Ben West
In 1990, the start-up agency WestGroup was named Southeast Agency of the Year by Adweek magazine. As its founder, Ben was named Agency Executive of the Year. WestGroup has since evolved into 22squared, but under Ben’s leadership has remained one of the largest independent agencies in the U.S. Prior to branching out independently, Ben spent the early days of his career at D’Arcy MacManus Masius, Young & Rubicam, and Ogilvy & Mather. He also served on the board of directors of the American Association of Advertising Agencies from 1996 to 1998. Ben’s brand experience: M&M/Mars, Anheuser-Busch, SmithKline Beecham, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble.
Richard Ward
As one of the most seasoned advertising executives in the country, Richard brings 20 years of agency management experience and 10 years of digital experience to 22squared. Working on national brands like California Raisins, Clorox, Coors Brewing Company, Gallo Vineyards, Janus Mutual Funds and Levi Strauss & Company, Richard has had a hand in every aspect of the advertising world. Prior to joining 22squared, he served as Managing Director of FCB/San Francisco, helped launch the Internet startup search company Infoseek, worked on the team that ushered in an era of explosive growth at AOL, and managed global business development as a consultant for eBay.
Scott Sheinberg
Scott brings a unique history of leadership and creativity to the 22squared team. He began his career as a copywriter with Benito Advertising and later joined Earle Palmer Brown, where his work appeared in Communication Arts, The One Show, and D&AD. Still in his 30s, Scott moved on to become executive creative director at Henderson Advertising, making him one of the youngest creatives ever to take the helm at a national agency. Scott has a trusted role with 22squared’s most senior clients and brings a unique sense for the human condition as Chief Creative Officer. He has led national campaigns at 22squared for key clients Buffalo Wild Wings, Toyota, Publix, and more. Scott has been a primary driver in winning multiple Effie, National Addy, Communication Arts, and The One Show awards.
Brandon Murphy
Over the past 15 years, Brandon has developed a diverse knowledge of brand strategy. He now leads all 22squared brand, digital, social, and engagement strategy development. Prior to joining 22squared, Brandon served as SVP and planning director for Campbell-Ewald in Detroit, and was principal and partner of a shopper marketing firm specializing in retail branding strategies, including working on Proctor & Gamble brands for Walmart. Since joining 22squared, he has helped direct brand and engagement strategies for Buffalo Wild Wings, Florida’s Natural, Lincoln Financial and Publix, integrating more digital, social, and authentic connections with consumers.
John Stapleton
John is well known in the national advertising community as a top digital pioneer. Prior to joining 22squared in 2000, he served as Senior Art Director at Fahlgren Advertising and Art Director at Henderson Advertising, making his mark on brands such as Michelin Tires, Ryobi Power Tools and Peerless Faucets. Currently, as 22squared’s Chief Creative Director, John spearheads creative development by telling brand stories for clients such as Shoe Carnival, Baskin-Robbins, Toyota, and Costa Rica Tourism. He was key in 22squared’s rebranding efforts six years ago, positioning the agency for the rapidly changing digital space. One of the most decorated creatives in the business, his contributions have helped win multiple Effie, National Addy, Communication Arts, and The One Show awards.
Ed Klein
Ed is an experienced leader whose brand building expertise has been built “on both sides of the table” for some of the world’s most loved and recognizable brands. Ed started at Doner working on brands like Chiquita, Red Roof Inns, Iams Pet Food and Coca‑Cola. He was eventually recruited by Coca‑Cola, and served as Advertising Director for brand Coke worldwide, Global Brand Director for Diet Coke and VP Marketing for Diet Coke in the U.S. during his eight-year tenure. He was then recruited to a small regional agency, growing the firm as its President by adding brands like Miller Brewing, EarthLink, Intercontinental Hotels, and work for Coca‑Cola. After a successful sale of the agency, Ed joined 22squared as the Director of Client Services.
Chris Tuff
Chris Tuff was one of the first marketers to work directly with Facebook, beginning his relationship with them in 2005. Chris brings his eight years of digital marketing experience and six years of social media and emerging media technologies experience to help lead the social media team in strategy and execution for our clients. Most recently he helped grow Buffalo Wild Wings’ Facebook page from 50K fans to 5 million in just over a year, and Baskin‑Robbins from 400K fans to 5.6 million. His strong background in this area comes from building the Sunao/Emerging Trends department at Moxie Interactive (the interactive arm of Zenith/Optimedia) from one person to over 30.
