Big In Print
Media Mavens 2010
Media Mavens: Christopher Batty, Gawker Media
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Gawker Media has come to represent a version of dot-com success, very publicly defined by Gawker's editorial sensibility and less publicly, though no less significantly, by its business instincts. And by all accounts, it is Christopher Batty who drives much of the company's publishing ambitions. While founder Nick Denton is the impresario, Mr. Batty is a self-confessed introvert. But don't let that fool you.
Media Mavens: Brian McMahon, Orion Trading
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Orion Trading Global CEO Brian McMahon has been traveling the globe opening up new offices and cutting some of the wackiest, but most lucrative media deals for Interpublic clients that one could imagine.
Media Mavens: Iain Tait, Wieden & Kennedy
September 27, 2010
LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Iain Tait, global interactive executive creative director at Wieden & Kennedy, is the man credited as the brains behind Old Spice's YouTube triumph.
Media Mavens: Dave Adelman, Mindshare
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The early part of 2009 wasn't one of Mindshare's best runs. But in the words of Dave Adelman, the agency's chief marketing officer, "You can learn a lot from losing." In losing one of the biggest media reviews that year, Home Depot, the WPP-owned shop learned a lesson that would help it 12 months later land two high-profile accounts -- Radio Shack and CVS -- and sustain a nearly yearlong winning streak.
Media Mavens: Carrie Frolich, MEC
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Here's the irony of being Carrie Frolich: Her clients, such as AT&T, Macy's and Citibank, depend on her to stay on the bleeding edge of technology and digital media. She did the first real commercial deal with Twitter ("Title Tweets" with AT&T and CBS last year), and four of her clients were among the first to try out Apple's iAds. But all of this makes her too busy to actually use the tools much herself.
Media Mavens: Lakish Hatalkar, Novartis Consumer Healthcare
September 23, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After 13 years at Procter & Gamble Co., much of it spent developing media capabilities for the company on three continents, Lakish Hatalkar was looking for something a bit more entrepreneurial and a chance to help build a newer marketing culture last year.
Media Mavens: Seth Kaufman, Pepsico Beverages Americas
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's ironic that Seth Kaufman is a media maven, because he's not necessarily a media guy by training. The director-media strategy and investment for PepsiCo Beverages Americas is a marketer, a general manager, a specialist in shopper insights, even an adjunct professor. But when it comes to media, his direct experience was somewhat limited, including a stint in media sales for a company that represented radio stations. That, said Dave Burwick, a former PepsiCo executive, is what made Mr. Kaufman perfect for the job.
Media Mavens: David Levy, Turner Broadcasting System
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Time Warner's Turner Cable unit has ramped up aggressively in recent years: buying CourtTV and turning it into a channel centered around reality-based programming; bringing Conan O'Brien onboard to start a late-night series on TBS; snatching cult-favorite cop show "Southland" after NBC dropped it; and partnering with CBS in an effort that could make the NCAA men's basketball championships even bigger than they already are. Now it's up to David Levy to make sure this all pays off.
Media Mavens: John Moore, Mullen
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- "When we think about marketing, we still think in terms of what's the TV idea, what's the radio idea, what's the social idea," said John Moore, who serves as chief media officer at Mullen. "We would never admit that in public, because we know that's not how the public wants us to think or how clients want us to think. But I don't think that we're at the place where we're smashing them together, the 'blenderization' of marketing."
Media Mavens: Brandy Ruff, Alberto-Culver Co.
September 27, 2010
ATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- One reason Alberto-Culver Co. keeps beating much bigger personal-care rivals and eating away at their share in hotly contested hair-care categories may come down to what Brandy Ruff, director of integrated marketing communication, calls "smart risks" and a hearty appetite for branded content.
Media Mavens: Colleen Fahey Rush, MTV Networks
September 27, 2010
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Understanding the zeitgeist has always been the greatest selling point -- as well as challenge -- of MTV Networks channels MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike, TV Land and Logo. For Colleen Fahey Rush, exec VP-strategic insights and research at MTV Networks, this challenge begins and ends with the viewers themselves.
Media Mavens: Bill Koenigsberg, Horizon Media
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Bill Koenigsberg is an extreme rarity in the media-agency business. He's an agency CEO who has more than five years of experience running the same shop. Actually, he has spent more than 20 years captaining Horizon Media, the most successful independent agencies in the industry, and one that has repeatedly bested much bigger competitors in new-business pitches this past year.
Media Mavens: Dan Greenberg, Sharethrough
September 27, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Dan Greenberg, the 25-year-old CEO of video-distribution company Sharethrough and a Stanford grad-school dropout, is smarter than many in the online video space. He's figured out how to take the seemingly unquantifiable "happy accident" of viral video and turn it into an algorithm.
Media Mavens: Barbara Bloom, CBS Entertainment
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As head of daytime programming at CBS, Barbara Bloom knows about soap operas. She even served as co-head writer for a time on the ABC daytime serial "Port Charles." So Ms. Bloom has come to wrangle with the sad truth that the venerable TV genre is facing challenges.
Media Mavens: Stewart Atkinson, Procter & Gamble
September 27, 2010
BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Procter & Gamble co. raised a few eyebrows when it put Stewart Atkinson, a career purchasing and general-management executive, in charge of a key part of its global media organization -- and as many would see it the most important part: buying media for the world's biggest media buyer.
Media Mavens: Hernan Sanchez Neira, Havas Media Intelligence
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's true that Hernán Sanchez is not your typical media executive, but what he's doing -- along with his team at Havas Media Intelligence and across the group as a whole -- might just change the way communications are done for good.
Media Mavens: Bryan Wiener, 360i
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- 360i is about to move from cramped space in New York's Flatiron to the AT&T Building in tony Tribeca. But the culture -- remarkably diva-free and hard working -- will stay the same. That's one thing CEO Bryan Wiener took from his first experience running a big web company called -- wait for it -- The Globe.
Media Mavens: Greg Kahn, Optimedia U.S.
September 27, 2010
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Greg Kahn wants to change the way you buy and measure media.
A Conversation With Five Media Mavens
September 27, 2010
NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- This year, Ad Age honored 18 media executives from the world of marketing and advertising who, despite a challenging economic environment, found innovative ways to stretch media dollars and bolstered their companies' bottom lines in the process. We caught up with five mavens for a separate conversation.
