advertising
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Kennan Davison keeps changing the plan
Skio found its business after a pivot, then sold to the competitor it had challenged. At Icon, Kennan Davison is making another turn: from AI admaking to ads made by people.
Mo Said had a Super Bowl ad. He left the room.
The Mojo Supermarket founder built his career making ads, then began asking whether he wanted to watch them. His next assignment was harder: building a company he wanted to run.
David Regn’s long game began in a bakery
Before he co-founded Stream Companies, David Regn learned to grow a business inside a grocery store. Thirty years after starting an agency with his friend Jason Brennan, he is still working on the same question: what makes customers come back?
Scott Bedford and the value of a very particular crowd
Before Multiview became a B2B marketing business, Scott Bedford worked on electronic advertising for newspapers. His career kept returning to a practical question: how do you bring an advertiser to people who have a reason to care?
Brad Simms built GALE backwards.
He started with customer data and built outward into creativity and media. By the time Brad Simms retired in 2025, GALE had become a test of whether an agency could put the business, and its people, together differently.
Buffy McCoy Kelly and the trouble with a sensible idea
A mile of rubber ducks. A two-story vacuum cleaner. A snack cake with an attitude. Buffy McCoy Kelly built a career giving familiar brands unexpected things to say - then rewrote her own job.
NJ Advance Media sells the audience it knows
The company behind NJ.com has turned a local newsroom’s audience into a marketing business. Its most useful lesson starts before anyone buys an ad.
Maxus made small feel big.
A young media network paired local initiative with GroupM’s buying power. Its rise - and its 2017 merger into Wavemaker - reveal the bargain behind a challenger agency with a giant parent.
SMALL makes the idea the main event
A T-shirt that comes with a condo. A film that turns low expectations inside out. Inside the New York agency built around a simple proposition: hire the people with the idea.
Ashley McEvoy and the education of a listener
Before she became Insulet’s CEO, Ashley McEvoy learned to study what people choose, what teams need, and when to ask another question. Her career began with advertising - and a much earlier education around the family dinner table.
Nick Brien and the case for looking up
After decades helping brands buy attention, Nick Brien is making a case for the street. His route to OUTFRONT runs through agency boardrooms, advertising software, gaming communities, and a conviction that public life still matters.
The E.W. Scripps Company bets on free.
A newspaper company built for working people now wants to make live sports easier to watch. The antenna is cheap. The business behind it is anything but.
Susan Flinn Cobian and the case for a smaller room
Susan Flinn Cobian built SFC Group around close client relationships and a team that could work from anywhere. Her career offers a practical argument for fewer layers, clearer ownership, and paying attention long after a pitch ends.
Andre Filip keeps changing the assignment
He built ELA by bringing the pace of movie advertising to other brands. With SmartMagic, Andre Filip is moving closer to the products behind the pitch.
Everett Hamilton Jr. and the Art of Getting People in the Room
An event planner became a public relations founder by noticing what his work had in common. Now Everett Hamilton Jr.’s Washington career runs through community organizations, corporate communications and the business of telling a city’s story.
What Happens When the Famous Name on Your Business Card Is Yours?
Yvonne “Bonnie” Garcia helped Coca-Cola hear the Hispanic market and signed Selena to an early endorsement. Then she came home to San Antonio to discover what her own name could build.
Rebecca Hussain and the question before the answer
Before founding RHMM in 2014, Rebecca Hussain worked in advertising and publishing. Her route into strategic communications offers a useful lesson in the business of paying attention.
Renee White Fraser and the Audience She Didn’t Know She Had
An advertising founder spent years studying what moves people. Then a school essay showed Renee White Fraser how far a working life can travel.
Katie G. Harvey and the value of a second pair of hands
At 24, Katie G. Harvey opened a PR agency with $2,000 and a client who already knew her. Three decades later, her story turns on a different kind of confidence: giving other people a stake in what she built.
Wade Davis and the audience hiding in plain sight
Wade Davis helped join Univision to Televisa’s content business and put ViX on the screen. His next assignment takes the former television CEO into the billboard business.
John Gallegos and the trouble with a bigger box
He built an agency around audiences advertising kept treating as a specialty. Then John Gallegos took the same question into beer and youth sports: what happens when you give a community more room?
Barbara Zenz and the art of making the complicated useful
From Silicon Valley technology campaigns to marketing for independent alarm dealers, Barbara Zenz has built her work around a practical question: what will help the customer take the next step?
Brian Fabiano and the Trouble with Talking to Everyone
From Macintosh publishing to personalized marketing, FabCom’s co-founder has kept returning to one question: what makes a message matter to the person receiving it?
Ken Begasse Jr. and the business of building a team
A college goalkeeper became an agency founder, built a decades-long partnership and joined Accenture Song. Along the way, Ken Begasse Jr. kept returning to the people who make a business work.
Rosaria Cain and the useful art of getting it wrong
She started an advertising agency without having worked in one. A costly detour, a client who stayed and a habit of asking questions helped Rosaria Cain learn how to keep it going.
Michael J. Brunner and the business of saying hello
Before a new employee got far at Brunner, there was a meeting with Michael. The Pittsburgh agency founder built a career around a deceptively demanding idea: people should know one another, know the numbers, and share in the work.
John Rose and the Curious Business of Being Understood
From a Boston agency to Soviet advertising, a vodka cookbook and a magic festival in Havana, John Rose has made a career of introducing people to things they had not quite expected.
Dana C. Arnett and the audience on the other side of the door
After three decades in television, Dana C. Arnett stepped away without a next act lined up. At Wicked Bionic, she found one in helping people discover opportunities they might otherwise walk past.
Robert G. Vallee Jr. and the family business that changed owners
He moved from production at George P. Johnson to building Project Worldwide around agencies with different talents. The family connection endured; employee ownership changed who shared in the future.
Ben Ricciardi’s big ideas began in a very small room
An 8-by-10-foot basement office. A colleague who quit two jobs to join him. The Times10 founder’s story runs from that crowded desk to celebrity campaigns, Chicago celebrations and a golf goal he is pursuing in public.