Amanda Ferber
Is it possible to find a worldly, smart and strategic account executive with an uncommonly keen sense of what makes good creative? Absolutely. Her name is Amanda Ferber. Over the past decade, Amanda has worked on MasterCard, Coca-Cola and Wendy’s – three of the best known, most labor intensive brands in the world. Her migration to Atlanta added the Georgia Lottery, one of the largest state-run lotteries in the U.S., and Havertys Furniture. She’s led strategic and creative development for national product launches and re-launches of brands worldwide. And through it all, she’s elicited smiles from clients and co-workers alike with her signature and highly contagious laugh. She currently leads the Southeast Toyota Distributors team here at 22squared. Amanda’s brand experience: Beazer Homes, Coca-Cola, Georgia Lottery, Havertys Furniture, MasterCard, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Southeast Toyota Distributors, Wendy’s.
Crystal Anderson
Crystal has spent the past 11 years developing brand strategies for a range of client categories from packaged goods to entertainment. She is currently leading the Brand Planning department at 22squared. Prior to joining 22squared, Crystal served as the Chief Strategic Officer at Omnicom’s youth marketing agency, UPROAR!, developing brand strategies to take classic toy brands such as Transformers, Battleship and My Little Ponies and turn them into modern entertainment brands. She has also worked at DDB NY, BBDO Chicago and Publicis Dallas on brands like: NY Lottery, DirecTV, Hasbro, Nestle, Glaxo Smith Kline, Bayer Consumer Care and Wrigley.
Andrew Jones
During his formative years in the business, Andrew worked as a brand planner at top London advertising agencies Bates Dorland and BMP DDB and as a strategist on the client side for Foster’s Lager and Miller Brewing Company. In 1992, Andrew was recruited to be the planning director for Porter Novelli in London, where he worked on brands such as Rolls-Royce Bentley Motor Cars, British Telecom, Royal London Insurance, Volkswagen, Paramount, and Universal Studios. Andrew joined 22squared in late 1997. Now a 15-year veteran of the agency, Andrew has worked on the Southeast Toyota Distributors team and currently leads the Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin’ Donuts and Costa Rica Tourism Board accounts.
Will Thomason
Will joined 22squared in 1995 and immediately found the creative agency environment where he could thrive. Classically trained and always learning, Will has a well-rounded portfolio of brand experience including packaged goods, financial services, restaurants and retail, apparel and hard goods. With over 20 years of agency experience, Will has a reputation for building strong brands, e ective teams and dynamic client relationships which makes him a perfect fit for the Aaron’s and Shoe Carnival accounts. Prior to 22squared, he worked at Henderson Advertising and Campbell-Mithun-Esty working on brands such as The Sports Authority, Russell Athletic, RJ Reynolds, and Kimberly-Clark.
Syl Harris
An agency veteran with 36 years of package goods experience at 22squared, Syl has managed a wide range of national and regional brands and brand introductions for such clients as Castleberry Foods, Conwood Corporation/Smokeless Tobacco Division, Flowers Industries/Baking Division, GoodMark Foods (meat and salted snacks), Reynolds Metals, and White Lily Flour. He is currently senior executive on the Florida’s Natural account. His responsibilities include supervising the overall strategic direction and execution of integrated marketing efforts across a wide range of disciplines, including traditional consumer and trade media, in-store media, and database and interactive marketing. Syl resides in Atlanta with his wife Carroll, son Travis, and their dog Slinky. He has enjoyed extensive U.S. and world travel and has been known to tell a few interesting adventure tales.
Scott Stuart
Scott has spent the last 19 years overseeing the planning and execution of communication for Publix Super Markets. Prior to joining 22squared, Scott spent the majority of his career working in New York for Young and Rubicam, Cunningham and Walsh, and Grey Advertising. He has extensive experience in food and food retail. Scott’s initial experience was on Procter and Gamble’s Citrus Hill Orange Juice, Folger’s Coffee, and Duncan Hines Cookie Mix. Additionally, he has worked on the client side as a Product Manager for Lykes Brothers’ FloridaGold Juices. “I love working in the food business. So much so, I’ve spent the last 31 years of my career working in food retail and food products. To me, food generates a real passion in the people I work with, which connotes a challenging, motivating, and rewarding environment.”
