The Marketing Arm, the Omnicom agency behind Pepsi’s award-winning “Uncle Drew” film series and the Dove Men+Care “Real Strength” video, has hired Greg Neal as VP, head of production, a new position at the company. Based in the agency’s Dallas office, Neal will be responsible for leading the agency’s video content studio. He will report to CEO Dan Belmont.
“From in-house producers to a network of studio partners and makers, The Marketing Arm’s hub-and-spoke model helps us pivot to the right content solution for our clients,” said Belmont. “Greg’s the perfect guy to build on this model and deliver at the speed and efficiency brands are demanding today.”
A seasoned media executive with 20 years of experience launching cable television networks in Los Angeles and New York, Neal most recently served as VP for Silicon Valley-based Clippit, the popular mobile app used by media platforms such as SB Nation, Bleacher Report and USA Today that allows users to share live TV clips to social media.
Previously, Neal served on the executive teams that helped launch Pac-12 Sports Networks and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. He also served as a VP of creative for Food Network. His television work has earned more than 70 creative awards, including from Promax, Telly, and the New York Festival.
“Over the last several years, I’ve been impressed — and a little jealous — of the terrific content work that The Marketing Arm has been doing for brands like Frito-Lay, Pepsi, AT&T, the NBA, and on and on,” said Neal. “They’re great storytellers, but they understand how to create content that solves many of the challenges that our clients are facing. Great work, great creative minds, big ideas.”
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More