For the last six months we have been working here at MA to bridge the gap between our media strategy, and brand strategy. We have a vision that one day, brand planners and media planners will work together, to create GLORIOUS ad campaigns.  The team below is the start of this vision for MA.  We want to introduce you to each of them, and you can look forward to hearing from each of them here on the MA blog. 

Andy Whalen: The Golden Boy

Each day Andy puts on his big boy pants, and goes to work making brands famous.  Everyone loves Andy. He’s smart, and knows how to make clients feel comfortable.  More importantly, Andy knows a lot about advertising.  He reads all the trade blogs, follows everyone in the business on Twitter, and can send you the most amazing videos you have ever seen.  Andy is a digital kid who doesn’t see the difference between traditional and “new” media.

Kristin Altman: The Black Widow

New to the MA team this summer, Kristin is a senior brand strategist who will blow your mind with research and insights.  She may look harmless, but don’t let her fool you – she knows her shit and will call you out on it.  From new ways to harvest research, to new ways to create briefs, she is already changing MA soup kitchen life. On a side note, she will steal your passwords to research sites, don’t say we didn’t warn you. 

Amanda Bobel: The Face

Fresh out of school, and fresh off an internship at MA, we snagged Amanda up as soon as we could because she is a rare talent.  The type of person who can tell you awful news, and you are somehow still happy because she is just so damn friendly. She is a jr. media planner, and is working to embed herself with the brand planning  early so that she doesn’t learn bad habits.  She is smart as a whip, and will no doubt change the media world as we know it. 

Marife Macaseat: The Warden

Marife is the longest member of the MA team and she is a senior media planner.  She knows the ropes, and keeps us all in check.  Marife will plan you a media plan that is so organized, it will make you cry.  She is also the area neat freak – without her we would all be living in piles of trash and discarded coffee mugs. 

Caterina Faccianetti: The Wild Card

Caterina is the newest face to the kitchen, and she joins us as a media planner. She has been at many agencies across Phoenix and worked vendor side as well – so don’t even try to pull anything over on her – she knows the ropes.  Caterina knows media, but more importantly knows how to push vendors to do new things with their platform, and that is an amazing skill. 

Roving member: Justin Walstead: The Token Intern

Justin is brand new to the Soup Kitchen.  He joins us as an intern for the fall, and will work cross departmentally with the strategy, media, accounts, and creative teams.   

So that is the team.  We will post weekly, if not more, on new happenings in brand strategy and media worlds.  We love that we see our disciplines combining and evolving, and we want to share it with you all.   We are young, we are hungry, and we can’t wait to change the ad business.

Welcome to the Soup Kitchen.

This past Saturday’s events in Tucson were senseless and tragic. It’s national news and everyone is talking about it. We’ve heard from President Obama, who will be in Tucson today. We’ve heard from Governor Jan Brewer. We’ve heard from the families of the victims and the victims themselves. And we’ve quietly heard from Safeway; the company released a statement over the weekend. Saturday’s tragic event took place in front of one of its stores. While the company was not directly involved, it still had a part. As scenes keep replaying from Saturday’s event, its storefront and logo keeps flashing across TV screens nationwide. Read more