Arthur Ceria is no stranger to a-list brands. Over the course of his career in the interactive space, Ceria has worked on campaigns for MCI, Intel, and Polaroid. He did the dotcom thing at Agency.com, led the team that created a 3-D interactive exhibit for the Basketball Hall of Fame, and spearheaded what was thought to be the first digital launch of an auto brand, a campaign for Volvo on AOL. Yet it is his current role as executive creative director at OgilvyOne that will most likely define his career, not to mention dominate a sizable percentage of his …

In 2003, when Jeff Benjamin joined Miami hot shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky to head the agency's interactive division, he believed that the still-young interactive medium had grown stale, even boring. To Benjamin, that was due in large part to the reluctance of clients to embrace online messages that went beyond the "brochure" phase. In addition, interactive designers were getting carried away with the technology, instead of integrating it and making it more seamless. The interactive scope has changed enormously since then, and Benjamin has been at the forefront of the revolution. "Clients are getting it," he says. "There was …

Speaking another language is mighty impressive, but creating one is an entirely different feat. Add that to the résumé of Kate Everett-Thorp, who is unequivocally regarded as an online pioneer. Last year, Everett-Thorp shepherded Microsoft's online marketing for the highly anticipated debut of its "Halo 2" video game for the Xbox console. The online marketing needed to be precise, meaningful, and completely different than anything ever seen. This was not a time for banner ads. So AKQA devised a simple and discrete strategy: It buried Web pages with information on the game within the Microsoft Web site. …

Talk to Jon Raj, and before long, it's clear that he loves to connect with people and use his skills to improve the world. That fact is evident even in the way Raj began his advertising career 10 years ago. Back then, Raj was director of marketing for Teach for America, which recruits college graduates to be teachers in low-income neighborhoods. The post left him frustrated because there were no mentors to guide him. So, partly to "learn the ropes" of marketing, he joined Saatchi & Saatchi in his first advertising job. Stints at other agencies, including Ketchum and …

Rishad Tobaccowala isn't a nine-to-fiver. As president of SMG Next, an idea incubator within Starcom MediaVest Group, and chief innovation officer of Publicis Groupe Media, Tobacco- wala lives and breathes work every minute of the day, no matter where he is, whom he's with, or what he's doing. His job? Tobaccowala predicts the future, or at least attempts to, and people depend on his visionary and analytical abilities. He doesn't pick lotto numbers or determine who's going to win a football game. But he is the go-to guy at smg and throughout Publicis Groupe when clients and agency people want …

Back when the notion of a computer in every home was a Bill Gates pipe dream, John Vail was proselytizing about the Internet in the halls of Pepsi-Cola Co. The gospel according to John was that while in the early 1990s, relatively few people were online or even had computers, Vail knew the Internet would be a major factor. Thanks to the prescience and persistence of the man who would become director of digital marketing and media for Pepsi-Cola North America, the world's No. 2 soft drink company has become an online leader. "Today it seems obvious …

The Commander, a new Jeep brand vehicle, is promoted on a Web site by a fictional family called The Mudds. No, the man behind the effort doesn't work in the creative department. But Jeff Bell, the architect of the Web-based viral and branded entertainment strategy, is vice president, Chrysler and Jeep Chrysler Group, and a passionate evangelist for new media. The campaign for the DaimlerChrysler brand is yet another example of the company's commitment to increasing its online media and marketing efforts, says Bell, who has been behind many successful digital marketing programs for the Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep …

When last we checked, Scott Witt was still adjusting to the rigors of his leadership post in MediaVest's digital group. As the point man for Coca-Cola's digital-media initiatives, he was thrilled by the opportunity but somewhat frustrated by the brand's initial hesitation to invest significantly in the online space. He was 29, and he wasn't sleeping a whole lot. "It was both humbling and scary," says Witt of his first full year on the job. Several months later, the Coca-Cola/MediaVest pairing has proven fruitful, with a trifecta of programs garnering both popular and critical kudos. "Scott's just like his brand: …

By anyone's standards, including his own, Doug Jaeger is having a pretty amazing life. At 20, he designed a Web site for Lucent Technologies while working at Agency.com. Three years later, he established the interactive creative department for J. Walter Thompson, becoming the most junior partner in the firm's history. Then, at 25, he was named interactive creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day -- the youngest creative director in its history. At 28, this digital whiz kid, who has already won a slew of awards, formed his own company, thehappycorp.com, a New York-based creative-services company encompassing branding, …