Interpublic Taps Digital Ad Pioneer Steiger To Run East Coast Media Lab

In a move signaling plans for a stronger presence in the East Coast's media hub, Interpublic has hired digital media veteran Reuben Steiger to run the New York office of the IPG Media Lab. The appointment, part of a series of new hires for the lab, is noteworthy for several reasons, not the least of which is that Interpublic currently does not have a lab on the East Coast, where Interpublic and many of its biggest clients are headquartered. It also comes as the lab has shifted its mission from researching theoretical game-changing technologies to applying and deploying them to change the game on behalf of clients, as well as Interpublic itself.

"We're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off in this industry trying to stay up with what's going on," says Brian Monahan, executive vice president-managing director of the lab, to whom Steiger will report. Monahan says Interpublic is investing in an East Coast presence for the lab, and adding new talent to its Los Angeles-based headquarters, because it believes that the next big game-changing developments for marketers are still in the lab, but will move into the marketplace rapidly. He cites the fast pace with which recent new-to-market media platforms have impacted industries, especially group discount online shopping services such as GroupOn.

"The opportunity is for transformative innovation. If you can figure out how to take advantage of something like GroupOn quickly, you can be ahead of the marketplace," he says, adding that the trick is "figuring out which ones of these opportunities are right for a brand."

The key to doing that, he says, is having the right talent - executives like Steiger who are steeped with digital entrepreneurial experience, and are in a good position to assess the market potential and the applicability of new platforms and technologies for brands.

Steiger, who will serve as senior vice president-general manager of the IPG Media Lab in new York, most recently was an independent consultant. He previously was CEO of social media agency Millions of Us, evangelist at Second Life developer Linden Labs, and had a role on the client side as director of interactive services at Wynn Resorts. He also was an early digital agency pioneer, who was part of the start-up team that founded Oven Digital, and was the agency's chief development officer. In other words, he's the kind of diversified, eclectic digital visionary that the lab likes to have on its team.

"Many of these future conversations can feel very ethereal and unreal to clients who are dealing with solving very real problems," says Steiger, adding that the lab represents an opportunity to make the theoretical a tangible, hands-on experience.

While the lab's team would not disclose plans to open a facility in New York, Interpublic chief Michael Roth has alluded to that several times during investor's conferences in the past. But Monahan and Steiger say the real reason for a New York presence is to interact with clients based on the East Coast, including some of Interpublic's biggest, including companies such as Bayer, Coca-Cola Co., and Home Depot.

Interpublic, meanwhile, is beefing up the lab's West Coast team, naming Zach Gallagher vice president-general manager and Tim McAtee research director in Los Angeles.

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