Talking to Ourselves

Patrick Milling Smith is co-founder and CEO of renowned production company SMUGGLER, named AdAge’s 2020 and shots’ 2021 Production Company of The Year. Alongside his partner Brian Carmody, Patrick has produced some of the most iconic campaigns of the past two decades and racked up every award known to man. Their roster of directors includes Kathryn Bigelow, Barry Jenkins and Jonah Hill. Additionally, SMUGGLER has  produced internationally acclaimed Broadway plays. Their credits include the eight-time Tony Award-winning musical, Once. Macbeth starring Daniel Craig, returning to Broadway this coming spring. And Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical, starring Michael C. Hall, named “The Best Super Bowl Ad of the Year” by Forbes. SMUGGLER has produced Emmy Award-winning commercials for Sandy Hook Promise and SquareSpace, featuring John Malkovich.  SMUGGLER was recognized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the Made in New York Award for its creative and economic contributions to the city’s entertainment industry. Patrick also served on the board of immersive theatre company Punchdrunk International, best known for Sleep No More. 

Mo Said is Founder and Chief Creative at Mojo Supermarket. In just the last two years, Mojo Supermarket has quickly gained notoriety by making headline-worthy campaigns for the likes of Adidas, Netflix, Truth, Savage X Fenty and Match.com. Mo has been named to the Forbes Under 30 list, Most Creative People in Business list and Adweek Creative 100. Mojo Supermarket was named AdAge A-List Agency To Watch in 2020, then Standout agency in 2021. Before Mojo Supermarket, Mo worked as a Creative at Droga5 and BBDO New York. 

Stephanie Nadi Olson is the founder of We Are Rosie, an ever-expanding community of independent marketing experts, available on-demand to complement, backfill, or accelerate in-house team capabilities on both the brand and agency sides. Stephanie founded We are Rosie in Atlanta in 2018. She was named AdAge Visionary of the Year 2020. She was recognized by Adweek in the 2020 Creative 100. She was named World Changing Woman 2020 by Conscious Company. She was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 by the Stevie Awards. And most recently, Adweek named her among the 35 Trailblazing Women redefining the future of media, marketing and tech.

NBA Champion. Hall of Famer. Backboard shatterer. Glass ceiling shatterer. Broadcaster. Entrepreneur. DJ. Spokesman. Rapper. Philanthropist. Ph.D. Wrestler. Other stuff.

Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey are the co-founders of Maximum Effort, the subversive marketing company racking up viral hits, lighting up pop culture, and disrupting the industry. Ryan Reynolds is best known for co-writing, producing and starring in the Deadpool franchise. He is the owner of Mint Mobile, as well as Aviation Gin, which was acquired last year by Diageo for $660 million dollars. George Dewey spent 16 years at McCann, working up the ranks from intern to ECD. After stints at SpaceX, 20th Century Fox and Annapurna Pictures, George joined Ryan in 2018 as President of Maximum Effort.Some of the agency’s greatest hits include the ad campaign for Deadpool 2 that defied every convention of entertainment marketing. The longstanding Ryan Reynolds vs Hugh Jackman feud to cross promote Aviation Gin and Laughing Man coffee. Reprising the infamous Peloton actress to star in an Aviation promo. And “Match Made in Hell,” an ad for Match.com depicting the whirlwind romance of the devil and the female personification of “2020.”

Guy Shelmerdine is one of the most respected commercial directors of the past two decades, known for his inspiring focus on craft, performance, characters and concept with a comedic through line. He joined the production company SMUGGLER in 2003 shortly after winning Best New Director at Cannes. He has helmed award-winning spots for clients such as MINI Cooper, IKEA, Virgin Mobile, Coca-Cola, Honda, Range Rover, Skittles, Snickers, Volkswagen, Weetabix, and Barclays Bank. He’s a rare talent to find equal levels of success in the US and European markets. Recent notable work includes his campaign for UberEats featuring Patrick Stewart and Mark Hamill, the Star Wars vs. Star Trek face-off we’ve all been waiting for. Other fan favorites include his inventive work for Starburst “Vertical Salon”, considered a technical feat of production design. Guy also created the pioneering VR genre experience, Catatonic, the first ever live-action virtual reality horror film, which was lauded at SXSW, Cannes and Comic Con. He’s a storyteller and comedy maker who has created one of the most original and distinctive bodies of work in advertising.

