Will Burghes has been appointed head of marketing science at ad agency Argonaut. He will report to CMO Katie Miller and be charged with building and leading the shop’s newly formed marketing science division, which will be focused on harnessing data to help Argonaut continue to craft valuable creative.
Burghes joins Argonaut after serving as SVP of insight & analytics at Citizen Relations and executive director of Data & Analytics at Forsman & Bodenfors New York.
“We want to assemble a team of creative analysts who are more than data storytellers and who understand how to use data as inspiration for creativity,” said Burghes. “Data is not just for putting creative through testing and writing campaign wrap-up reports; we use data to inform strategy, write briefs, assist with connections planning and more.”
Burghes has spent his professional life helping brands make better decisions using data, with the firm belief that it can be a powerful source of creative inspiration. Originally from London, he moved to New York City in 2008 and began his career as a management consultant before working on Wall Street and then at the adventure running company Tough Mudder, where he ultimately served as SVP of strategy.
During his six-year tenure at Forsman & Bodenfors New York, Burghes worked his way up to executive director of data & analytics, while also serving on the agency’s global advisory board and further honing his expertise in strategic planning, fintech, media and web analytics, and creative performance analysis. After a brief stint in the PR sector as SVP of insights & analytics at Citizen Relations, Burghes found himself called back to the agency world at Argonaut, which maintains a staff of more than 100 employees across San Francisco and New York.
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