici, the veteran TV executive who is CEO, GroupM Entertainment Worldwide, a division of Mindshare parent, GroupM. "He understands the alchemy needed to turn a really good idea into a brand solution, and can source good people and manage that creative process to produce a solution everyone agrees with."

For Unilever's Suave brand and Sprint, Mindshare created In the Motherhood, a Webisode series for moms, which drew upon user-generated content and featured an online community. The series, starring King of Queens actress Leah Remini, attracted 5.5 million viewers and was later adapted as an ABC prime-time show, one of the first Web shows to migrate to TV. Sprint says it saw enough of an increase in "brand favorability across the time period" to warrant support of a second Webisode season.

"Without David's creativity and tenacity Sprint would not have been able to achieve such great things in the branded content and integration space," explains Simon McPhillips, director of media, Sprint.

For Unilever's Degree deodorant, Lang's group worked with 20th Century Fox to create The Rookie, featuring a fictional character modeled after anti-terrorism agent Jack Bauer from Fox's hit show 24. The six long-form Webisodes were viewed on an online site via Fox.com as well as on high-def interactive TV channels. Viewers could access fan content on male-oriented online sites and enter a Rookie trivia sweepstakes. Mobile reminders prompted them about the next episode and the sweepstakes.

The Rookie attracted more than 15 million video views, about 1 billion impressions overall, and in video on-demand, viewers averaged seven minutes, 57 seconds per visit, nearly 16 times more than a traditional 30-second TV spot. A postcampaign study found that 37 percent believed in the brand promise "Degree won't let you down." The effort also won Mediaweek's Media Plan of the Year grand prize this year.

Jay Mathew, marketing director, deodorants, Unilever USA, says Lang's ability to engage and entertain people makes him an intuitive marketer. "David has great knowledge and insight of men and women as consumers. We walk him through the DNA of our brands, and he matches an entertainment property to accomplish our objective."

The Rookie also boosted 24. "On many levels The Rookie was seen as a success within the communications industry," says Mark Pearson, svp, brand and franchise management, 20th Century Fox Television. "But it was also seen as a success by consumers. It had more video views than the show it was promoting and helped promote our show."

Among his marketing peers, those entertainment connections give Lang an advantage in attracting talent. Earlier this year, Mindshare used 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski in Webisodes supporting Unilever's Breyers Smooth & Dreamy ice cream.

Previously, for the company's launch of Dove Calming Night products, a Web series featuring Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman was directed by Penny Marshall.

If Lang makes such partnerships between Madison Avenue and Hollywood seamless, his own transition was less so. He laughs now about his previous work life in jeans and a baseball cap, logging in hours at an editing bay -- a far cry from his new life in khakis at a global media company.

"It's been a fascinating adjustment. A lot of people who know me didn't understand at first," he says. "But it's been a tremendous four and a half years. We're a creative production unit inside an agency. In this world of convergence, what I'm really proud about our programming is that we've won awards in areas that are siloed. We've won awards for film, awards at Cannes, Effies, for promotions, for a media plan. It means we're not just touching on all these areas, but it also means we're doing it right."

Clients: Unilever brands Breyers, Degree, Suave;     and Sprint

Years in Biz: In the agency biz: 4.5; in media and content: 15+

Signature Achievement: Winning an Emmy as producer of The Rosie O'Donnell Show

What the Boss Says: Peter Tortorici believes that Lang "understands the alchemy needed to turn a really good idea into a brand solution."



by Eleftheria Parpis

MPG's Guy Forestier-Walker has a sharp nose for numbers. His ability to do quick math landed the spirited Brit his first media job at Grey Advertising in London nearly 20 years ago, when the agency's media director at the time, Dick Raven, asked him to solve math problems during his interview. "It's something I haven't come across since," he says of the oral and written math exam, something an industry too trusting of spreadsheets should perhaps make standard, he suggests.
 
