Winner: Michael Kempner, Founder, President and CEO, MWW
Under Michael Kempner’s leadership, MWW bought itself back from Interpublic in 2011, 10 years after its acquisition, and has used its newfound freedom to innovate and build itself into one of the top five independent firms.
This year the company rolled out four key pieces of intellectual property designed to combine data-driven programming with social community content creation and paid media, to amplify its clients’ messages. They include: a platform for analyzing which content should act as a catalyst for earned media when promoted via paid media; a network of meet-up properties, freelance writers and medial partnerships to quickly create communities to amplify campaign stories; a data-mining platform to allow real-time analysis and mining of both client/agency datasets and third-party data sources; and a market measurement platform that applies research and political campaign data mining techniques to PR planning and measurement.
Kempner has led MWW’s continued growth and expansion this year, including the acquisition of firms in Los Angeles and New Jersey, the launch of a new corporate identity, and the expansion of the agency’s consumer, technology, digital and research measurement groups.
Honorable Mentions:
- Fred Cook, CEO, Golin Harris
- Kathleen Henson, CEO, Henson Consulting
- Marina Maher, CEO, Marina Maher Comms
- Andy Polansky, CEO, Weber Shandwick