Deutsch has expanded its Business Intelligence department with a new hire, Jason Widjaja, and two recent VP additions to the group: Julia Locklear and Joanne Marrache. At the helm of the department is Heide Hays, who has driven the agency’s expertise for the past three years.
Deutsch’s Business Intelligence division connects its clients to consumers through three key offerings:
- Growth Planning – Bringing data further upstream to identify sources of growth, audience opportunities and strategic inspiration through business consultancy, audience planning and consumer analytics
- Marketing Science – Ensuring campaign effectiveness through measurement and performance strategies and business and campaign/platform analytics
- Data Management – Creating the infrastructure that enables the capture, analysis and actionability of data
“So often, data-driven strategies are developed independently of the teams that are actually building the brand and laying the groundwork for growth,” said Hays. “We’re in the business of building businesses and by housing this capability within the walls of our agency, we can identify the greatest business opportunities and have them inform our strategies and approaches from the outset. And on the back end, we can gauge effectiveness and provide a blueprint for increasing efficiencies.”
The group works across Deutsch’s roster of clients. Alongside Widjaja, Locklear and Marrache, is Kurtis Johnson, another VP in the department, who helps manage the team and drive business and momentum for clients.
Widjaja is a strategist possessing a combination of expertise in data analytics, business strategy and technology. He joins Deutsch with more than 15 years of cross-industry experience; everything from strategy and development for the Nestlé brand, to consultancy management at Accenture and business operations for The New York Times. Widjaja will be tasked with informing business strategy and opportunity analysis for existing and prospective clients.
Locklear, a 20-year vet of the market research industry, was named VP, director of research & consumer analytics. She will be tasked with enhancing the research and consumer analytics expertise for the Growth Planning capability. Her team also supports the Marketing Science arm, providing custom research and measurement to help get the most from client customer data. Locklear’s doctoral work is in Business Psychology and she joins Deutsch from Ipsos Insight, where she managed quantitative and qualitative studies for multiple clients including NBC, ABC, the NFL, Hulu and Netflix.
Marrache joins the department as VP, director of marketing science. She will lead the Marketing Science team by harnessing big data to inform business and marketing performance strategies for current and prospective clients. With 15 years of experience, Marrache brings extensive retail and CPG experience that includes stints at Target and Mattel. She joins Deutsch from Publicis Groupe, where she established and grew analytics teams in China and Japan. Marrache holds a BA from New York University and an MBA from Duke.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More