Hyper-Local Agency Geomentum Bolsters Leadership Team, Focusing on Growth and New Technology Integration

CHICAGO, May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sean Finnegan, Chief Executive Officer of Geomentum, a unit of Mediabrands and the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG), today restructured the agency's leadership team to focus on client growth and deeper integration between traditional and digital local media through the agency's EnCompass™ hyper-local planning process. As the industry's largest hyper-local agency, Geomentum takes a zip code-level approach to national media planning and buying and serves the industry's most active national retail brands, creating customized, store-level plans that drive millions of transactions every day.

Today, Finnegan named Lisa Bradner Chief Client Services & Growth Officer. Reporting to Finnegan, Bradner will oversee all matters of client growth, including organic growth through existing clients as well as new business in sectors that can benefit from geo-based insights, such as restaurant, travel and financial. In addition to directing all growth activities for the agency, Bradner will oversee Geomentum's account service team, which stewards nearly $2 billion in hyper-local billings. In her newly-expanded role, Bradner will ensure that Geomentum clients gain access to the deep neighborhood insights and analytics available through Geomentum's store-level planning process and supporting technology. A former Forrester VP/Analyst, and current member of Procter & Gamble's Digital Advisory Board, Bradner brings more than 20 years of marketing and brand expertise to Geomentum clients.  Bradner previously held the role of President, Geomentum Solutions.

Finnegan also appointed Todd Curry to the role of Chief Digital Officer, leading the agency's burgeoning hyper-targeting digital practice. Reporting to Finnegan, Curry will lead Geomentum's digital development, training and activation and will integrate Geomentum's local digital offering across IPG partner agencies such as Cadreon (audience management), Reprise (search and social), Shopper Sciences (shopper insights) and Momentum (event marketing), to create store-level customer transactions across thousands of business locations. Curry is a former General Manager of the hotel sector for Orbitz, and was a Marketing Manager at Intel. He was recently Founder/Managing Director of Omnicom Media Group's Trading Desk, now known as Accuen Media.

Finnegan also hired Emily Olson-Torch as Geomentum's Director of Client Services. Reporting to Bradner, Olson-Torch will leverage her extensive local media experience and retail marketing expertise to enhance the agency's dynamic client services process. Olson-Torch joins Geomentum from Zappos, where she was a Brand Manager directing Zappos' agency relationships and ensuring brand alignment across all customer touch-points including offline advertising, online direct response, promotions, co-op marketing, public relations and event marketing.

"The explosion of new local behaviors and technologies gives advertisers an opportunity to approach national marketing in a new way; a way that includes deeper and more relevant targeting and message versioning down to the zip-code level," says Sean Finnegan, Chief Executive Officer of Geomentum, "Lisa, Todd and Emily will be critical leaders for Geomentum as we help our clients to weave together digital and traditional local efforts to create hyper-local plans with national scale; ones that drives store-level transactions and can be tailored and replicated across thousands of neighborhoods."

In December 2010, digital pioneer Sean Finnegan joined Geomentum as CEO, bringing digital acceleration to the rapidly growing company. Since then, Finnegan has aggressively bolstered the agency's digital capabilities with key hires, industry alliances and partnerships. In January, Geomentum was named "Hyper-Local Agency of the Year" by Media magazine for its innovative media services and technology-enabled, store-level planning capabilities.

About Lisa Bradner:

Prior to joining Geomentum, Lisa Bradner was Vice President/Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, the industry's leading marketing and media research consultancy. Bradner's research at Forrester focused on brand strategy and how companies can engage consumers online, offline, and in-store. Her specific areas of focus include brand strategy, loyalty marketing, cohort Web sites, in-store media, and marketing asset management. Prior to joining Forrester, Bradner spent more than 15 years in consumer marketing dually focused on brand and direct marketing. She has worked for Fortune 500 manufacturers, retailers, and marketers including American Express, Fortune Brands, Sears and Time Inc. Bradner has developed and launched award-winning new products and categories in the mass market, drug and office product channels. Her career is a testament to her prowess as a leader, successfully directing countless cross-functional teams for brand management, market research, consumer development, and new product introduction initiatives. As a recognized industry leader, Bradner has been widely quoted by publications such as Money Magazine, The New York Times, Advertising Age, Adweek, and MediaPost.  A Chicago native, Bradner is a graduate of Yale University and holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

About Todd Curry:

A seasoned digital veteran, Curry began his digital career with Intel in the mid-90s.  He most recently was the Managing Director of Accuen Media, Omnicom's digital display advertising trading desk, which he transformed into an industry-leading platform in less than 15 months.  His prior experience includes serving as GM of the hotel business for discount travel site Orbitz; National Director of ecommerce for HSBC's Retail Card Services division, and Marketing Manager at Intel, where he directed online advertising programs for the company's Reseller and Distributor Channels, as well as shaped ecommerce programs for online PC makers Dell and Gateway. He spent the early part of his career as a Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.  Curry holds an MBA in Analytical Finance from the University of Chicago and a BS from Northwestern University.  He currently serves on the advisory boards of MediaMath and DoublePositive.

About Emily Olson-Torch:

Most recently a brand manager at Zappos, Olson-Torch directed the company's agency relationships, ensuring brand alignment across all customer touch-points including offline advertising, online direct response, promotions, co-op marketing, public relations and event marketing. In this role, Olson-Torch led the company's integrated customer acquisition strategy, developing the retailer's first, and most successful, 360 degree ad campaign, from concept to implementation, across TV, OOH, digital, and radio. Previously, Olson-Torch held roles at media agencies OMD and Starcom where she spent over a decade in local media, helping major national marketers such as McDonald's, Lowe's, Gatorade, State Farm, Bank of America and others to create neighborhood-level programs that complement national campaigns.

About Geomentum: Geomentum (www.geomentum.com), a division of IPG's Mediabrands, is the largest hyper-local advertising agency in the nation, managing two billion in local billings annually for the most active national retail, restaurant, hospitality and CPG brands. From "National to Neighborhood," Geomentum delivers intelligent local activation, enabling national brands to deepen their local presence through full-service media solutions such as Grand Opening and Site Selection. As part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Geomentum has five US offices and employs 500 creative local strategists and innovators. With the mantra, "Own the Neighborhood™," Geomentum offers a full spectrum of localized media services that can be scaled across thousands of neighborhoods and business locations. Geomentum was recently awarded "2010 Hyper-Local Agency of the Year" by the editors of MEDIA magazine.

SOURCE Mediabrands