What’s Good for the World Is Good for the Agency
Ask anyone at a digital agency, from account directors, strategists, designers, writers, and engineers, if they’d rather work on selling more of product X or work on something that provides a social good. The answer is obvious.Yet, the priorities of agencies often make it difficult to dedicate and allocate the required resources and commitment. Certainly many agencies try to take a few pro bono projects every year, but even these projects don’t typically generate the attention, commitment, and enthusiasm from senior leaders of an agency. But they should.In this session, we will present several case studies where agencies made a strong commitment to let people work on a project that they were both passionate about and provided social value. The results of these efforts are both wide and deep – more engaged and happy employees, work that allows an agency to showcase new and different talents, and fundamentally making something that makes the world a better place.
Presenters
Tennessee-born Andrew O’Dell, 40, is the CEO and Co-Founder of ad agency Pereira & O’Dell headquartered in San Francisco. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years experience starting businesses in the Bay Area. His strong digital background has seen the dichotomy of booms and busts true to the ad world lending to his keen awareness of future business and consumer trends. His management team would agree that O’Dell cuts a very charismatic image for the agency. Andrew co-Founded digital advertising agency Lot21 in 1997, and went on to become president at AKQA before co-Founding Pereira & O’Dell with PJ Pereira in April 2008. Pereira & O’Dell was named Advertising Age’s 2010 Small Agency of the Year as well as AdAge and Creativity's 2011 A-Lists.
Angele is founder of Agent Innovateur Inc., a new type of agency focused on creating better products, experiences and technologies for the digital consumer. She is currently incubating two social entreprises, pioneering an applied innovation graduate PhD program at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is the editor-in-chief for Society of Digital Agency's (SoDA) annual trend report.
A "traditigal" marketer, Angele has spent over 20 years in both traditional and digital marketing communications. Prior to launching her new agency, Angele led Dare North America’s strategy and innovation group and Dare Labs -- architecting brand communities, social networks, commercial web sites, e-learning portals, corporate blogs and spearheading social media initiatives. Her clients include McDonald's North America, Ronald McDonald House Charities Global, Best Buy/Future Shop, SAP Global, the Gap, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), Tourism British Columbia, and Sony Ericsson.
Angele believes in giving back and building learning cultures. She is an advisory board member for the Merging+Media association, Achilles Media's Film, TV and Next Media events, Kibooco (kids edutainment start-up) and the Digital Strategy Advisory Committee for UBC. She was the visionary for Dare Sessions and Cossette Convergence events, is a guest faculty member at the Banff New Media Institute and social media planning instructor for the University of British Columbia. An accomplished presenter, she leads workshops and lectures on social innovation, digital marketing, e-philanthropy and social media in the US and Canada. Angele, a proud french canadian, is a graduate of Canada's first multimedia focused BAA degree from Ryerson University.
CEO of Reactive New York with over 14 years digital agency experience.
Reactive is an award-winning digital agency based in New York, London, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
Key clients include: Cervelo Cycles, Amnesty International, Rip Curl, Tesco, British Airways, STA Travel and BHP Billiton
Bachelor of Commerce from Adelaide University and a Bachelor of Marketing from the University of South Australia.
DJ Edgerton is the Founder and CEO of Zemoga, a digital innovation agency with offices in New York, San Francisco, Wilton, CT and Bogota, Colombia. Edgerton has worked in the traditional and digital agency space for over 20 years. During that time he has specialized in developing and leveraging technology to provide groundbreaking business solutions for Fortune 500 companies. His range of expertise includes development of large-scale enterprise-wide custom applications and digital campaigns that feature award-winning design, user experience, and information architecture. His combination of traditional and interactive design skills has led to the creation of award-winning projects across a wide variety of media.
The founder of the award-winning Pixels & Pills blog, DJ is recognized as one of the industry thought leaders in the digital healthcare space. He has spoken about healthcare and the power of digital in a wide array of media including ADWEEK, MED AD NEWS, PHARMA EXEC, and the HUFFINGTON POST. Edgerton has also been a featured speaker at many industry events including Social Media Week, Mashable NextUp, and the Social Media Tools for Pharma Conference. DJ also currently serves on the Board of Directors for SoDA, the Society of Digital Agencies.
Before co-founding Zemoga in 2001, Edgerton held executive-level positions at Blast Radius and Context Integration. Prior to joining Context, Edgerton founded Underline, a creative and digital agency. At Underline, Edgerton worked on traditional campaigns and pioneering interactive work for numerous well-known companies, including Nickelodeon, Merck, Morgan Stanley, and the Walt Disney Company. Edgerton began his career at Saatchi & Saatchi where he worked on campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, AT&T, and Upjohn.
Tom Beck is President of Enlighten, one of the nation’s leading independent digital media and marketing agencies. His professional passion is rooted in how digital technology can be used to spark fundamental human desires for beauty, humor, delight and connection. For the past 15 years, he's helped numerous digital media start-ups and large corporate brands to better understand the ways in which market dynamics, consumer trends and digital technology are shaping the future of their businesses. On the management side, Tom leads Enlighten’s growth strategy and plays an active role in expanding the agency's partner and relationship network. He directs Enlighten’s day-to-day operations and works closely with the management team on leadership, culture and innovation. Tom regularly serves as an expert resource for industry analysts, investment banks, and national media organizations seeking perspective on key trends at the intersection of business, digital technology, marketing and design. Prior to Enlighten, Tom played leadership roles at companies in both the digital media and financial services sectors. He holds a BA in English from Indiana University.
Monday, March 12
