Tuesday, August 2, 2022
At 8.5 billion Google searches per day, you’re either branded or you’re labeled.
Free Virtual Event
Thursday, August 11, 1 pm ET
EVENT OVERVIEW
Harness and leverage the power of Google to build your brand and protect executive reputations. You don’t need to be an SEO expert to provide new value to clients by taking advantage of the scope and influence of Google search.
CommPRO.biz and Lightbox Search are bringing together the A-listers of the Communications industry to take a deep-dive into the search-centric approach agencies must take to serve their clients in 2022 and beyond.
FIRESIDE CHAT
Raoul Davis, Founder & CEO, Ascendant Group Branding
Ascendant Group Branding is ranked #3 world-wide out of 11,400 branding agencies on Ad World Masters top agencies list and #1 ranked minority owned PR firm by Clutch and Manifest. The agency offers one of the most integrated models in the world including brand strategy, PR, literary representation, design, social media, video, photography, and strategic relationships. In his tenure, both he and Ascendant have been recognized multiple times for their work including by the Philadelphia Titans 100 Executives, receiving invitations to small business forums at the U.S. Senate, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and The White House, and winning multiple awards for PR, design, and company culture.
Davis is a Forbes contributor and author of the book Firestarters: How Innovators, Initiators and Instigators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life.
He speaks regularly for Joseph Business School and has given talks for leading organizations such as UPENN, Young Entrepreneur Council, as well as various universities and Chambers of Commerce across the country.
His life philosophy, “paving the way for others” is inspired by the example of John The Baptist. He currently serves as the Chair for the Board of Directors for Life in Christ Cathedral of Faith.
Lewis Williams, EVP, Head of Brand Impact, Weber Shandwick
Recognized as one of Adweek’s 2018 Creative 100, and Ad Club of New York’s 2022 Icons, Rock Stars and Innovators Series. Lewis is a passionate, award-winning creative leader and storyteller with extensive experience in total and multicultural marketing. During his career he has created award-winning digital and traditional work for major brands such as Google, McDonald’s, Walmart, Toyota, Comcast, American Airlines, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Walt Disney World, Walmart, Allstate, Miller Lite and Comcast.
After spending much of his successful career at iconic agencies Leo Burnett (SVP Creative Director) and Burrell Communications (EVP Chief Creative Officer) he is now EVP Head of Brand Impact at legendary PR agency Weber Shandwick. Partnering across client experience, creative and strategy teams he helps drive deeper impact and cultural relevance for the agency and its partners.
Lewis mentors BIPOC students for the One Club For Creativity, One School, and is very active on the speaker circuit where he shares his perspective and experiences on diversity in the marketing and communications industry. He also has had the honor of serving on the jury of prestigious creative award shows as Cannes Lions, The International Andy Awards, The One Show, Effie’s, The Clios and Communication Arts Advertising Competition.
Lewis is a distinguished alumnus of The Kent State School of Design where he established the Lewis and Dona Williams Scholarship Fund. The funds are dedicated to those students in need of financial assistance.
FIRESIDE CHAT HOST
Laurence Moskowitz, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightbox Search, was named one of the 10 most influential public relations executives of the 20th Century by PR Week magazine. Regarded as an expert in crisis communications, issues management and strategic corporate communications, Larry founded Lumentus, a New York-based agency, in 2009 after recognizing that technology and client service needs were changing how public relations, marketing and advertising firms must operate. In 2018, Larry saw a need his technology could solve and created Lightbox Search.
A communications pioneer, Larry has leveraged emerging technologies throughout his career to provide business and professional communicators with more powerful and effective means of reaching their audiences. Prior to Lumentus, Larry founded Medialink, then the world’s largest provider of video-based media communications services to Fortune 500 companies.
As Chairman and CEO of Medialink, Larry forged strategic alliances with the Associated Press and Nielsen to create the first professional distribution network linking corporations and other organizations with television broadcasters nationwide. Medialink, which he took public, won hundreds of public relations industry awards, and was successfully merged into a successor company in 2009. Larry had previously founded a forerunner to PR Newswire and started his career as a reporter and editor.
Larry was honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for communications in 1999.
Larry holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Pennsylvania State University, where he was Kappa Tau Alpha in communications. He has lectured on public relations and online media at New York University, the BBC in London and Denmark Television in Copenhagen, NewsXchange in Barcelona and numerous professional groups around the world.
ROUNDTABLE HOST
Jesse Jacobs serves as Chief Technology Officer of Lightbox Search where he drives product development. Jesse works closely with both the technical team and clients to ensure Lightbox meets evolving objectives.
During his decade with Lumentus, he has led cross-platform content creation as a creative strategist with expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), digital reputation management and brand building.
Jesse is passionate about technology and design and holds a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Arts and Entertainment and Strategic Communications from Elon University.
GUESTS
Matt Hantz, EVP, Digital, M Booth
In his 21+ years at M Booth, Matt has worked across a wide range of clients in varying industries, including technology, healthcare, non-profit, consumer packaged goods, entrepreneurship and retail. Matt has overseen the Digital team at M Booth for the last nine years, growing it from a nascent practice to a team of 30+ professionals specializing in social media strategy and execution, content marketing, influencer campaigns, measurement and analytics, and paid media. He also helped build the M Booth content team, a group of 40+ designers, illustrators, photographers, copywriters, animators and filmmakers. Matt’s accomplishments include helping to create Small Business Saturday for American Express and turn it into an international movement, and building a partnership between M Booth and Google that now extends to roughly a dozen business units where the agency manages 50+ social media accounts and creates hundreds of pieces of social content every week. Matt also acts as the agency’s senior digital and social media counselor, one day weighing in on how to help sell products to everyday consumers, the next advising on how to change perception around issues with global importance.
