• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 10, 2016

Have you heard of Walrus? Walrus is an independent, creative advertising agency that wants to change the way the world feels about advertising by filling it with ideas that are smart, funny and respect people's time and intelligence. That approach has earned them business with Amazon, AMC, Bloomberg, Condé Nast, Emergen-C (Pfizer), General Mills, HBO, Pret a Manger, Rémy Cointreau, Staples, The Trade Desk, and others. 

The agency was named Ad Age's 2012 Northeast Small Agency of the Year and the agency's work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, Effies, One Show, D&AD, and Comm Arts awards.

The agency just hired Mel Stern as media communications director, a newly created position. In this role, Stern will lead Walrus' just-launched media department. Prior to joining Walrus, Stern was a Partner at J3/Universal McCann, where he was responsible for leading media planning for Johnson & Johnson brands including Acuvue, Simponi Aria, Invokana, Animas, DePuy-Synthes, and Lifescan. 

Prior to McCann, Stern served as a brand strategy supervisor at Horizon Media where he led media strategy for Capital One Finance, Little Caesars, Mohegan Sun, and Ruby Tuesday. Stern began his media planning career at Wieden + Kennedy, working with the Nike NY and Jordan brand accounts.

On joining Walrus, Stern said, "The opportunity to build a modern media department from the ground up within a smart, successful creative agency is what drew me to the role at Walrus. This move signals the direction our industry is headed and the solutions needed to address a complex, fragmented media landscape. With media and creative being in the same room from the start, aligning on KPIs, and optimizing launched campaigns in real time together, both disciplines will thrive and Walrus will continue to create campaigns that earn people's attention and drive results."

Well I don't know. I've been saying (and doing) that since 1992. I wonder what took so long?