Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

2:15 PM - 3:30 PM

Track I: Ahmanson Hall, Live Webcast from this Room

The Future of Brand Partnerships and Influencer Marketing

Keith Hernandez, SVP of Strategy, Bleacher Report, Turner

Anne-Marie O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Whalerock Industries

Ben Tatta, Co-Founder and President, 605

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Chief Digital Officer, CAA-GBG, a division of CAA

Simon Kelly, Co-CEO and Chief Enthusiasm Officer, Story Worldwide

Mark Egan, Managing Director, West Coast, MediaCom

Corey Weiss, Head of Business Development, ipsy, Moderator

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Chief Digital Officer of CAA-GBG: For almost two decades, Kendra Bracken-Ferguson has helped to define and navigate the digital space as a creative force for brands and influencers, becoming a recognized and sought-after business innovator and global digital architect. Now the Chief Digital Officer of CAA-GBG, the largest brand management agency in the world with 24 offices in over 20 countries, Kendra leads a global team of digital marketing experts and social media natives. The BrainTrust, the social media agency that Kendra founded in 2016, joined CAA-GBG which is a joint venture between Global Brands Group Holding Limited (“Global Brands”), and Creative Artists Agency (“CAA”). Prior to BrainTrust gaining notoriety and success, Kendra saw an opening in the market for digital, social and influencer marketing, and she co-founded Digital Brand Architects. Now in its sixth year, DBA grew quickly from an idea at a kitchen table into the go-to firm for influencer management. Before launching DBA, Kendra created the social media

footprint for fashion behemoth, Ralph Lauren, where she was the company’s first Director of Digital Media. Kendra's work during and since her time at Ralph Lauren was informed by her years as Vice President, Digital at Fleishman-Hillard, New York, where she led the digital consumer team in developing social media strategies for clients including AT&T, DKNY, and P&G.  A compelling and charismatic keynote speaker and industry leader, Kendra has been awarded the Emerging Voice Award by her alma mater Purdue University, named one of the "Most Influential African American Women" by Essence Magazine, Zimmer Children’s Museum board member and noted by Mobile Marketer as a "Mobile Women to Watch” amongst other industry accolades. Working ahead of trends and predicting opportunities, Carpe diem is not just a saying to Kendra - it is a way of life.

Corey Weiss is Head of Business Development and a founding team member and at ipsy, the world’s largest and most passionate online beauty community, anchored around sampling and entertainment. Corey joined ipsy in 2011 with a mission to inspire women around the world to express their unique beauty. By leveraging multiple channels to market and promoting and selling digital media, entertainment, and consumer products, Corey has helped grow the ipsy community to over 2.5M glam bag subscribers and over 10,000 of today’s best beauty content creators, reaching over 30M women each month, making ipsy the leading source of influence in the beauty industry. Prior to joining ipsy, Corey spent the past 20 years, working with top entertainment and digital media companies including Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and most recently Yahoo! as Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Entertainment, Sports and Original Video. Under his leadership the media properties experienced year-over-year growth including the #1 position for Yahoo! Sports, Fantasy Football, Yahoo! TV, omg! and original video. In addition to starting two companies of his own, Corey was on the founding team at Maverick Online Entertainment, WireBreak Entertainment and at Movielink, an online movie rental service formed by five major Hollywood studios. Specialties: Digital, social and traditional media, digital distribution and marketing strategy, strategic partnerships, business development, advertising sales, consumer and trade marketing, brand development, mobile marketing

Ben Tatta is Co-Founder and President of 605. He brings more than 25 years of media, technology and entertainment experience to his role at the company, where he leads strategy, business development, data and client solutions. Most recently, Ben served as President of Cablevision Media Sales, the television and  digital sales division of Cablevision Systems Corporation, where he led the company’s overall media sales vision, strategy and plan including advanced advertising, product development and technology. During his tenure at Cablevision, Ben spearheaded the first system-wide deployment of household-level addressable advertising and pioneered breakthrough audience measurement and analytics solutions using census-level set-top box data. Prior to Cablevision Ben held senior leadership positions at such companies as USA Networks, IBM, ABC, Lagardere Media and eBay Enterprise Marketing. He received a B.A. in Economics from Villanova University.

Keith Hernandez, SVP of Strategy, Bleacher Report: Keith Hernandez is the SVP of Brand Strategy at Bleacher Report. In this role, Hernandez is leading go-to-market strategy for social media, working with advertising clients and BR’s ad sales team to develop social and branded-content campaigns targeted at the site’s core millennial-male audience. Prior to joining B/R, he was president of Slate, overseeing all revenue, strategy and business operations. Formerly, he served as VP of brand strategy at BuzzFeed, where he lead revenue and brand strategy efforts in North America and Australia. Hernandez established BuzzFeed’s global sales operations in Canada and the United Kingdom, and extended its international footprint in Australia, Asia, and Latin America. A veteran of Microsoft, Vevo and the Onion, Hernandez is a graduate of Miami University (Ohio) with a BA in creative writing. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughter.

Mark Egan, Managing Director, West Coast, MediaCom: In his role as Managing Director, West Coast, Mark strives to drive service and product excellence across all clients. As part of the MediaCom executive team, he draws on award winning resources around the globe to power solutions on the West Coast. Most recently, Mark served as Chief Client Officer, Americas, for Maxus, where he helped the client service teams achieve and maintain scores among the highest in the industry. Prior to his work with GroupM, Mark was EVP, Global Director of New Business and Network Development at Havas Digital. As a key member of their corporate team, he was responsible for leading new business efforts worldwide, drawing together local and global team resources for multiple-market pitches. Throughout his 22-year career, Mark has worked in many roles and agency structures including J. Walter Thompson, Y&R, and Organic.

Simon Kelly, Co-CEO Story Worldwide: Simon Kelly has been recognized as a pioneer of the branded content industry and is credited with introducing the first integrated approach for custom content providers in the US. Since then Kelly and his partners at Story Worldwide have evolved that audience-first approach to create a brand narrative practice that he believes will replace traditional advertising. Kelly began his career with IDG, then went on to co-found TPD, one of the leading independent custom publishers in the UK at the time. In 1995, Kelly moved to Seattle to launch the company’s US operation with the launch of Microsoft Magazine – incidentally its companion web-site also marked the launch of one of the world’s first web-zines. In 1997 he spearheaded the launch of the Custom Publishing Council and in 1999 he was named in the Folio: 40 for his work integrating print and web content. Kelly was the first recipient of the John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the content marketing industry. In 2001 TPD became part of Interpublic. In 2005 Kelly and his partners bought it back and rebranded the company Story Worldwide. (www.storyworldwide.com). Since then, they have transformed a custom content company into a global, multi-channel content advertising and branding agency. Story Worldwide’s signature approaches, storyfinding and making, help turn their clients’ brands into engaging media channels. Today, with over 100 employees and offices in New York and Seattle, Story is leading the post-advertising revolution. Story’s clients include FX Network, Lexus, Unilever, USVI, RCI, Pernod Ricard, Criteo and SEI. Most recently Story led the world record-breaking twitter marathon for every Simpsons episode ever.  Simon regularly addresses marketing, advertising and media professionals about the rapidly-changing advertising landscape and why it is that brands that tell the best stories will win in the post-advertising age.