Origin Agency Names Mary Jo Behrman Managing Partner, Announces Strategic Investment from Demeter Partners

St. Louis-based CPG retail marketing agency expands leadership and capabilities to serve brand-builders at pivotal growth stages

ST. LOUIS, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Origin Agency, a retail marketing agency with nearly 20 years of experience building CPG brands at the point of purchase, today announced that Mary Jo Behrman has joined as Managing Partner. The appointment coincides with a strategic investment from Demeter Partners, an investment group focused on growing marketing services agencies.

Origin specializes in the final, decisive moment of the purchase journey: the last three feet of purchase where brand investment either converts to trial or doesn't. The agency's work spans retail brand identity, packaging, shopper marketing, and in-store experience, with a client roster that reflects deep category expertise across the CPG landscape.

"A lot of signals influence shoppers before they ever reach the store, but in the end, brands still have to win at shelf — where consideration must convert," said Lance Thomas, Origin co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. "Brands have to look right, feel right, earn trust quickly, and make it easy for a shopper to say yes. Mary Jo is an exceptional leader who understands how to connect those tangible retail moments to the ways brands are discovered and evaluated online, from influencer recommendations to the answers gen AI gives."

Behrman's marketing career is rooted in consumer experience and CPG retail. Early on, she built brand and shopper marketing programs for spirits, food, and nutrition companies, including work on brands navigating distribution growth and category competition across major retail channels. At IPG's Golin, she developed a specialty in connecting brand affinity to purchase behavior, working across consumer categories including wellness, QSR, and retail. As Managing Director at Edelman, she consulted large-scale brand portfolios on trust-building, precision media, and narrative management across complex markets. Most recently at Wipro, she served as Global Head of Marketing and Media for their experience innovation practice leading global marketing transformation for one of the world's largest commercial ecosystems while consulting metal-account client teams on practical AI integration, digital content systems, and customer experience design. Before her marketing career, she studied and taught mathematics, a lens she still applies to brand decisions: rigorous where it matters, and clear everywhere else.

"Origin's success is based on something I believe deeply: the best programs respect people's time, reward their discernment, and earn connection by being useful, enjoyable, and genuine," said Behrman. "As AI makes marketing noise more abundant, the things that are tangible and true become premium. The brands that win will not be the loudest, most personalized, or the most over-engineered. They'll be the ones that create clear, unexpected experiences people can trust. That's where Origin already excels."

Separately, Demeter Partners has invested in Origin Agency, bringing expanded financial, operational, and talent resources to the business, enabling the agency to deepen its capabilities and take on more ambitious brand-building engagements.

About Origin Agency
Origin Agency is a CPG retail marketing agency based in St. Louis, MO, with nearly 20 years of experience building brands at the point of purchase. The agency's capabilities span brand strategy, retail identity, packaging design, shopper marketing, environmental and display design, and in-house photography and video production — an integrated model built to ensure that what a brand promises in the market is what a shopper encounters on shelf. Origin's client relationships are built for longevity, with deep category experience across food, beverage, spirits, and adjacent CPG sectors. For more information, visit www.originagency.com.

About Demeter Partners
Demeter Partners was founded in 2024 by Donna Granato and Joanne Coffman as an investment and advisory group focused on the marketing services industry. With over 40 years of combined experience in partnering with founders to drive strategic growth, Demeter brings financial, operational and talent leadership to practitioners as they shape the future of their business.

Media Contact:
Megan Walker, VP Client Services
[email protected]

SOURCE Origin Agency