MarketInk: Casey Soulies Joins Greenhaus as First-Ever Chief Media Officer

Greenhaus, a San Diego creative marketing agency with tourism and leisure clients, has announced the hiring of Casey Soulies as the agency’s first-ever chief media officer.

Previously, Soulies spent 18 years with The Shipyard’s San Diego office, where he was serving as VP of digital media. He has experience with tourism and retail clients, including Visit California, San Diego Tourism Authority, Visit Napa Valley, JetSuiteX, and the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Alliance.

A statement said Soulies will work with all existing Greenhaus clients on overall media strategy and new client opportunities. Current Greenhaus clients include Visit Dallas, Visit Anaheim, Visit Santa Barbara, Visit Newport Beach, Visit Oceanside, Visit Temecula Valley, the islands of Tahiti and 10Lake Valley, a 214-square-mile destination in southwest Riverside County with 10 lakes and eight cities and communities.

“Bringing Casey in at this juncture is the perfect springboard to launch that media team into a new phase of growth and use his expertise to ensure our media plans are agile and scalable while expanding the use of digital partnerships, AI, video content and more,” said Paul Whitbeck, managing partner of Greenhaus.

“The opportunity to tap into his creative outlook on technology and platforms will be invaluable as we keep our clients ahead of digital trends and ensure media strategies drive positive, lasting impact.”

“Joining Greenhaus represents a tremendous opportunity to lead and direct the media team with a forward-thinking approach, continually investigating new options and creative ideas,” said Soulies. “I am eagerly anticipating the countless unique client media campaigns to come.”

Founded in January 1996, Greenhaus has worked with home communities, urban project resorts and civic entities in 21 states and Mexico.

Client Joins Agency at San Diego’s MindgruveMacarta

It’s not unusual for advertising agency executives to leave agency-life and switch to a job with one of the agency’s clients. It’s less common for a client to join the ad agency with whom he’s been working for more than a decade, which is the news from San Diego marketing agency MindgruveMacarta.

Haven Brady, with more than 17 years of digital strategy experience, has joined MindgruveMacarta as vice president of integrated strategy.

Previously, Brady served as chief marketing officer at USClaims, a pre-settlement funding company that provides cash advances to support people during difficult personal injury lawsuits. USClaims has been a MindgruveMacarta client since 2021.

Also previously, Brady served as director of digital marketing and customer acquisition at MDVIP, a national network of primary care physicians specializing in preventive care. MDVIP has been a MindgruveMacarta client since 2012.

“As someone who has worked with MindgruveMacarta for nearly a decade as a client, I am honored to join the agency for the next chapter in my career,” said Brady. “MindgruveMacarta is leading the convergence of performance marketing and retail media. And, I am excited to lead our strategy team in defining the roadmap for our enterprise global clients.”

A statement said Brady will lead the agency’s core strategic functions, including branding, marketing, commerce and lead generation programs for global clients.

“Haven is an elite performance marketing and retail media strategist and a proven leader,” said Chad Robley, chairman and chief executive at MindgruveMacarta.

“MindgruveMacarta has successfully worked with Haven at two different brands spanning nearly a decade. Holding executive leadership positions at companies in the finance, healthcare, and education industries, Haven developed a deep understanding of performance marketing strategies and analytics in the B2B and B2C sectors. Our strategy practice group plays a pivotal role in our clients’ success and we’re excited to have Haven lead this team.”

MindgruveMacarta, with more than 300 employees, also said it has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for a seventh consecutive year.

Jack in the Box’s PR Agency Acquired

Small Girls PR, a boutique public relations agency with San Diego-based Jack in the Box as one of its clients, has been acquired by Orchestra, a New York-based holding company.

A statement from Orchestra said the strategic investment significantly enhances the company’s existing consumer capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Small Girls PR will retain its name and will continue to be led by co-founder and CEO Mallory Blair and its leadership team. Small Girls PR’s 75 employees, based in Los Angeles and New York, will boost Orchestra’s headcount to about 700. Blair will become a partner in Orchestra, a statement said.

