The Martin Agency Taps a Former Netflix Exec to Lead Its Expansion Into Entertainment

Heading up the hub is former Netflix executive Alanna Strauss, who joins The Martin Agency as evp, head of Martin Entertainment and the agency’s Cultural Impact Lab. 

Strauss comes to Martin from Fender, where she was svp, creative and content, leading brand strategy and creative across all Fender brands, digital, social and the music brand’s learning tool, Fender Play.

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Prior to Fender, Strauss was head of creative for brand partnerships at Netflix, where she spearheaded unique activations like the acclaimed Stranger Things campaign “Live From the Upside Down,” a partnership between Netflix and Doritos. Before Netflix, she was svp of creative strategy at All City, Fox Network Group’s award-winning branded content studio providing premium brand content for channels including Fox Broadcasting Company, FX/FXX, Fox Sports and National Geographic channels.

In her newly created role, Strauss will lead Martin’s Cultural Impact Lab, which opened in 2019 and now adds entertainment to its cultural PR, activation, social and influencer capabilities. She joins Martin’s executive committee, reporting directly to CEO Kristen Cavallo. Strauss takes over the Cultural Impact Lab from Jaclyn Ruelle, who left Martin in September of last year to serve as vp, head of brand at Papa Johns.

“There are not a lot of people who have a really authentic, legit background both in the entertainment space but also in the brand space, and she’s been able to do it not only with her time at Fox, but with her time at Netflix, and then even with her time at Fender. In each case, she’s had one foot in the Hollywood world and one foot in the brand world,” Cavallo told Adweek about Strauss.

Entertainment in all its forms

Cavallo said that adding entertainment to the Cultural Impact Lab was a natural progression for the agency.

“On one hand, you hear that people are constantly saying, ‘We have no time, the attention span is that of a goldfish.’ But then we also see that people are spending 95 minutes a day on TikTok and that movies are lengthening in their duration over two hours, and our addiction to streaming has not subsided one bit,” said Cavallo, adding that the agency is always looking for ways to be culturally relevant since that drives sales, and that the most talked about brands grow faster.

While Strauss has worked across many agencies during her career, what she loves about Martin is its ability to connect brands with what they mean to people.

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“That’s how you build entertainment and that’s how you connect with people, and that’s how you become bigger than just selling a product—you connect with what you mean to someone’s life, and that’s in Martin’s veins. Every single piece of work they put out there for a brand, no matter what it’s for, no matter the brand, no matter the product, you feel the human behind it,” said Strauss.

Cavallo and Strauss said the entertainment and culture lab will be conscious of the placement of what it puts out in the world, be it on social media, as a partnership with an existing IP, a bespoke content series or a live activation, working with Martin’s affiliated production company SuperJoy or with outside production crews.

“The last thing I want to do is just create a piece of content and put it out in the world and cross my fingers that people want to watch it. It’s all about the contextual placement of it,” said Strauss.

Rounding out the team

While the launch of Martin Entertainment is new, Martin has played in the entertainment culture space before. As of late, the Emmy-winning agency debuted the DoorDash short film Soul of the City at the Tribeca Film Festival, released the Century 21 and National Geographic documentary Home Rediscovered, and reimagined the children’s book IP Now Upon a Time as an animated short film, Lil’ Ruby Riding Hood.

The agency’s expansion into entertainment comes at a moment when brands are working more closely with content creators and streamers like Netflix to integrate themselves into entertainment media.

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Strauss will work in Los Angeles through IPG shop MullenLowe’s shared office space, though entertainment teams will be located in New York and Richmond, Va. Her hire comes on the heels of several new senior leadership hires for the Cultural Impact Lab:

• Lauren Brennan, vp, head of PR, formerly at MullenLowe U.S.
• Matt DeSiena, head of social, formerly of TBWA/Chiat/Day and The Winston Project
• Jake Rosenblatt, influencer partnerships director, formerly at influencer agency Whalar, who will lead the charge for HypeLine, an end-to-end service connecting brands with creators
• Librado Sanchez, director of partnerships and legal, formerly at Translation and UnitedMasters

Cavallo hopes that Martin Entertainment shows the elasticity of its own brand while figuring out the elasticity of any brand in its portfolio.

“The challenge of an ad agency today is to make sure that when I see your brand, I care,” said Cavallo. “And our job is to make sure that whether we see it in Coachella or see it in Hulu or see it on TikTok, or see it in a game or see it in Fortnight, that you say, ‘Wow, that enhances that experience for me, and I care about it.'”