While the former teacher's math skills served him well in his career, particularly his ability to root out what he calls "crazy numbers," the 45-year-old senior vp of strategic planning says it is his passion for probing beyond the numbers to investigate the truths in consumer behavior that has driven his career and led him to his current leadership position at the Havas Media network.

"He is a deeply strategic man, a very considered, deep thinker," says Shaun Holliday, CEO of MPG North America. "He doesn't come at things with a cookie-cutter approach."

Described by colleagues as a natural problem solver, Forestier-Walker's strategic leadership has been integral to the agency's new business efforts, including winning Sears in 2007 and Dannon in 2006. This June, Forestier-Walker helped the agency win the estimated $175 million LVMH media account, a contest that lasted five months and required four presentations to convince the luxury-goods manufacturer that MPG was the right media partner to help guide the company through today's unique economic environment.

"Guy demonstrated how passionate he was about our brands and the current challenges in the luxury business," says David Strome, director of media services, Americas, at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. "He takes a great holistic approach to thinking about our businesses. He thinks marketing first and then what media's role is in the broader marketing mix. That was clearly demonstrated in their presentation."

"Disposable income is on hold, that's certainly part of the challenge," explains Forestier-Walker, who built and now leads the 20-member team that manages the account. "It's about making the most out of a difficult situation, and a lot of that is understanding the psychology of consumers, when and why they spend money, and what the trigger points are for them."

For Sears, historically a promotions-driven marketer, Forestier-Walker developed a strategy that relied more on consumer behavior than gross ratings points. He recognized two sets of customers: "dreamers" who are renovating their homes and are more influenced by TV and magazines that showcase product attributes, beauty and technology; and those consumers "in need of a hero," those with broken appliances who need the fast replacement and turn first to the Internet for research. "You really need to build a picture of who your consumer is," says Forestier-Walker, who led the development and global rollout of MPG's proprietary planning tool, Concert, first developed for a 2003 client pitch.
 
"What we did was think about integration not as a business problem but a consumer problem," he says. "The only place that integration happens is in the consumer's mind, how they simplify and create an overall vision of a brand."

A firm believer that qualitative research trumps quantitative data, Forestier-Walker, who also is the agency's leading expert on sustainability and climate change, is described by LVMH's Strome as a global thinker with a worldly personality who challenges conventional thinking and draws on his diverse experience. Forestier-Walker was born just outside of London and, thanks to his father's civil engineering career, also grew up in Brazil, Colombia, Turkey and Holland. "It gave me an early taste for travel," says Forestier-Walker. After a stint teaching, he decided to move into the more lucrative advertising industry.

"I liked teaching a lot but never thought I'd get very rich or slightly rich doing that," he recounts. "I wanted something a little more glitzy."

The days of fat commissions and boozy lunches lived up to those expectations, and it wasn't long before he began traveling the world for his job. After his start at Grey London, he spent a year in Germany and then in 1990 moved to Czechoslovakia where he set up and ran MediaCom's operations in Prague for four years. "It was fascinating," he says of the experience. "They never had advertising before. It was an opportunity to write the rule book, and it was a great place to live."

After a tenure in Asia, he moved in 1998 to New York to work on MediaCom's global business before sidestepping for a couple of years into the interactive space at Grey's online shop, Beyond Interactive. "I ran straight into the dot-com bust," he says, and spent six months traveling before he joined MPG in 2002 as a strategist.

"Guy is smart, creative, fun, brave," says Coleen Kuehn, an executive vp and chief strategist at MPG, who adds that he's not afraid to push his clients and teammates to thoroughly get to the heart of the matter. "One of my favorite quotes from him was when he once was persisting so much that we keep at an issue, and people were getting weary. He said, 'I'm not trying to be difficult...I'm just being rigorous.'"

To help keep a midlife crisis at bay, Forestier-Walker, who advocates pursuing creative passions both inside and outside the office, began taking cello lessons five years ago and now regularly participates in recitals. He says he chose the cello for two reasons: "I love the instrument, and it's really difficult."
 
