TRENDSETTERS

Sir Martin Sorrell's success has always been built on anticipating what's next for an advertising industry that must continually reinvent itself. His company, S4 Capital, has had quite a year with seven acquisitions to date since the first Covid-19 lockdown began last March. This includes two recent US acquisitions in early January: integrated media agency Decoded and marketing agency Metric Theor...

Whitney Fishman Zember has been helping brands and businesses understand media and communication trends, as well as technology-driven consumer-based insights, for over fifteen years. As Managing Partner, Innovation & Consumer Technology at Wavemaker US, she uncovers opportunities to harness technology to connect marketers with audiences in new and meaningful ways.  Her ability to spot trends is se...

Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting and Global Intelligence at Zenith, and Brian Wieser, Global President of Business Intelligence for GroupM, have been in the business of advertising forecasting, intelligence, and trend watching for an exceptionally long time. Given their experience through numerous financial swings and business precedents, few are more likely to aptly guide the industry after...

ransformational Marketer, Perry Kamel, Creates New, Remarkably Purpose-Driven Company. Perry Kamel has a 30+ year track record for transforming companies—from giants like Siemens ICN and Ciena to his role as Founding Global Managing Director of Accenture Interactive.  He has extensive experience in applied innovation, as well as degrees in electrical engineering and in business. If one could apply...

Adam Benaroya has always been a digitally-driven marketer.  Today, as Head of Global Media and Performance Marketing at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, he is responsible for the global media program, as well as broader digital- and data-centric Centers of Excellence (COEs), which include audience strategy, biddable media policy and execution, adtech/martech, privacy, and analytics.

Sebastian Jespersen is an innovator, a business strategist, and a breakthrough digital thinker.  He has a provocative idea that involves our new digital world and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  In fact, it is an idea that puts marketers at the center and emphasizes how they can make a difference for a more meaningful and safe digital life. 

Josh Blacksmith, Senior Director of Global Consumer Relationships and Engagement at Kimberly-Clark, is championing a relatively new endeavor for most Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) companies: global first-party data collection and how it can be used to impact meaningful, lifetime customer relationships.  This has been an area of significant focus for him from the beginning of his career. 

As Kirsten Allegri Williams surveys our new marketing world of increased screen time and work from home connectivity, she passionately believes that brands will now win entirely on digital differentiation. “At this moment in history and for the foreseeable future, a brand’s digital presence makes up the entirety of how it reaches customers.” 

Ask Iris Meijer to describe her role at Vodafone Business, and she’ll likely tell you that she helps customers succeed in a digital world.  Vodafone Business is the vibrant enterprise division of British multinational Vodafone, one of world’s largest telecommunications companies. With expertise in connectivity, the Internet of Things and global scale, Vodafone Business serves customers of all size...

Julie Chan believes that now-- more than ever before-- it is important for marketers to understand “fluidity.” A global media expert who is GSK’s Communications Planning Lead for the Pain and Respiratory business categories, she recognizes that the ability to change rapidly must be built into our communications today.

Yin Rani’s career has been built on bold strategies, coupled with breakthrough communications. Last October, she accepted the role as Chief Executive Officer of MilkPEP or The Milk Processor Education Program, where she started to address the challenges of the milk industry by using marketing to make a positive impact.  Less than six months in her new position, COVID-19 interrupted some of her pla...

Michael Moszynski believes that an ad agency—at the very least-- should provide businesses with the inspiration to advertise. As CEO of independent creative shop, LONDON Advertising, he is keenly aware that right now every agency is reminding their clients that “those who advertise in a downturn will gain market share over those who do not.”  However, he has gone one step further.

While transformation is unquestionably a critical business survival skill, Luis Gallardo has pioneered the transition from global marketer for one of the world’s top professional services companies to Founder of the largest forum of happiness and well-being experts and thought leaders that now reaches 10 million people across the globe.  And he admits he never could have done it without relying on...

Simon Perkins was named President of the Orvis company in May. While it remains the world’s oldest mail-order retailer, Orvis has evolved to become a globally recognized fishing, wingshooting, and lifestyle apparel brand that is deeply invested in education and conservation. The company was founded in Manchester, Vermont in 1856 by Charles Orvis, a fly-fishing enthusiast. And while he created his...

Mirella Amalia Vitale, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs at The ROCKWOOL Group admitted early last year that "Everything changed when we aligned around purpose." Today, at a time when everyone’s way of living has been challenged and the nature of cities is changing amid an unforeseen pandemic, she emphasizes that “Purpose is more relevant now than ever before.”

Olga Osminkina-Jones has long been a brand builder and a champion of disruptive, cutting-edge marketing with cultural relevance.  In her various roles at Pepsi and Danone over the past six years, she has been able to redefine a commodity product as luxury, revitalize a brand's value through both consumer and social insights, and has overturned the common misconception that Millennials don't care a...

As Head of Brand Strategy and Stewardship at Shell, Rahul Malhotra understands how to champion purpose within an organization. His provocative phrase “Purpose is dead. Long live purpose” borrows from the traditional proclamation hailing the continuity of monarchy: “The king is dead, long live the king.” He believes that prior to COVID-19, purpose was a statement for many organizations. “Going forw...

Last September, Anna Bager was named President & CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), a national trade association that represents the $8+ billion Out of Home (OOH) ad industry.  And while her new role would seem particularly challenging with a stay-at-home edict during a global pandemic, this industry sector did not fare as badly as projections anticipated. Interestin...

Wally Snyder has devoted his entire professional career to working on advertising development, regulation and ethics. He served as a trial lawyer and as Assistant Director for Advertising Practices at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) before joining the American Advertising Federation (AAF) where he served as president and CEO, from 1992–2008. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame® in...

Manos Spanos, SVP and CMO of Brand Marketing for the Yogurt Business Unit at Danone North America, has been motivated throughout his career by the intersection of marketing, innovation, and technology. He has been an early adopter of Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithms and other technology tools that not only generate efficiencies and sustainable results, but also power content creation and e...

Rick Tocquigny began his career at Procter & Gamble as a brand management trainer, then moved to PepsiCo’s Doritos Brand Team and later transitioned to General Mills as VP Sales and Marketing for Colombo Yogurt.  However, he transformed his career a dozen years ago by becoming one of the earliest podcasters with the Life Lessons and Transformed Traveler Network. 

Amanda Brinkman believes that small businesses have big hearts. As the Chief Brand and Communications Officer at Deluxe Corp., long known as a maker of checks, she transformed the company by highlighting its small business clients rather than Deluxe itself, while ensuring that the company would become a resource for small business tools and opportunities.  She says, “Small business owners love wha...

Brad Jakeman, former President of PepsiCo’s Global Beverage Group, is rethinking food—quite literally.  This March, he became the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Rethink Food, created to provide expertise and investment to companies that support the production, availability and demand for healthier and more sustainable food for all people.  Brad Jakeman believes that the food industry is poised...

Ask Tifenn Dano Kwan about the future of work, and she’ll say, “It’s already here.”  As the new Chief Marketing Officer of Dropbox, which brings together file sharing and cloud content with tools for business collaboration, she and her teams around the world are actively ensuring that working remotely can be simpler and more efficient than ever before. 

Graciela Benveniste recognizes that people are experiencing an inundation of information now. She also admits that consumers now expect brands, particularly financial services, to help with analysis and trends on everything from the global economy to personal finances.