Manifest, an award winning content experience agency and two-time agency of the year, with offices in New York, Phoenix, DC and Chicago, announced today two key hires to fuel the firm’s continued strategic growth and innovation. Josh Druding joins Manifest as Group Director of Social Media and Ali Ladak comes on board as the agency’s VP of Intelligence, Analytics Lead, previously driving marketing sciences innovation at tech leader Meta.
“We pride ourselves on creating a challenging and fulfilling work experience that attracts top industry talent, and these hires are evidence,” said Melissa Bouma, CEO of Manifest. “Ali and Josh are high caliber individuals who bring with them a wealth of expertise that will make both our agency and client service better as we continue to show how content can do more than drive the marketing funnel, but change behaviors and reveal what modern brands are made of.”
Druding will take the reins of the agency’s social media practice, assuming responsibility for building and leading a high-performing team, driving social-first strategy and seamlessly integrating social channel experiences with omnichannel content campaigns for Manifest’s portfolio of B2B and B2C clients. He most recently led social strategy at Mekanism for flagship Molson Coors brands, including Miller Lite and Coors Light, as well as Patrón, Kraken Rum, Cricket Wireless, Franzia, Amazon Fire TV, Sling TV and Alaska Airlines.
“Josh has led multiple award-winning campaigns, including being recognized by the Effies, the One Show, and Shorty Awards,” said Krysti Roush, VP Performance Marketing at Manifest. “We couldn’t be more excited to have him driving our social discipline.”
Ladak joins Manifest in a newly created leadership role that represents the agency’s deep commitment to data-driven strategy and creativity and remaining on the front lines of effectiveness. He has over 15 years of data and analytics experience with stops in consulting, agency, and tech. Prior to joining Manifest, Ladak spent 10 years at GroupM and Meta where his focus was on pushing forward measurement strategies, advising on creative best practices, and building Marketing Mix and MTA Models for Fortune 500 clients.
“Adding Ali to our roster allows us to immediately go deeper into some of our clients’ highest-level data & analytics needs such as true ROI attribution, brand lift effectiveness, marketing mix and other types of modeling,” said Geoffrey Director, SVP Intelligence at Manifest.
Josh and Ali both look forward to building on the solid foundation already in place for the social strategy and analytics practice and to evolving both disciplines at Manifest.
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