Clearly to Kuehn and the rest of his colleagues at MPG, that story exemplifies Forestier-Walker and why they love having him on their team. 

Clients: LVMH, Sears, Dannon

Years in Biz: 20 years; with MPG since 2002

Signature AchIevement: He led the development and global rollout of MPG's proprietary planning tool, Concert, first developed for a 2003 client pitch.

What the Boss Says: "He is a deeply strategic man, a very considered, deep thinker," says Shaun Holliday. "He doesn't come at things with a cookie-cutter approach."



by Katy Bachman

Shari Anne Brill was subjected to the harsh reality of TV ratings at a very young age when a local children's show featuring her favorite clown was abruptly taken off the air. "My mother called the TV station to complain. She was told [the show] didn't get good ratings," Brill remembers. From then on, Brill was all too aware of what drove the fate of TV shows as she planned out her weekly viewing by poring over TV Guide.

Some things never change. Today, as senior vp and director of programming for Carat, Brill still has to plan out her TV viewing for the week. Only now, it's not just her leisure time at stake. As the research exec in charge of analyzing and handicapping how network TV programs will perform in the ratings, Brill's estimates are the basis for the $1 billion Carat spends on advertising for clients such as Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, Papa John's and many others. Her annual reports on the new season are required reading and have made her among the most quotable agency execs in the business. "She's got a pretty good track record," says Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "More often than not, I tend to agree with her." As for literal quotes, well, Brill has plenty of those, too. Among them: "There's no brilliant without Brill."

OK, so she might not be humble, but an unapologetic relish for her job guarantees that she's genuine. "I need a DVR in every room," says Brill, whose recorder is packed with episodes of Mad Men, Lost, Grey's Anatomy and 30 Rock, to name only a few. "Thursdays at 9 p.m.," she says, "I have a real problem."

Or maybe it's the companies that aren't Carat clients have the problem. Brill is not only a practitioner of the ratings, but she's also a theoretician. She serves on numerous industry research committees to better her understanding of ratings and to help improve audience measurement. Her committee work includes the Council for Research Excellence, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, the AAAA Media Research Committee and just about every Nielsen committee imaginable (Mediaweek is a Nielsen property). The work puts her at the forefront of industry issues such as timeshifting, commercial ratings and improved metrics for local TV. To help Carat fine-tune its TV buying, Brill has also helped to upgrade the firm's proprietary Foretel tool, which adjusts ratings for delayed viewing and engagement.

"You can talk about all the programming trends you want, but audiences have to get measured," says Brill. "I walk in both worlds. I love programming, and I'm a student of the medium. You have to know how statistics enable the planning and buying of TV. It's like good wiring under the hood."

Brill's drive to understand what's really under the TV hood led her to devote more than two years to serve as chair of the CRE's media consumption and engagement committee. In that role, she presided over the team that produced the landmark Video Consumer Mapping Study (VCM), a $3.5 million endeavor. It was the first study of its size to record consumers' media behavior based on direct observations. Thanks in large part to Brill's efforts, the industry has a first-ever baseline of how consumers interact with multiple media choices. To cite another Brill quote: "You have to understand the now to figure out the future."

"Brill's role was very significant," observes Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research for the Center for Media Design at Ball State University. "This study was a major undertaking and had to be done with a lot of due diligence."

"The VCM is a feather in her cap," agrees Mike Hess, Carat's evp of research, marketing science and consumer insights. "We've taken the study to all our clients."

For as long as she can remember, Brill loved TV and all the iconography surrounding it. Her first job was a media research analyst with Ted Bates Worldwide, where she sometimes took her love of pop culture a bit too far, answering the phone, "Bates Motel, Norman's mother speaking."

"Even when we were in college together, she was always one of the smartest people in the room," recalls Steve Sternberg, who started out at Ted Bates with Brill. Following that job, Brill held a number of research positions until joining the newly formed Carat. Then-CEO David Verklin was on the team that hired her. "Brill has combined her avocation with her vocation," Verklin says of his former worker. "Her knowledge of network TV is encyclopedic. You can ask her what was on CBS at 8 p.m. in 1997, and she'll tell you."

