Debbie Kaplan Email & Phone Number

Tenafly, Nj, Us

New York, Ny, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

I’ve made our growth strategy reality by building the operations infrastructure – and putting the people, systems and processes in place for client services and delivery – that supported our acquisition strategy that today includes a collective of 5 specialist agencies. We ranked #84 on Inc. 500 and #3 on Adweek 100 in 2020 and are poised for great growth in 2021 and beyond. In fact, I’ve played a key role in targeted business development and contributed to several pitch wins both before and during the pandemic. Committed to the client and employee experience, my strategy for recruitment, professional development and performance management ensures our teams are well-equipped to succeed, grow, lead and work within a cross-agency team.

New York, Ny, Us

I led the continuous evolution of a high-tech experiential marketing discipline born out of the merger between OgilvyAction, G2 and JWT Action – which equipped me to share experiential marketing knowledge and workflow best practices with counterparts around the globe.The results? Sustained cost-effective and efficient experiential delivery.HIGHLIGHTS:⏩ Lead a team of 60 and >3000 brand ambassadors.⏩ Built a framework and team to support our 5-year strategy for explosive growth.⏩ Created and facilitated ongoing global experiential marketing training key to a collective standard of excellence.

New York, Ny, Us

I supported post acquisition integration, and continued to spearhead experiential strategies that generated awareness, fan bases, grass roots followings and loyalty membership. The results? >4X revenue growth in 5 years achieved by acquisition and conversion of industry leading companies.HIGHLIGHTS:⏩ Grew custom experiential marketing organization 7X that included a team of 18 with 3000 brand ambassadors. ⏩ Drove 3X account growth and stabilized those at-risk as managing director for marquis accounts. ⏩ Led operations while remaining instrumental in business pitches, program wins and satisfaction of industry-leading clients. ⏩ Drove end-to-end evolution of proprietary, customized planning and reporting solution rich with business logic and yielding sought-after deep dive consumer analytics. SUCCESS STORIES:E&J GALLO: Supported the explosive growth of Barefoot Wine through on, off and non-premise events aimed at simultaneously educating and converting. Built a following through rapid, large-scale local level growth instrumental to brand’s position today as the #1 selling popular wine in the U.S. WALMART: Created an immersive consumer experience promotion – featuring educational product pairing and sampling experience to promote the Genuine Steakhouse brand launch – a Walmart first. Our program paid for itself in just 27 weeks.AMERICAN AIRLINES: Created a unique launch experience to support launch of Airline’s Flagship First Dining Experience featuring carefully curated meals customized to meet unique regional cultures. Our multimillion-dollar activation garnered 75M impressions.

I learned the ins and outs of this industry from the ground up – starting first as a Field Supervisor then as a National Field Manager before getting promoted to Managing Director of Operations.Throughout my tenure with this private startup, I supported the founder’s successful efforts to pioneer experiential marketing -- featuring a recruit-to-profile model and ground breaking regional specialty activation capabilities with quality controls in place for >500 brand ambassadors. I ensured training, technology and reporting in place to drive KPI success, and created, structured and strengthened K&L for growth and an ultimate acquisition by WPP. HIGHLIGHTS:⏩ Contributed to multiple Fortune 500 contract captures as a pitch team member and experiential marketing operations expert.⏩ Created an industry-leading proprietary, customized planning, management and reporting digital platform. This automated solution provided real time results review and program optimization.

Directed and oversaw marketing effort for several contemporary celebrity artists of the music industry including: Prince, Richie Sambora, Laura Branigan, Taylor Dayne, AI B. Surel, Jodeci, Father MC, Little Shawn, Giovanni. Handled all aspects of tour management and production, requiring vendor relations expertise. Oversaw all aspects of talent contract negotiation, tour promotion and staff talent acquisition. Acted as liaison between clients and agents & record companies to protect client interests.