• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 11, 2024

Angie Hicks is the latest executive to take a new position at the company she co-founded in 1995. Throughout the years she has remained active in determining the direction of the company, but has preferred to remain behind the scenes.

Now she has stepped back into the limelight to once again become the "key asset" for the brand.

“I'm back in the campaigns, which is fun, and I’m looking forward to see how it plays out,” Hicks said. “The ads highlight professionals who take care of our homes and make life easier for homeowners.”

Hicks became the face of the brand this week when Angi launched its latest advertising campaign called Jobs Done Well. The message focuses on the importance of celebrating those who work in the trades, such as plumbers and electricians. Most are small companies, with four or fewer employees. 

Angi’s internal creative team worked with Brooklyn-based agency Quirk to create the campaign. The ads will run across connected television (CTV) and social media.

This new campaign comes on the heels of Angi’s Trade-Up initiative, designed to raise awareness and reinforce the perception of the skilled trades as a viable career path. Angi’s goal is to give these careers the credit and recognition they deserve by spreading awareness of their high-earning potential, job satisfaction, demand and community impact.

A search engine optimization (SEO) team within the company focuses on keeping Angi top of mind when homeowners search for pros in their area and for content related to home improvement.

The platform will continue to evolve through to support consumers and professionals, earning revenue by selling leads and advertising to skilled professionals who meet its screening requirements. Machine learning (ML) helps to match homeowners with the professionals.

“Our goal is to help homeowners articulate to the professionals the problem they are trying to solve,” Hicks said. “We need to collect the information that will connect the pro with the homeowner.”

There are all types of reasons this might occur, but Didit Executive Chairman Kevin Lee -- who has founded and now leads at least four companies and a nonprofit -- said executives typically bring back the founders or have them step up as a spokesperson when the continued survival of the company requires a visionary and not just an operator. 

Lee called it a "boomerang" effect - meaning when a founder comes back to get more involved with the  company.

“If they just need an operator, there are plenty of really good ones,” Lee said. “If the company needs to continue to invent and innovate, the company will typically bring back the founder because it needs a visionary to decide between strategic decisions.”

Larry Page stepped down as Google’s CEO in August 2001 in favor of Eric Schmidt, and came back in April 2011 only to step down again in July 2014 when he became CEO of Alphabet, the parent holding company. Page and Larry Brin finally stepped down from all executive positions in December 2019.  

“There are wartime moments and peacetime moments,” said Jim Yu, CEO and founder of SEO tech company BrightEdge. “Whenever there’s a disruptive technology it becomes a wartime moment. No matter how large or small, the company must reinvent themselves. Many times, it will require a specific motion within the business. AI is one of those disruptive technologies.”

Earlier this week, Co-founders Quentin Le Pape and Guillaume Le Pape announced their return to the mobile marketing tech company Mobkoi, owned by The Brandtech Group to serve as co-CEOs.

The company turns 10 years old this year, and will launch a set of tools based on generative artificial intelligence (GAI) for brands and publishers.

Mobkoi also unveiled an AI-based leadership team to spearhead growth and expand outside of the digital media space to offer services and solutions for a wider range of marketing activities.