Brill will, in fact, tell you almost anything about TV -- which is why figures like Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer for Turner Broadcasting System, are counting on her to stick around: "She'll be one of the people guiding this industry in advancing audience measurement." 

Clients: Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, Pernod Ricard, Outback, Alberto Culver, Papa John's, Kohler and numerous others 

Years in Biz: More than 20

Signature Achievement: The landmark Video Consumer Mapping Study, which is now an industry standard

What the Boss Says: "The VCM is a feather in her cap," says Mike Hess, who uses the term "venerable" to describe Brill and her contributions.



by Kenneth Hein

When he's not working, Joe Masucci likes to relax with a little light reading-basic fare like, you know, Nietzsche or perhaps a little Schopenhauer. Just in case these gents aren't on your nightstand at home, all you need to know is both are brooding, 19th-century German philosophers. And just in case you're wondering what any of this has to do with media-planning strategy, the answer is plenty.

While studying at Fordham University's Quantitative Psychology graduate program, Masucci found himself gravitating toward an unlikely fascination with advertising media.

Early in his career, Masucci found a way to apply in-depth analytical thinking to plumb advertising's effectiveness. He has since plowed that unorthodox approach into a 20-year career devoted to developing sophisticated marketing models.

Today, with the appropriate title of director of business intelligence for OMD-and as a 2009 Media All-Star-Masucci is what his agency refers to as its "secret weapon of brain power."

Dynamic, irreverent and laser-focused on the work, Masucci runs contrary to just about every assumption one would make about an analytics geek. While he boasts a dual degree in math and psychology, he's also nostalgic for the days he played bass for his band, the Balls. "We were the Balls for a very long time," he says. "We got a lot of shit for that." But with equal fondness, Masucci recalls his first advertising job at BBDO, where "we had a hard-core, kick-ass marketing science group."

Say what you want (and Masucci always does), Masucci's mix of intellect and brute creative force has kicked sufficient ass that it landed him an enticing challenge from OMD early in 2007: Help the agency fuse research and analytics within client teams, and, in the process, revolutionize the way media is purchased.

Masucci says that the opportunity to "take analytics out of the back room" was what made the OMD opportunity so compelling. "This allows us to really build relationships in a way media agencies hadn't typically done in the past," Masucci says. "That's the magic of it."

Good thing, too, because there wasn't much magic to go around at OMD at the time Masucci joined. Having suffered a one-two punch over the loss of both its Dell and Bank of America accounts, OMD had lost some $700 million in billings in the process. Realizing that it had to change the way it did business, OMD created a business intelligence dashboard system. The idea was to form better connections among core business issues, OMD's tools and data, and a client's research. It was up to Masucci to make it all work.

And that, says CEO Alan Cohen, is just what happened. "Joe has changed our strategy offering to clients [into] something that is well beyond traditional media planning," he says. "He brings science, sophistication and the targeting skills that separate our clients from their competition."

And indeed, the clients came -- first Visa and Lowe's, followed shortly after by Frito-Lay, Pepsi and State Farm. OMD's turnaround was so significant (it pulled in $3.1 billion in new net business last year alone) that the firm was named Adweek's Global Media Agency of the Year in February.

Of course, there are naysayers who argue that all media agencies are leveraging technology these days, but Masucci counters that such thinking is dangerously limited. "So much of the industry is looking at technology [that] they expect it to give them all of the answers," he says, explaining that while technology allows a firm to capture more data through automation and efficiency, it "doesn't mean you've captured the information. You still need the human brain to analyze the information and make it usable to impact the business."

Masucci has done plenty of that. His successful stints include jobs at Grey Advertising, Young & Rubicam and most recently at Mediaedge:cia where he was director of OHAL, a marketing response-consulting unit that oversaw client services for Pfizer, Paramount and a host of other blue-chip clients. "I've done strategic brand planning, I've built econometric models and I've done the client service aspect in the modeling space. I have uniqueness of my background from a breadth standpoint," he says.