Brian Laird, Senior Vice President, Digital, Lippe Taylor
A 22-year veteran in advertising & marketing, Brian started his experience across traditional advertising mediums before pivoting to the digital world in 2005. He is best known for providing client partners with strategic and performance-driving 360-degree digital media experiences across social, programmatic, influencer, SEM, video, and mobile, while being able to be a valuable resource across traditional media and telling the full brand story for his partners.
Brian held senior leadership roles across digital publishers, programmatic partners, digital brand safety giants, and PR agencies throughout New York and Los Angeles. His ability to transform into any role his client partners require is his biggest asset to any client partner and he guides clients with a steady hand and thoughtful process as a true extension of their team.
Brian has been fortunate to be able to expand his knowledge and social expertise work across multiple verticals over the last two decades including CPG, retail, entertainment, corporate communications and most recently over the last 6 years in aesthetics, pharma and healthcare.
Brian has a BA in communications and marketing from University of Louisiana and is a published speaker for his alumni chapter and local chapters of AAF. He has also worked with the University of Alabama and University of Central Florida as mentor to students across digital and social careers.
Jennifer Levey, Director of Media Relations, Makovsky
Jennifer Levey has been a communications professional for over 25 years. She began her career in journalism working for non-profits, newspapers and magazine companies including Nielsen Media. Jennifer made her way into public relations first, working for TARA, Ink., a leading luxury public relations firm in Miami Beach, FL and now as Director of Media Relations at Makovsky.
Kyle Monson, Co-Founder, Codeword (A WE agency)
Kyle has worked in the tech industry for nearly 20 years, first as a journalist, then as a marketer for global tech brands and a wide range of startups. He co-founded Codeword 10 years ago, an agency devoted to fusing journalism and marketing.
Kyle loves to dive deep into technology and develop marketing programs and stories that will resonate with tech fans. He believes brands and marketing budgets should be used to make the world and the internet more rewarding, rich, and delightful for people. And he’s spent more than a decade pushing for corporate transparency in PR and advertising.
When he’s not hunched over his laptop, Kyle enjoys making up strange D&D storylines with his kids, and watching snobby TV shows with his wife.
John Patterson, EVP, Group Manager Digital Strategy, Ketchum
I’m here to act as a translator. To translate what your consumers want and need through a deep understanding developed through tailored research. At the intersection of data privacy and data driven decision making sits an inherent need to better understand what is important to our audiences. Now more than ever it’s important to be deeply connected to consumer wants and needs and use those to build authentic brand stories that put your brand in context for the lifestyle of your consumer.
Experience: Social Media Marketing for Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Samsung, E & J Gallo Wine, General Motors and leading consumer goods manufacturers. Client work in automotive, beauty, consumer goods, technology, and food and beverage verticals. College coursework in Marketing and Professional Sales.
Specialties: social media marketing, community management, social media strategy, content strategy, SEO, social search, blogging, copywriting, digital brand building, social campaign generation, print marketing, experiential marketing, purls marketing, online advertising. Facebook, Facebook Insights, Facebook Advertising, Twitter, Twitter Promoted Products, Google+, YouTube, Google Analytics, Omniture, Radian6, Oracle Social, Salesforce Social Studio, Sysomos, Hootsuite, Curalate, Expion, Sprinklr, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Foursquare.
Bob Pearson, Chair, The Next Practices Group
Bob is Chair of The Next Practices Group, a network of founder-driven consulting firms that work together to advance innovation and develop the “next practice” in their respective fields to create an advantage for their clients. The firms are centered in communications, marketing, public affairs and security. All firms benefit from expertise in data science/analytics, PESO media, social purpose, intelligence, software and security solutions.
Bob also serves as CEO of The Bliss Group, a leading communications firm and Chair of Next Solutions Group, a firm focused on cybersecurity and public affairs.
He has played a key role in building two media firms that are ranked in the top 50 worldwide (GCI Health and Real Chemistry), he led the creation of the Fortune 500’s first global social media function at Dell and he has served as a global leader in communications at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi) and Novartis, as well as Dell.
He has written four books based on his experience in the public and private sectors. Two relate to digital media innovation (PreCommerce and Storytizing), one focuses on how to build powerful narratives (Crafting Persuasion) and the fourth reflects on how to combat bad actors (Countering Hate). Bob is currently writing a new book centered on the world of consulting that will be available in 2023.
Since teaching is often the best way to learn what’s next and reinforce what works today, Bob designs and teaches new classes as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas McCombs School (new digital media models, persuasive selling) and as a lecturer for the U.S. Government with a focus on combating disinformation and extremism.
He is an investor and advisor for media software and AI companies that are reinventing how we advertise, how we reach our audience and how we unlock content. In his spare time, he helps lead a new music series in Austin called 70 Rock that features local artists throughout the year.
Bob resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, Donna.