When Teamwork Drives Marketing Growth
Last year, as Tag Americas’ new CEO Stephen Kiely took the helm, the marketing firm set a goal: 10% year-over-year growth. In order to get there, Kiely needed a partner who could work both with potential clients to promote Tag’s work, but could also build a true sense of community among the firm’s employees, enabling them all strive for that common goal. He drafted Kate Dobrucki, the senior vice president of communications for Tag’s parent company Dentsu at the time. Dobrucki became the chief communications officer, responsible for contact with both external clients and internal staff.
Tag Americas met its goal, and Kiely chalks it up to his partnership with an experienced marketer and communicator that pulled everything together. I talked to Kiely and Dobrucki about how they work together, and an excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.
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The Trump administration’s ongoing battle over speech acceptable for broadcast TV continues, with the White House attacking one of its favorite foils: comedian Jimmy Kimmel. President Trump called for Kimmel to be fired in a social media post over a joke made on Kimmel’s ABC show last week, as the comedian pretended to roast Washington officials and personalities expected to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner. Kimmel had said first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow,” referencing both the 24-year age gap between the couple and Trump’s recent visible health conditions.
In his social media post, made days after the dinner was cancelled because a gunman tried to break in, President Trump called Kimmel’s joke a “despicable call to violence.” And on Tuesday, the Federal Communication Commission filed an order to review ABC parent company Disney’s broadcast licenses. The review, which will focus on eight stations around the U.S. that include the nation’s largest markets, is unprecedented in its timing and scope—the network’s stations aren’t due for regular reviews until 2028 or later. The order does not mention Kimmel, saying the FCC is investigating Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Kimmel’s show has aired as usual so far this week. Monday, Kimmel responded to a post Melania Trump made on X rejecting his “hateful and violent rhetoric” by saying the best way she could do that “would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,” and remarked that he and the Trumps are free to say whatever they want, thanks to the First Amendment. Kimmel devoted much of Tuesday’s monologue to the issue, pointing out that as President Trump lamented he and Melania wouldn’t match the........