It's a breadth that continues to expand. Right now, Masucci has little time for music. He's working on the evolution of his business intelligence unit to stay ahead of the curve. "There are some areas we are into where our competition is a leg behind...We are leveraging analytics to understand, to measure marketing response and apply them to the buying side of the business. We are looking for new ways to find cost savings, [and] we're really advancing the analytics that we use that support the investment decisions."

Cohen describes it as such: "Joe's area is like research on steroids...He is one of the people who changed the way our clients perceive our company. [Plus], he is an engaging, smart, great guy. Everyone who meets him wants more of him."

And if you do happen to meet him, feel free to delve into the teachings of the classic philosophers. The Germans are his favorite.

Clients: Visa, Lowe's, Frito-Lay, Pepsi and State Farm

Years in Biz: 20

Signature Achievement: Provided the analytics that enabled OMD to deliver the industry's only economic-recovery plans for clients, bringing a quantifiable solution to growing rate pressure and assuring OMD a seat at the marketing table

What the Boss Says: "Joe has changed our strategy offering to clients [into] something that is well beyond traditional media planning," says Alan Cohen.



by Andrew McMains

Jeanine Swanson brings a mixture of down-home sweetness and passionate intensity to her role as director of out-of-home media at GSD&M Idea City. Just ask Heath Hill.

Personally, Swanson is "very loving, very 'How's your day been?'" says Hill, president of Lime Media, a Dallas-based supplier of trucks, Segways and scooters for use as ad vehicles. "And in business, it's 'Where are my recaps?, When am I going to get them?, Why don't I have them now?'"

But Hill respects rather than resents Swanson's whip cracking because she displays a thoroughness and mind-set that transcends the definition of a media buyer. "A lot of people in her position buy media and move on," explains Hill. "She's very detailed, and she's what I call resourceful/creative."

Indeed, the Texas-raised 2009 Mediaweek Media All-Star stands out for her ability to think creatively about media and add value to everyday deals, according to colleagues and a national media seller. A current in-theater campaign for the U.S. Air Force, for example, turns the standard demonstration of THX sound into a simulation of what a military jet flyover feels like. "It was just so unique because it's kind of like in your face and grabs your attention right away," says Jim Askins, the Air Force's national advertising account executive in San Antonio, Texas.

A relatively new manager who became a director in July 2008, Swanson, 28, displays a grace under pressure that belies her age. Rather than assign blame for the problems that inevitably arise in the messy business of advertising, she fixes on finding solutions quickly, true to her type-A character and determination. That can-do work ethic also applies to personal pursuits, whether she's negotiating a favorable price on a house in North Austin, training for a triathlon or being a Big Sister to a 15-year-old.

Swanson's boss, managing director of media Brian Wheelis, describes her approach to problem solving as "trying to take whatever you are presented with and turn it into a positive outcome, maybe more so than it ever could have been before. [It's] all in the approach, and she has definitely demonstrated that ability through her actions, her personality and her attitude, which is infectious. People see that, see how she behaves and that becomes a model for those around her."

For Swanson, it's just plain practical. The Austin, Texas-based GSD&M, like its peers, has grappled with the recessionary reality of staff cutbacks, as some clients leave and others claw back on spending. The OOH buying group, once 15 strong, now is down to three (including Swanson) and is connected to a team of media planners. Top clients include MasterCard, the Air Force, Norwegian Cruise Line and AARP.

"We could come in here, have conversations and talk all day, but [it's about] just getting down to business and doing what you need to do," says Swanson, a former media planner at PGR Media in Providence, R.I., who joined Omnicom Group's GSD&M in 2005. "The agency as a whole is really good at distributing people to make sure that everybody has help. And they want to help you maintain that balance of life and play. So, we're going to get the work done."