David Reeves
David builds bridges between man and machine. His background in psychology and biology affords him a unique behavior-centric perspective of the mobile technology landscape. David left Moxie Interactive’s (Atlanta) Technical Strategy group in 2010 and started his own company, Romp Interactive. He has focused exclusively on mobile technology and ideation for many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and 20th Century Fox. He provides thought leadership and campaign strategy for digital portions of new and existing business opportunities at 22squared, and works with our senior leadership team to establish agency innovation goals and processes.
Krista Lang
Krista has a successful history of leading her teams and clients to deliver on business goals. Her foundation of traditional media expertise is enhanced by her 6+ years of digital experience. As Executive Media Director at 22squared, she leads the Media Planning and Buying teams and works closely to collaborate across the agency to develop stellar media plans for all of our brands. Krista has a wealth of client experience ranging from CPG to Financial to Retail, across Brand and DR, working on national brands like Nike, Wachovia, MillerCoors and Microsoft to name a few. Her love for advertising comes honestly, and she will tell you that she was born into the advertising world, literally – her mom was a corporate Media Director and her dad? A Sales Rep.
Tracy B YoungLincoln
Since joining 22squared, Tracy has had her hand in many projects. She streamlined our usability and analytics tools to give clients a more digestible assessment of the progress of a campaign. She has made Search work harder by unifying paid, organic, and social search programs. She has also invented tools – 22viewSM and 22view:thruSM – to improve our analytics capabilities and tag relevant information to better serve our clients’ evolving needs. When not innovating and changing the face of our performance and analytics team, Tracy inspires fierce competition among members of the 22squared family by hosting Karaoke contests, bake-offs, dip-offs, and other competitions that bring out hidden talents not normally seen during work hours. Her brand experience includes Delta Air Lines, the International Olympic Committee, Primedia, UPS.
Mike Grindell
Mike joined 22squared six years ago and currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer. He had a 16-year career as an Executive for The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to that, he served in various leadership positions at Citigroup and Federated Department Stores, respectively. Mike brings a unique combination of business savvy and commitment to 22squared’s people and culture, and he is deeply involved in the ongoing development of our digital, social, proprietary analytics and dashboard platforms. He is also currently serving as board chair for Quality Care of Children, an Atlanta-based organization that serves almost 150,000 children in Georgia each year.
Marcia Owens-Reder
Marcia began her career as an assistant media buyer with Ally & Gargano in New York in 1982. After a couple of years, she moved to Tracy-Locke Advertising in Dallas, working on the Pepsi, Taco Bell, and Frito-Lay business. She spent 17 years in Dallas, working for The Richards Group, BJK&E, Doner, and Publicis/Optimedia. During this time, she learned the automotive retail business working on Chrysler/Plymouth, Mazda, and BMW. In 2004 she joined 22squared as the Spot Broadcast Director on the Southeast Toyota account. When she’s not obsessing over her beloved South Carolina Gamecocks, she is planning her next big trip around the world.
Tom Fuller
Tom has been our CFO since he joined us in 1990. Before that, he spent four years as CFO at Austin Kelley Advertising. He currently oversees all financial and administrative functions at the agency. When he’s not spending time with his wife and two daughters, Tom serves on numerous boards around the city, including 22squared, Midtown Alliance, Peachtree Club, and Eagle Ranch. He remains very active in the community and is the co-founder of AFO, Atlanta Financial Officers, a group of Atlanta-area agency financial professionals. Tom admits he got into advertising for the sole purpose of getting a vanity plate with the advertising/accounting double entendre, “ADDGUY.” Ahem.
Signe Garnitz
Signe came to 22squared in June 2008 with 25 years of advertising HR experience under her belt. After starting out in New York City, she moved to DDB Chicago, where as Senior HR Manager she took on the responsibilities of managing benefits, employee relations, and work/life initiatives. Signe (pronounced SEE-na) has a BS in Theatre and Speech Communications from Northwestern. The skills she learned as an actress – empathy, putting yourself in others’ shoes, understanding the creative soul – have helped her become an effective, animated asset to the 22squared family. After Northwestern she earned her SPHR and taught courses at DePaul University.