Luke Sullivan is a professor of advertising at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He is the author of "Hey Whipple Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads," considered one of the most iconic and valuable resources ever written on how to succeed in the ad industry.Luke’s award winning career in the agency world spanned over 30 years, including stops at elite shops like Fallon and The Martin Agency. Today in addition to his work at SCAD, he is a public speaker who has presented talks around the world on building platforms not just campaigns, leveraging cultural tensions to improve creativity, and practical advice on how to get the most out of creative people.Originally published in 1998, "Hey Whipple Squeeze This" is now in its 5th edition. For those interested in pursuing an advertising career, it is commonly thought of as a sacred text by both Amazon critics and industry leaders. It was voted #5 in AdAge’s list of best all time marketing books. Additionally, Luke just released his second book, a memoir called “30 Rooms To Hide In,” which Luke describes as “The Shining, but funnier.”

Charisse Hughes is SVP & Global CMO of Kellogg's. She has spent her career at some of the most iconic global companies, including Sara Lee, Avon, and Estee Lauder, where she served as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing. Prior to joining Kellogg's, she was CMO at Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry brand. Charisse is a graduate of Howard University and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

Roger Camp is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Camp+King, the agency he created in 2011 with partner Jamie King that combines brand storytelling with expertise in digital, social and content development, built on a simple philosophy to make brands quote Conversationworthy. Over the past decade, Camp+King has won the Ad Age Small Agency of the Year Award four times. They were selected as one of Outside Magazine’s "Best Places to Work in America" in 2018. In Fall of 2020, Camp+King was acquired by Havas.Roger has had a storied career. In 1996, he joined Cliff Freeman as an art director. In 2000, he founded Camp/Arbues in San Francisco. The following year he was lured to Wieden+Kennedy to work as a creative director. In 2006, he became CCO at Publicis & Hal Riney.In his 20+ years in the business, Roger has won every major creative award numerous times. He is one of the most-awarded art directors in the history of the D&AD Awards and was voted top art director in the country. He was also elected to the One Club’s Board of Directors, has had work featured on The Greatest Commercials of All Time list, and Adweek chose his Holiday Inn campaign as one of the Top Ten Funniest Commercials ever.

Omar Johnson served as CMO of Beats by Dre, VP Marketing at Apple, and account lead at Nike. Today he is the founder of Opus United, which most recently launched the content series "We The People" to fight for social change.Famously as CMO of Beats, Omar helped grow a $20 million company into a $1.6 billion dollar category leader, becoming the #1 premium headphone in 21 countries.In 2013, Adweek named Omar a “Brand Genius.” In 2016, Business Insider named him one of the “Most Innovative CMOs” for social media branding efforts including the “Straight Outta Somewhere” campaign, which reached over a billion people worldwide. He also led groundbreaking campaigns including #ShowYourColor, Powerbeats starring LeBron James, and The Pills featuring Chris Rock and Eminem. His use of viral marketing and influencers helped expand Beats into venues like the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Cup and NBA Finals. Omar’s success as CMO culminated in 2014, when Beats was purchased by Apple for $3 billion.Prior to Beats, Omar was at Nike, where he produced memorable TV commercials like “Rise,” starring LeBron James, and “The Most Valuable Puppets”. He also built the Nike+ sports music platform, establishing Nike’s first revenue-generating relationship with record labels. Today in addition to running Opus United, he is an investor, keynote speaker and marketing coach. In June of 2020, with the nation facing a reckoning on race, Omar personally took out a full page ad in The New York Times titled “My Open Letter to White Corporate America.”