Founded in 2010, Small Girls PR focuses on earned media strategies, experiential, influencer marketing and media relations. Other clients include GE, Taskrabbit,  Nutrafol and Snapchat.

Orchestra, formerly known as BerlinRosen Holdings, is backed by O2 Investment Partners and BerlinRosen co-founders Rosen and Valerie Berlin.

“In a world where we need to constantly earn and re-earn an audience’s attention, Small Girls PR has developed a unique and incredible muscle at consistently coming up with creative ideas that break through and blow away their clients,” said Jonathan Rosen, chief executive officer of Orchestra.

“This acquisition not only expands our consumer offering but also introduces a scalable, high-quality creative process to our organization that will benefit all Orchestra clients.”

Since 2022, Orchestra has made eight acquisitions, including Civitas Public Affairs Group, Onward, Derris, M18, Inhouse and MessageLab. The company also holds a majority stake in Glen Echo Group.

“Mallory is a dynamic leader. She’s built an incredible team that hacks culture like no one else in the industry,” said Valerie Berlin, executive chair of Orchestra. “We’ve long admired their work and see many opportunities to collaborate in the future.”

Blair, a recognized industry leader, has been honored in PRWeek’s 40-Under-40, Forbes’ 30-Under-30, and Observer’s Best PRs in America. Her expertise has been sought after in various forums, from SXSW to Harvard Business School.

“Over the past 14 years, we’ve had significant growth, both in client roster and revenue,” said Blair. “But we also see our clients’ needs are changing. Our team needs to continue building campaigns in the real world through experiential but also in the digital world using a mix of paid media, content, search and analytics. Joining Orchestra will allow us to scale and stay ahead of the curve as the communications landscape continues to evolve.”

A statement said the partnership discussions were supported by David Bosses of Prosper Group Consultancy.

Opinion: Elections Reveal Journalism‘s Bias Flaws 

The American journalism industry is always evolving, as a reflection of the changing news cycle. However, because we’re imperfect humans with blind spots, our industry’s bias flaws seem more noticeable during election cycles.

For example, a study by the Media Research Center found that since July, news reported by networks ABC, CBS and NBC have treated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to 78% positive coverage, while these same networks have pummeled Republican Donald Trump with 85% negative coverage.

It’s the most lopsided TV news coverage in history, far greater than in 2020, when Joe Biden received 66% positive coverage vs. 92% negative for Trump.

However, it appears Americans can see through biased news coverage.

A recent Gallup poll found that fewer than 1 in 3 Americans trust the media to report the news fairly. A record low 31% have confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” This year’s 31% is similar to last year’s 32% figure.

In a partisan breakdown of the results, 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans say they have a “great deal” or “fair” amount of trust in the media. Independents’ trust matches the record low in 2022.

Gallup also discovered the news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions involved in the U.S. democratic process. Even members of Congress have a higher ranking of trust at 34%.

Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, cited the Gallup survey in his Oct. 28 commentary headlined, “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media”.

Bezos wrote, “It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see that is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.”

Bezos framed his explanation to decline endorsing a presidential candidate, the first time in 36 years, as an effort to regain the trust of readers.

 “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias, a perception of non-independence,” Bezos wrote. “Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

CNN reported that more than 250,000 people over one weekend cancelled their Washington Post digital subscriptions in revolt of the refusal to print an editorial board draft endorsing Harris. Also, staff members resigned in protest, including veteran columnist Michele Norris and three members of its editorial board. The cancellations represent 10% of the paper’s paid circulation of roughly 2.5 million subscribers.

Similar decisions not to endorse in this year’s presidential race have been announced by the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune, as reported by Times of San Diego colleague Ken Stone.

Bezos also wrote, “Lack of credibility isn’t unique to The Post. Our brethren newspapers have the same issue. And it’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation. Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions.

“The Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves.”

Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.