OOH highlights this year include the Air Force theater effort and a spring transit/theater campaign for a new BMW Z4 roadster. The Air Force buy included 30-second spots, lobby posters and a 60-second video that preceded the 10-second "flyover," which ran in a prime pod, just before the start of a film. Now in its second phase, the campaign is expected to generate more than 163 million impressions.

The idea of repurposing the THX demo arose during a "wouldn't it be cool to..." brainstorming session between the agency and Screenvision, according to Swanson. Mike Chico, executive vp of sales and marketing at Screenvision in New York, described the concept as a "light bulb idea" that came from working with a "smart lady" who is "always innovative."

The centerpiece of the BMW launch was an art exhibit/display inside Grand Central Station in Manhattan that IPG's Octagon set up. Featured were the car, a series of explanatory panels and a 30-by-40-foot segment of a mural created by South African artist Robin Rhode. Rhode painted the piece by driving over paint with the car. Director Jake Scott filmed the process, and GSD&M turned the footage into a 30-second spot and a two-minute minidocumentary, both of which ran in theaters. The display attracted nearly 18,000 visitors in two weeks, and concurrent transit ads generated another 5.58 million impressions, according to GSD&M. (BMW has since shifted its media duties to IPG's Universal McCann.)

Even though she's a manager now, Swanson still enjoys working in the trenches with colleagues, collaborating instead of delegating and earning the loyalty and trust of bosses and staffers alike. "She was the first one to give me the opportunity to have face time with the clients, our sales reps or with higher-ups in our company," says former GSD&M staffer Natalie Bain. Of course, having an outgoing personality helps, if only to remind Swanson not to take herself too seriously. Working in the state where she grew up, attended college (University of Texas, where she majored in advertising) and still finds her best friends and relatives doesn't hurt either.

Moreover, the laid-back, easy-going nature of Texans reminds Swanson that it's also important to stop and smell the roses. "Have you ever heard the country song [that goes], 'I'm in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life's no fun'?" says Swanson. "That's me. So, it's nice to live in Texas where the pace can be a bit slower, and I can relax a little." 

Clients: MasterCard, U.S. Air Force, Norwegian Cruise Line and AARP

Years in Biz: Six. Former media planner at PGR Media in Providence, R.I.; joined GSD&M in 2005

Signature Achievements: U.S. Air Force theater THX effort and a transit/theater campaign for a new BMW Z4 roadster

What the Boss Says: Brian Wheelis describes Swanson's approach as "trying to take whatever you are presented with and turn it into a positive outcome."



by Elaine Wong

Rebecca Krawczyk had good news; the bad news was figuring out what to do with it.

First, the good news. Initiative, the Interpublic Group agency for which she served as a media supervisor, had recently landed the Hyundai/Kia account, a prestigious and lucrative contract that most any media agency would pounce on. Then came the bad news: It was early 2009, and no consumer in America felt like buying a car. In fact, things were worse than that. Kia's demo skewed young -- especially when it came to Soul, its racy, compact SUV set for a Spring '09 launch -- and Gen-Y drivers are a finicky sell.

But Krawczyk, Mediaweek's 28-year-old Rising Star for 2009, narrowed a keen eye at the problem and advanced a savvy and ambitious solution: mobile tunes.

Social-music service Imeem had recently launched a new application for Google's Android mobile operating system. It would bring free streaming music and personalized radio to mobile phones, giving users the chance to create their own customized Internet radio stations. For Krawczyk, however, Imeem offered something else: the perfect platform to connect with the sort of kids that Kia wanted behind the wheel of a new Soul SUV.

Krawczyk drove Kia straight into the opportunity, establishing a branded presence for the Soul on the Android app, including a Kia-sponsored radio station. Kia also advertised on Imeem.com via display ads and media-streaming pages. By pairing the Kia Soul with custom playlists assembled by users themselves, Krawczyk's effort upped the cool factor for Kia far more than many traditional advertising channels would have done. Krawczyk also set Kia up as the first advertiser on Pandora's music-downloading service on the iPhone. In all, Krawczyk encouraged Kia to up its overall digital-media spend by 11 percent in 2008 and then another 9 percent this year.

