DDB NY has strengthened its management team with two promotions and two new hires. Melissa Martinez, former group business director, has been promoted to chief marketing officer, and Michael Collins, former global business director, has been upped to managing partner. In addition, Alexander Rea has been brought in as creative technology officer, and Kimberly Bernhardt will join the organization as managing partner.
Martinez joined DDB New York two and a half years ago, and has successfully led multiple integrated communications teams during her tenure. Most recently as group business director Martinez led integrated communications planning for the New York Lottery, and digital innovation initiatives and platform development for State Farm. In the newly created role of CMO, Martinez will be responsible for new business development, driving organic growth and leading key strategic marketing initiatives for the agency including introducing potential clients to DDB Flex, the agency’s new agency model for client service in the US.
Rea joins DDB New York as CTO from Framestore where he was head of creative technology. There, he worked on Lockheed Martin’s “Field Trip to Mars” which earned 19 Cannes Lions. Previous to Framestore he served as technology experience lead at Co: Collective. This new role is responsible for providing technology leadership and oversight for all of the agency’s projects and directs the technology strategy, development and execution. Rea’s new position is a modern creative refresh on the traditional role that experiments, invents and guides creative and strategic thinking to deliver innovative digital solutions.
As managing partner, Collins becomes further accountable for fostering an environment of collaboration and creativity, driving successful work for DDB New York’s clients, and building positive, enduring agency/client partnerships in his group, which includes clients such as Merck, Lilly, Huawei, and Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies. Prior to assuming his new role, he led integrated agency teams for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon global surgery business. In addition, he has extensive channel knowledge including digital, sales, advertising, database analytics, and PR.
Bernhardt joins the agency from Glamour, where she served as executive director of communications and had oversight of all communications, including brand development, PR, events, partnerships and special projects. In her role, she built a number of major brand initiatives that ranged from women’s issues and politics to fashion. She most recently spearheaded Glamour’s Women of the Year. Prior to Glamour, Bernhardt was the executive vice president at Edelman on the global and U.S. Unilever business. In her role, she provided the spectrum of communications for Dove and other marquee personal care brands.
Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film
Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.
"Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.
For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.
The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."
Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.
That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."
Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?
SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More