The Global Chief Marketing and Communication Officer Donna Tobin shares her journey to the advertising industry,

“I LOVED advertising at an early age and I am a huge pop culture junkie. When I was in high school, I plastered my walls with fashion and music ads that inspired me…I recorded ads, public service announcements and loved the whole ad break piece almost as much as I loved the music I played during my shows. Music has always been and continues to be one of my passions which also strengthened my love for the entertainment and advertising industries.”

Tobin talked about her thoughts about the intricacies of an effective marketing plan for a 10,000-strong global organisation and how she taps into her cheerleading past to help execute it, and whether she thinks the ad industry is very good at advertising itself.

“It was mission critical to craft a global marcomms strategy, partner with and cascade that out to our regional comms leads so we could deliver one, cohesive and integrated marcomms plan. Beyond North America, our comms teams in EMEA, Asia, India, Australia/New Zealand, and Latina are truly amazing partners, wonderful human beings, and all embrace opportunities to chat and share ideas. We genuinely support each other even though many of us have never met in person. The biggest challenge is always the time zone differences so we all try to be flexible about who gets up bright and early versus who has to hop on to a Teams call late at night.”

Prior to joining DDB in May 2021, Donna was EVP of marketing, communications, events at partnerships at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AKA the 4A’s) where she led the organisation’s new vision, mission, marketing and communications strategies, and the re-imagination of the 4A’s virtual thought leadership events. She is a current member of DDB’s Global Executive Leadership team, DDB’s Global Creative Council, has served as a New York Chapter Co-Chair on the Women in Toys, Licensing and Entertainment board, developed and launched a Women’s Leadership Network and mentoring program while at Kantar, is an active mentor as part of Omnicom’s OmniWomen program, the 4A’s Vanguard Mentorship program, as well as the MAIP Mentorship program.

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