"We tried to really create a very digital-oriented multiplatform media mix," Krawczyk explains. "Gen-Y males are very media agnostic. They just love content, and they don't care where they consume it -- whether on an Xbox or mobile phone. So we really need to be everywhere that they are and create ownership and value for them."

It soon became clear that that's exactly what Krawczyk and her team had accomplished. The digital effort -- which positioned Kia's brand as "fun and enabling" for the youthful buyer -- spiked visits to the Kia.com site by 67 percent during the campaign. Better still, 95 percent of the more than 3 million playlists streamed through the program came from mobile, giving Kia Soul -- as the service's inaugural sponsor -- the cachet of having been there first.

It was all very new territory for Kia, which had the added difficulties of a modest marketing budget for a carmaker (it spent $224 million in 2008). But Krawczyk, a three-year Initiative employee who first joined the company as a planner on the CBS and Showtime accounts, says that the campaign illustrates mobile's power -- not only to zero -- in on a target demo, but to do it without costing the client a fortune in the process.

"Kia is a challenger brand in a tough economy, and they have a small budget compared to some of the competitors. But their sales have been able to remain relatively healthy considering the way the market is going," Krawczyk says, adding that raising brand awareness for her client by making ad dollars work harder via viral impressions is a key way in which she's broken through the budgetary constraints.

Meanwhile, Kia seems quite content to let Krawczyk drive the brand into digital marketing territory. Kristin Lopez, a director at Innocean (the company charged with reviewing all of Kia's media planning proposals), says that Krawczyk's understanding of both Kia's aims and its limitations proved invaluable. "For [Kia], digital was a new platform," Lopez says. "What we want from the digital team is new ideas, new ways of thinking." It was this "new perspective" -- furnished by Krawczyk -- that prompted Kia to move ahead. Though Kia's media spend stood at just $100 million through June of this year, per TNS data, it seems to be getting its money's worth. Kia's year-to-date U.S. sales have risen 4.6 percent, according to the company.

As it turns out, taking initiative is nothing new to Krawczyk, who attributes her forward-thinking approach to the problem-solving skills she gained while working at her father's shipping business when she was still in her teens. That job also afforded her the opportunity to work with a broad variety of companies, a skill that comes in handy almost daily in her current job. "As [media buyers], we get a rare glimpse into the inner workings of many different industries," Krawczyk says. "We learn about the big operational structures, their marketing challenges, and we're able to bring solutions that really address their business objectives."

It also seems to have imbued Krawczyk with a sensitivity to a company's limitations just as much as its ambitions. Nadine Jarrard, a Southwest sales manager at Imeem, appreciates Krawczyk's honesty when dealing with client budgetary concerns. "She's very candid and forthright," Jarrard says. "She tells the truth." Another of Krawczyk's strengths, according to her supervisor Labi Bemanian, is innovation. Krawczyk helped direct a team of software developers in designing the company's internal operations system. This "one-stop digital shop," as Bemanian describes it, now brings together all of the media buyer's essential job tools, making the workday more efficient and reducing the likelihood of human error. More importantly, it's given Krawczyk and her team more "think time," which frees up everyone to be more creative.

Meanwhile, Krawczyk -- whose own digital interests are evident in a self-confessed obsession with the Nintendo Wii -- warns that consumers' digital appetites are not going away, and that savvy media planners will have to continue adapting. Consumers, she says, "want technology at their fingertips." 

Client: Kia -- specifically, its new Soul compact SUV

Years in Biz: Five

Signature Achievement: Krawczyk created a new operational system that has increased internal efficiencies by 15 percent. The "one-stop digital shop" brings together all of the media buyer's essential job tools, reducing the chances of errors.

What the Boss Says: "She has this can-do attitude -- very innovative, very accountable," Labi Bemanian says. "Not only does she hold the team to accountability, but herself as well."