Campbell Ewald Welcomes Al Benoit as Media Managing Director
Campbell Ewald has welcomed Al Benoit as managing director of its media discipline, which has been paired with creative since the agency’s inception in 1911. The full-service agency has also expanded key department leadership roles by hiring Meryl Swagner in Strategy, Jamil Buie to oversee New Business, Josh Huling to expand the CX practice, Chelsea Smith to lead The Exchange and Kris Geiger in Operations. Over the last six months, the agency has brought on a number of new clients, including Garanimals, ShiftMed, Burns & Wilcox and Allspring Global Investments.
“I am excited to see Al’s impact on our agency as well as our clients’ business, as his return to a full-service agency comes at a critical time,” said Kevin Wertz, CEO, Campbell Ewald. “Our leadership hires are a result of the business growth we’ve seen in the first six months of the year, and they add capabilities our clients need, like expanded CX thinking and a modern approach to influencer marketing.”
CE Media is Campbell Ewald’s in-house full-service, fully integrated media arm made up of a tight-knit group of many smart, curious and collaborative professionals. They work with clients with varied media budgets and have expertise in all verticals, including financial services, health care, government and travel and tourism.
“I am excited to be at Campbell Ewald, where I’m immersed in the vibrance of a full-service agency again and surrounded by diversity of thought and skills,” said Al. “For too long advertising has separated analytics from creativity, but Campbell Ewald has proved an exception to this. As the new head of the media practice, I am building on that marriage of media and creative to identify key data leading to strong insights, which drive powerful creativity and business results."
Most recently, Benoit was an SVP, group media director at Mediahub, leading the NBA account. Prior to that, he was in start up land, and before that, he worked at the 4A’s as VP on the talent and development team, developing advertising curriculum, industry engagement, fundraising, partnerships, mentoring and internships for NYC youth. From 2005 to 2015, he worked at media agencies, honing his skills across media channels on a range of categories encompassing CPG, financial, tech, government and QSR, including Amex, Dell and Subway. During those years, Benoit also found new ways to give back to the community by joining Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, teaching at NYU and coaching youth football. He got his start in adland at Young & Rubicam and spent the next seven years at full-service agencies, working on campaigns for brands like Advil, Frontline, Reynolds and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. He serves on the Senior Advisory Board of 100 Roses from Concrete and is a member of the Baruch Marketing Advisory Board.
Meryl Swagner, group strategy director, is leading brand and integrated strategy for CE. She was most recently at R/GA, where she was a strategy director and head of community management. While there, she helped Verizon enter the metaverse by launching the iPhone 13 with a mixed-reality treasure hunt featuring Halsey and artist collective FriendsWithYou. Meryl was previously at 360i, where she helped Oreo connect with culture across multiple launches, including the Game of Thrones Oreo, Left-Handed Oreos and the Oreo subscription box.
Jamil Buie, group account director, business development, is a former brand strategist and cultural curator who was tapped to lead the agency's new business group. His time in advertising has included stops at Moroch, McKinney, J. Walter Thompson and Burrell - which included three stints with McDonald's as a client, helped another agency grow by 30%. Jamil also co-founded The Marcus Graham Project, where he launched a year-round thought leadership incubator focused on brand development and insights.
Josh Huling, director of CE/CX, is returning to lead the agency’s Customer Experience discipline. His 15+ years of experience in marketing includes his most recent position at CVS Health, where he helped accelerate CX as a discipline. In his first tour with Campbell Ewald, Josh helped found the CX practice. He has also work as a brand strategist, particularly in complex categories like health care (CVS Health, Bayer and Merck), financial services (Navy Federal Credit Union, Mutual of Omaha and Union Bank) and government (the states of New York and California and the city of Detroit).
Kris Geiger, director of operations, has spent over 20 years in advertising, focused on client management, experiential, delivery and operations. She will be leading the agency’s continuing transformation allowing CE’s clients to benefit from the efficiency and speed to market demanded by todays’ CMOs. Most recently, she was at Healthfirst, a not-for-profit health system with 1.8 million members, where she oversaw resourcing across agile trains and managed the portfolio's operational database. Prior to that, she was with Interpublic Group as the Global Solution Owner of the Vantage Budgeting & Forecasting module. Kris holds an MBA in Marketing from Fordham Gabelli School of Business.
Chelsea D. Smith is associate director of Campbell Ewald’s new influencer practice - and a boomerang at CE, where she began as a 4A’s MAIP intern and then specialised in New Business, later leading agency diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives. She currently oversees CE's influencer strategy, collaborator networks and creator community. Her career ranges from her experience in hospitality management to her new business development roles at Collectively and Venables Bell and Partners.
