Codeword, a leading tech-PR and content agency, today announced a strengthened executive team with three powerhouse players and two new client offerings during a period of marked expansion. The company brings in agency vet Katy Kelley as SVP, Marketing and Brand, journalist and content marketer Ted Brown as VP, Editorial, and promotes Jordan Leschinsky to VP, Strategy. Additionally, the agency is extending its capabilities into video production and front-end development.
“Katy, Jordan, and Ted are the absolute best trio to lead Codeword into the future with us,” said Kyle Monson, partner at Codeword. “Katy’s already done a tour of duty here as a creative director, Jordan has been a vital part of our agency for nearly three years, and we’ve been not-so-subtly pursuing Ted for quite a long time. Our specific mission together is to mess with the mainstream, burn down a silly industry’s silly best practices, and create marketing programs that people are actually interested in.”
The agency has also expanded its capabilities, investing in two new offerings—video production and front-end development. These services complement the agency’s current team of content creators for an expanded set of skills to build more experiential digital media. Codeword prides itself on investing in new technologies that straddle the creative and technology worlds, as recently made notable by the hiring of the world’s first AI interns.
“Our company has been developing video and digital experiences with clients for years, but we wanted access to more in-house resources to meet news cycles, and audience needs better. Being able to quickly build content experiences that are light, timely, and interactive will drive impact for our clients and, hopefully, fill the internet with more cool things,” says Michael McKloskey, Partner and EVP at Codeword.
With more than 18 years of experience in building brands for a wide variety of organizations, Kelley will oversee all of Codeword’s MarCom functions, leading global strategic communications for the firm. Kelley started her Codeword journey in 2017, where she spearheaded projects for brands including Snapchat, Criteo, and Alibaba. She parted from the company for a few years to consult for Meta but is happy to be returning to her agency roots. Kelley previously led marketing and communications efforts on behalf of Ruder Finn, Cohn & Wolfe (now BCW), and Huge.
“Marketing a marketing agency is a refreshing challenge. Codeword is full of curious, opinionated, terribly smart people who thirst for differently shaped work that inspires at all altitudes. Being able to lead a team like that is a dream come true,” says Kelley.
Brown brings more than ten years of experience in marketing and editorial to Codeword, and has led creative teams at tech and media companies like the BBC, Wix, and Figma. A longtime freelance creative consultant, he’s also guided large-scale editorial projects for brands like Spotify, Squarespace, Stripe, and Visa. A regular contributor to the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and other marquee publications, Brown brings a rare combination of writing and creative experience to the Codeword team.
“As a journalist and a marketer, I’ve been a fan of Codeword’s ability to bridge those two worlds and tell great stories for brands,” he says. “The team is relentlessly inquisitive and focused, and I’m beyond excited to help the agency write its next creative chapter. We’re going to be building some really cool things.”
Leschinsky, who joined Codeword in 2020 to work on strategy for the firm’s larger tech clients, will now lead Codeword’s strategy and analytics teams across all accounts. A former magazine editor turned digital strategist, Leschinsky has been developing strategies for clients in the technology, auto, finance, and healthcare industries for the past ten years. Codeword is excited to see Leschinsky’s strategic vision for the agency come to life, with her years of experience on clients like Google, Qualcomm, LinkedIn, JP Morgan Chase, BMW, MINI, Nestlé and Total, in countries like Canada, England, South Africa, and the United States.
“Codeword is one of the few places I’ve worked where you get to be truly strategic without the BS. Honest conversations with clients, strategies that deal with the challenges, and impactful creative—I’m so lucky to be part of that,” she says.
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