• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 1, 2007

A Techie At Heart

Curt Hecht

Executive vice president, chief digital officer, Starcom MediaVest Group

How ironic that competitive cycling is one of the driving passions of the man who plans much of General Motors’ media buying. But Curt Hecht, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Starcom MediaVest Group and GM Planworks says bike skills come in handy when steering the U.S. auto industry through a challenging media and sales environment. “I am used to going down mountain passes,” he says. Hecht has positioned one of SMG’s most important clients as a leader in managing the auto brand across Internet and TV screens. 

Hecht helped spearhead the now-legendary “Google Pontiac” campaign that not only blended the two brands in TV and online spots but charted new terrain in developing cross-platform ad models and metrics. As the chair of AAAA’s Digital Video Innovation Committee, Hecht already explores that next generation of old and new media integration. The “gm Showroom,” a dedicated VOD channel on Comcast, Cox and Time Warner, is that first step toward integrating online disciplines of search, video and behavioral targeting with the big screen. “People doing research with their TVs is not far-fetched,” Hecht argues. “This is a TV equivalent of KBB.com. It’s a new marketing platform.”

One mountain pass he is most proud of blasting through is SMG parent Publicis’ acquisition of Digitas, which he thinks will make possible a tighter marriage of creative, technology and planning strategies. “Whenever your company makes an acquisition you want to show a seamless integration, and we have seen a benefit to the client,” he says. Search engine marketing, content development and media buying are “working as one and have brought great integrations,” he says. New colleague David Kenny, chairman of Digitas says, “Curt found the way for gm to make digital advertising the backbone of their brand and retail efforts.”

Beyond GM, one of Hecht’s core missions at SMG is making digital a backbone for all agency endeavors. His unofficial job description is to apply what the company calls a “digital mindset” with every thought leader. He sees digital as a key strategy to expanding almost any brand’s reach in these media fragmented times. Throughout the organization, Hecht is credited with staffing up digital talent and pioneering search, analytics and mobile platforms that will position the agency for the next wave of integrated marketing. “Curt is expert at managing the demands of very large, cautious brands against the opportunities of the digital realm,” says Federated Media chairman John Battelle, who also recalls his friend being among the first to champion blogs and emerging platforms in conversational media.

The former Leo Burnett IT guy retains a techie’s resourcefulness. Build, don’t wait, is Hecht’s approach. “Everyone is looking for an answer right now and people have forgotten they can learn a lot of these new things on their own and create it themselves,” he says. “Those who sit on the curb and wait for others to tell them [what is next] will be left behind.”