On the heels of a major rebrand in 2022, Stagwell media company Meeting has employed Bria Bryant as its new CMO. Bryant, who has already begun the brand new position, succeeds Mary Beth Keelty, who will take an elevated management position inside Stagwell’s Model Efficiency Community, of which Meeting is a subsidiary.
Bryant relies in New York and stories to Meeting world CEO James Townsend. Her rent comes after Meeting directed important investments this 12 months towards upgrading its model id and messaging. In February, it rolled out a brand new web site, brand and shade palette. Its new enterprise wins have the same sheen. Newer shoppers on Meeting’s roster embrace Breezeline (previously Atlantic Broadband), Con Edison, amika, Elevance Well being, Emaar, Warner Music Group and Aesop. Meeting’s crown jewel is undoubtedly the Lenovo account, although, which it gained in April.
“Our model shouldn’t be as massive as our enterprise,” Townsend instructed Adweek of the company’s present predicament. He added that the company’s rebrand gave it “the platform to start that dialog on strong footing.”
It’s a pertinent time to be an company CMO, since there’s an industry-wide debate over whether or not or not holding firm company manufacturers ought to be strongly differentiated from their sister companies. There are two faculties of thought: Some holding firms more and more amplify their group-level choices, maybe on the detriment of their particular person company manufacturers. Others, like IPG and Stagwell, encourage company subsidiaries like Meeting to develop differentiated manufacturers. Company model constructing is a extra conventional strategy that some {industry} leaders criticize for its tendency to extend competitors between sister companies. However there are numerous staff and shoppers preferring to work for (or with) an company with caché, rendering branding essential and elevating the stakes of the continued debate.
“Watching what Meeting has been constructing over the past two years has been extremely inspiring, and I’m completely happy to hitch at such a pivotal interval of development and growth for the corporate,” Bryant stated in a press release.
Creating a contemporary company model
Bryant brings a variety of expertise to the highest job. Most not too long ago, she was head of communications in North America for Havas Artistic. There, she led community public relations and advertising and marketing communications. Earlier than that, she was an svp at MSL, the place she oversaw launches inside P&G’s world model portfolio. PRWeek beforehand acknowledged Bryant on its 40 Underneath 40 listing.
“I’m a perpetually curious particular person. And I really like a problem. I’ve spent a few years collaborating with media groups in interagency environments throughout my profession,” Bryant instructed Adweek. The CMO has by no means labored in a media company surroundings earlier than this, however as artistic and media assignments more and more collide, media companies are turning their consideration to leaders with artistic backgrounds. At present, Meeting is contemplating easy methods to mix artistic media and commerce disciplines; in line with Townsend, Bryant’s artistic understanding will assist the company place its strategy to doing so.
Bryant can even information the company because it repositions itself as a contemporary different to legacy choices. The company’s tech stack—together with its Stage viewers insights platform—is what swayed the Lenovo resolution in Meeting’s favor, Adweek reported in April. The company’s potential to work alongside Lenovo’s in-house company successfully was one other differentiator. Touting know-how experience and structural flexibility in that occasion reveals that Meeting needs to market itself as a technologically-advanced, consultative company.
“We’re making an attempt to current ourselves as a contemporary different…a dynamic surroundings for folks to spend time, but in addition as a dynamic surroundings for shoppers that wish to rework and put themselves ready the place they’re altering and rising,” stated Townsend. “It’s now an opportunity for us to inform that story on a bigger and extra world stage.”
