Over the past few months, strategy reached out to media vets in a search for the best next-gen media minds – those who are setting new standards in strategy and trying new tactics. In the rapidly evolving mediaverse, these are the pros media shops have singled out as being on top – and a step ahead of the game. Today, we begin profiling the first five.
Who: Nadia Codispoti, senior account manager, PHD Canada, Toronto
Claim to fame: One of Codispoti’s standout successes is the Dove Pro Age book program in Quebec. De femme a femme (From Woman to Woman) was an inspirational book devised by the media agency, in partnership with Quebec’s TVA Publications, to highlight the lives and experiences of Quebec comedian, actress and singer Judi Richards and 29 other women.
Last May, Richards was featured in a seven-page Pro Age ad that appeared in 7 Jours, Clin D’Oeil, Femme Plus, Chez-Soi, Ma Maison and Le Lundi. It contained a call to action for women over 50 to submit their life stories, and hundreds did. The chosen stories were the backbone of about 2,000 books printed for an October 2007 launch.
Ads on Archambault.ca and in-store bookmarks, along with events hosted by Richards (with Pro Age product sampling), helped drive the title onto the bestseller list of the Archambault book chain, where it stayed in the top 10 for about three weeks. The title eventually sold out.
Codispoti was also instrumental in launching Shine magazine, an extension of the Dove ‘real beauty’ initiatives produced in association with Rogers Media, and its French-language version, Luminance. The one-time issue was distributed to subscribers of Chatelaine, Flare, LouLou, Glow and Pure, and included photos from 7,000+ women who sent in their picks to be part of the mag, which highlighted good hair. Shine Online, at dovehair.ca, let users create their own page and share the content with sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and del.icio.us.
Who is she? Codispoti graduated from Humber College with a diploma in advertising media sales and joined MediaVest in 2000 as a broadcast buying assistant, then moved over to HYPN (now PHD) as a broadcast buyer in 2002. In 2004, she was promoted to magazine portfolio manager within the non-broadcast portfolio management team, then moved to planning on the Unilever team in 2006.
What common industry belief would you love to see die? ‘The belief that client and interagency teams can’t work in collaboration to develop truly outstanding 360 campaigns. I am lucky to be a part of a model that dispels that belief.’
What’s the biggest media mistake brands are making? ‘Fearing change instead of embracing it. Brands could be taking on new media in bigger, more pioneering ways to develop compelling experiences to engage with their consumers.’
