Highdive managing partner Louis Slotkin dies at 51

Louis Slotkin, co-owner and managing partner of Highdive, died on March 31 following a battle with colon cancer. He was 51. A self-described francophile, Slotkin wrote on his LinkedIn page that he left Glencoe, Illinois—the home of his “meat man dad” and “hippie librarian mom”—to live in Paris, where he sold French perfume and painted hotel rooms to fund his baguette and cheese habit. It was there he fell in love with marketing, and began his storied career in advertising at Ogilvy in 1994. After spending time at Young & Rubicam and Leo Burnett, Slotkin joined Highdive in 2017 with Leo Burnett colleague Megan Lally and soon found his way into the leadership team with founders and Chief Creative Officers Mark Gross and Chad Broude. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Highdive quickly developed a reputation for punching above its weight, launching Super Bowl ads for high-profile clients including Jeep, Rocket Mortgage, Lay’s and Ram. The agency’s Barbie-themed ad for Rocket Mortgage was the No. 1 Big Game spot in 2022, according to the USA Today Ad Meter. The agency’s Super Bowl streak continued this year, with Jeep’s “Electric Boogie” campaign, which took the company’s electric vehicles through the animal kingdom as animals danced to a remixed version of “The Electric Slide.” Highdive won Ad Age's 2020 Small Agency of the Year award, was named Midwest Small Agency of the Year in 2022, and was named an Agency A-List Standout in 2021 and 2023. But what made Highdive such a successful agency wasn’t its big-name clients or industry awards; it was the relationships it built, Slotkin previously told Ad Age. One of the agency’s founding principles is to “create the healthiest client-agency relationships in the world,” Slotkin said in 2020. Whether it was his penchant for “whiteboarding” or his “hidden magic” to see potential and rekindle it, Slotkin was the key to staying true to those principles, according to Lally. He found that there was a scientific link between creativity and healthy relationships. “When there’s positivity, vulnerability, honesty and transparency in a relationship, you can actually be more creative and come up with better problem-solving ideas,” Lally said. “Louis was a role model for that to everybody, and it really set the stage for how we work.” One example was Highdive’s first meeting with future client Stellantis, parent company of Jeep and Ram, which had been delayed until late in the day. Ever a lover of fine cheese from his time in France, Slotkin found a store in Detroit that sold all manner of cheese and brought an assortment to the Stellantis teams. “We walked in as this small unknown agency with all of this cheese, and the clients loved the cheese,” Lally said. “They also loved the work, but if we didn’t have that cheese, I don’t think the meeting would have gone the same.” Once Highdive was established with the account, Slotkin became an “amazing business collaborator” and “treasured friend” to those he worked with at Stellantis, said Marissa Hunter, senior VP and head of marketing at the automaker. Many of the agency’s strategy sessions with the company were held in the atmosphere of “if your hair isn’t on fire, you aren’t really living” and adhered to a “no squinting” rule when reviewing ideas—if it made you squint, it should be dismissed, Hunter said in a statement. “With Louis on our side, we weathered many unthinkable storms, and we collectively persevered,” Hunter said in the statement. “As a professional, and for the amazing human Louis was, he will be missed…On behalf of the entire Stellantis brand marketing team, we deeply treasure our time with him, we are grateful to have known him, and we will forever be better because of Louis.” “[Louis] altered the trajectory of many careers and lives, and his endless enthusiasm will continue to spread like brushfire,” the agency said. “Louis was one of the industry’s all-time brightest stars, though he never would have told you so.” Despite his notable career in the advertising world, Slotkin loathed to be known as an “ad guy,” according to Broude, who didn’t understand why it was such an insult. But to Slotkin, the “ad guy” label described Pete Campbell-types, who “did the bare minimum and contributed to the mediocrity in advertising/marketing,” Broude wrote in a tribute to Slotkin shared with Ad Age. Slotkin, Broude argued, was so much more. “He was the greatest ‘ad guy’ to ever live. And who knows, maybe he's up there watching me write this and now likes the ‘ad guy’ label after spending a lifetime changing the definition of what that means. Or maybe he’s about to throw a lightning bolt from the heavens…But in the spirit of being his annoying, pushing little brother, there's a part of me that hopes he's doing a little bit of both.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Services will be held on April 5 at 11:30 a.m. CT at Am Shalom in Glencoe, Illinois, and will be livestreamed. After the service, a gathering will take place for Highdive employees and others who worked with Slotkin. Donations can be made to The Glencoe Public Library.

Highdive managing partner Louis Slotkin dies at 51

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