Veteran marketing and media executive Elizabeth Herbst-Brady has been named president of MAGNA, Nick Brien, president and CEO of Mediabrands, the Interpublic Group media management unit, announced.
“Elizabeth is a proven visionary who recognizes the emerging patterns of the future of the media business and will be able to harness it for our clients,” says Brien. “She is one of the few people who will be able to walk into a company like MAGNA and immediately have the respect of the incredible team of talent that already exists there, and lead them in the next stage of the company’s evolution as a marketing intelligence and emerging technologies specialist.”
Herbst-Brady, 47, will lead the MAGNA organization – dubbed “Magna 2.0” by those inside the holding company – as it progresses from a broadcast negotiations unit into an intelligence-gathering, analysis and negotiations firm that encompasses the full spectrum of media delivery platforms, including digital, print, radio and television. The recent transfer of Universal McCann’s legendary prognosticator of media spending, Robert Coen, into the role of SVP, Director of Forecasting for MAGNA, marks the most visible example of this shift to date.
Herbst-Brady spent the last two years running advertising sales for 20th Television where she was GSM SVP of Syndication Ad Sales, supervising a staff of 19. She was responsible for creating the overall strategy and execution that ensured the company reached its annual revenue goal. Most notably, she oversaw the development of the branded integration process for 20th Television’s first run shows, and set the upfront strategy for the company’s most successful upfront in half a decade.
