• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 16, 2009

Tim Hanlon and Barry Fischer, two of Madison Avenue's best known media executives, are taking the leap and joining the board of advisors of fledgling digital TV specialty shop Leap Media Group.

The move reunites Fischer, who most recently had been head of marketplace strategy for Turner Broadcasting, with Chris Pizzurro, a founding partner of Leap who collaborated with Fischer on the market-moving "Media at the Millennium" studies at Turner that helped sway Madison Avenue's view of the role of cable TV in its national TV media mix.

Fischer left Turner earlier this year as part of a reorganization of the company.

Hanlon, meanwhile, brings more than 20 years of experience in both traditional and interactive media to the Leap board, and most recently was executive vice president-managing director of Publicis' VivaKi Ventures unit, where he led strategic investments and developed numerous relationships with an array of promising emerging media companies. He is now managing director of Chicago-based Riverview Lane Associates, a strategic investment and advisory firm focused exclusively on fostering "new media" and marketing innovation through paradigm-changing platforms and technologies.

Leap was recently launched by a team of interactive and advanced TV experts to provide media planning, creative, research, and new business services for agencies looking to break into advanced digital TV advertising services, including interactive TV commercials, video-on-demand campaigns and interactive program guides.