Latest NewsMedia All-Stars 2009: Joe MasucciNovember 15, 2009By Kenneth Hein
Clients: Visa, Lowe’s, Frito-Lay, Pepsi and State Farm Years in Biz: 20 Signature Achievement: Provided the analytics that enabled OMD to deliver the industry’s only economic-recovery plans for clients, bringing a quantifiable solution to growing rate pressure and assuring OMD a seat at the marketing table.
While studying at Fordham University’s Quantitative Psychology graduate program, Masucci found himself gravitating toward an unlikely fascination with advertising media. Early in his career, Masucci found a way to apply in-depth analytical thinking to plumb advertising’s effectiveness. He has since plowed that unorthodox approach into a 20-year career devoted to developing sophisticated marketing models. Today, with the appropriate title of director of business intelligence for OMD—and as a 2009 Media All-Star—Masucci is what his agency refers to as its "secret weapon of brain power." Dynamic, irreverent and laser-focused on the work, Masucci runs contrary to just about every assumption one would make about an analytics geek. While he boasts a dual degree in math and psychology, he’s also nostalgic for the days he played bass for his band, the Balls. "We were the Balls for a very long time," he says. "We got a lot of shit for that." But with equal fondness, Masucci recalls his first advertising job at BBDO, where "we had a hard-core, kick-ass marketing science group." Say what you want (and Masucci always does), Masucci’s mix of intellect and brute creative force has kicked sufficient ass that it landed him an enticing challenge from OMD early in 2007: Help the agency fuse research and analytics within client teams, and, in the process, revolutionize the way media is purchased. Masucci says that the opportunity to "take analytics out of the back room" was what made the OMD opportunity so compelling. "This allows us to really build relationships in a way media agencies hadn’t typically done in the past," Masucci says. "That’s the magic of it." Good thing, too, because there wasn’t much magic to go around at OMD at the time Masucci joined. Having suffered a one-two punch over the loss of both its Dell and Bank of America accounts, OMD had lost some $700 million in billings in the process. Realizing that it had to change the way it did business, OMD created a business intelligence dashboard system. The idea was to form better connections among core business issues, OMD's tools and data, and a client’s research. It was up to Masucci to make it all work. And that, says CEO Alan Cohen, is just what happened. "Joe has changed our strategy offering to clients [into] something that is well beyond traditional media planning," he says. "He brings science, sophistication and the targeting skills that separate our clients from their competition." And indeed, the clients came—first Visa and Lowe’s, followed shortly after by Frito-Lay, Pepsi and State Farm. OMD’s turnaround was so significant (it pulled in $3.1 billion in new net business last year alone) that the firm was named Adweek’s Global Media Agency of the Year in February. Of course, there are naysayers who argue that all media agencies are leveraging technology these days, but Masucci counters that such thinking is dangerously limited. "So much of the industry is looking at technology [that] they expect it to give them all of the answers," he says, explaining that while technology allows a firm to capture more data through automation and efficiency, it "doesn't mean you've captured the information. You still need the human brain to analyze the information and make it usable to impact the business." Masucci has done plenty of that. His successful stints include jobs at Grey Advertising, Young & Rubicam and most recently at Mediaedge:cia where he was director of OHAL, a marketing response-consulting unit that oversaw client services for Pfizer, Paramount and a host of other blue-chip clients. "I’ve done strategic brand planning, I’ve built econometric models and I’ve done the client service aspect in the modeling space. I have uniqueness of my background from a breadth standpoint," he says. It’s a breadth that continues to expand. Right now, Masucci has little time for music. He’s working on the evolution of his business intelligence unit to stay ahead of the curve. "There are some areas we are into where our competition is a leg behind… We are leveraging analytics to understand, to measure marketing response and apply them to the buying side of the business. We are looking for new ways to find cost savings, [and] we’re really advancing the analytics that we use that support the investment decisions." Cohen describes it as such: "Joe’s area is like research on steroids… He is one of the people who changed the way our clients perceive our company. [Plus], he is an engaging, smart, great guy. Everyone who meets him wants more of him." And if you do happen to meet him, feel free to delve into the teachings of the classic philosophers. The Germans are his favorite. |
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When he’s not working, Joe Masucci likes to relax with a little light reading—basic fare like, you know, Nietzsche or perhaps a little Schopenhauer. Just in case these gents aren’t on your nightstand at home, all you need to know is both are brooding, 19th-century German philosophers. And just in case you’re wondering what any of this has to do with media-planning strategy, the answer is plenty.