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Profile of Laura Desmond
 

Laura Desmond

 
CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, The Americas - Mediavest Inc.
 
Laura Desmond Email :
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Company Name : Mediavest Inc.
 
Company Website : www.eb2b.com
 
Company Address : 665 Broadway
Ste. 301, New York, NY,
United States,
 
Laura Desmond Profile :
CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, The Americas - Mediavest Inc.
 
Laura Desmond Biography :

A critical question Laura Desmond likes to ask of colleagues and clients is a simple but insightful one: "Is your imagination big enough?" In constant pursuit of innovative connections and new ways to captivate consumers, Laura is a passionate champion of imagination, reinvention and what comes next.

One of the youngest CEOs to lead a marketing services company, Laura manages nearly 2,000 marketing professionals in the communication industry’s most robust and active geographical territory. Her purview extends across the U.S., Canada and Latin America, and she is responsible for such brands as Starcom, MediaVest, GM Planworks, StarLink, and Halogen (direct marketing).

In 2007, Laura orchestrated the launch of SMG Multicultural, building on the success of Tapestry, and extended SMG’s multicultural footprint by launching 42 Degrees at MediaVest. Shortly after the launch, the network won multicultural assignments from Wal-Mart and Heineken.

Laura continues to drive a network-wide Digital embrace for SMG, an effort that has captured the attention of industry observers and clients alike. In 2006, MediaVest was named Advertising Age’s Digital Media Agency of the Year. Also, by infusing SMG Search with strategic resources and talent, she has helped make the network’s Search offering one of the largest in the world, the No. 1 agency partner to the pure play portals and a pioneer in Search optimization tools and processes.

Among the awards received by SMG on Laura’s watch are: Advertising Age and Media magazine 2006 Agency of the Year (Starcom USA), Mediaweek 2006 and 2007 Plan of the Year (MediaVest USA, Starcom USA and Tapestry), and a host of 2006 and 2007 EFFIES (MediaVest USA, Starcom USA, SMG United and GM Planworks), to name just a few.

Prior to running the Americas, Laura served as CEO of MediaVest from 2003 to 2007, overseeing a period of enormous growth for the agency. She piloted MediaVest to a host of new business assignments from powerful clients such as Coca-Cola, Comcast, Masterfoods, Mattel, P&G, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Wal-Mart, and Wendy’s. During these years, MediaVest evolved its core services to include dedicated expertise across digital, entertainment marketing, out-of-home, print, research and consumer context planning (CCP).

In 2000, Laura was tapped to run Starcom MediaVest Group Latin America as chief executive officer of the region. She was instrumental in doubling the region's revenue over three economically challenging years, and she led a commanding new business operation that prevailed in seven of nine regional new business reviews, landing assignments from P&G, Kraft and Coca-Cola, among others.

Never one to shy away from challenges, Laura embraced an unprecedented assignment as an interim media services director for General Motors while still a Leo Burnett employee. Laura was also the international media director based in London on leading brands including Kellogg and Coca-Cola. Laura began her career at Starcom (formerly the media department of Leo Burnett) in 1987 as a media associate.

Laura has received a host of accolades, including a profiles in The Wall Street Journal’s Creative Leadership Series (2007) and Women to Watch issue (2006), an Advertising Age Media Maven honor (2005) and induction into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement (2005). In 2004 she was named Executive of the Year by Mediaweek and was profiled as Business 2.0's Dream Team of Young Executives.

 
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