The Prodigy, Michael Jordan and Daniel Kahneman: The Work That Made Andrew Teie

Andrew Teie is the senior vice president of strategic planning at Yes&. He has over 17 years of experience overseeing marketing teams and leading brand, digital, experiential, communications, and customer experience strategies in New York City and DC.

During his tenure at Ogilvy & Mather and Anomaly, he worked across verticals and with a variety of clients including Nestle, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Marriott, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. He spent several years at Memorial Sloan Kettering overseeing fundraising events and donor experience marketing teams.

He has also launched the most successful Kickstarter project in DC history (Music for Cats). His focus at Yes& is on helping non-profit, commercial and government brands connect with their audiences — both rationally and emotionally — across the many touchpoints of a customer journey.

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Andrew> 'Firestarter' by The Prodigy. The frenetic, mildly terrifying but inescapably gripping video added depth and energy to an already thrilling and energetic track. I was fascinated by the combination of visuals and sound to create something that I couldn’t help but watch repeatedly—largely because it was so unlike any other music video I’d ever seen.

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Andrew> The Jordan XX2 commercial from the early-to-mid 2000s. I saw it when I was in college, and its use of Mozart’s 'Requiem' with slow motion to set up the athlete’s narrative—a story that covers the span of only seconds—gave it an emotional resonance that I will never forget. I wasn’t a basketball shoe kind of guy before that, but I really wanted to buy a pair of Jordans after.

LBB> The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…

Andrew> 'Thinking Fast and Slow'—and frankly, all of Daniel Kahneman’s work in general. Understanding how human emotions and unconscious biases drive our everyday behaviours provides an endless sea of insightful angles and creative ideas.

LBB> My first professional project…

Andrew> Working on the monthly direct-mail pieces sent by Craftsman. This work at Ogilvy gave me the perfect introduction to the full agency process, from strategy to concepting to production, created each and every month in a sprint-like fashion that gave me a rapid education into all that goes into producing a piece of marketing communications.

LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…

Andrew> The 'Mayhem' campaign from Allstate is the perfect encapsulation and personification of a true human insight. It sometimes feels as if the world is out to get you—resolving in a way that illuminates what insurance provides (protection against all that’s out to get you) while creating an ownable, memorable space for the brand in an ultra-competitive and increasingly commoditised insurance market.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Andrew> During my time at Anomaly, I led the strategy for evolving the brand and communications architecture for DICK’S Sporting Goods. We kept peeling the onion to get to the core belief of the brand—that sports, unlike anything else, make us better by challenging us to answer the question: 'Who Will You Be?'

The resulting multi-channel brand campaign included a company-first targeted effort focused on engaging women. This strategic brand foundation also informed the expansion of their charitable crowdfunding initiative, Sports Matter.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Andrew> I’m proudest of the impact I was able to make at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, making significant leaps in fundraising to accelerate advances in cancer research and care.

I oversaw branding and marketing for the national peer-to-peer fundraising movement, Cycle for Survival, growing from $25 million raised in 2015 to $34 million raised 2017, making it the fastest growing athletic fundraising event in the U.S.

I also led the corporate sponsorship program, increasing cash and in-kind value from existing sponsors while securing new partnerships with TAG Heuer and Bloomberg.

I then managed the launch of a new donor website on Drupal 8, integrating the Acquia Lift marketing personalisation engine (a first for the non-profit industry) and creating cross-channel fundraising campaigns that led to a 9.6% year-over-year increase in end-of-year online donations.