ROBERT BLAGMAN

best reach consumers and motivate them to action. With over 30 years experience of brand strategy, creative execution and production excellence, she brings a wealth of knowledge to consumer driven projects.

After starting her career in the advertising agency media world, Lauren became a Worldwide Director of Advertising and Consumer Communications at PepsiCo. This role has only been held by a handful of people. She was accountable for overseeing brand and corporate advertising on Frito-Lay’s 15+ brands, including Doritos, Tostitos, Lays, Ruffles and Cheetos among dozens of other brands. This role included strategic and creative work in over 40 countries.

In that role, she was part of the team that pioneered product placement in the entertainment industry as an innovative alternative to traditional advertising. This began with her Hollywood studio-related work on high profile, Oscar-nominated films such as Rainman, featuring Cheetos (Dustin Hoffman’s ‘crutch’ in the film), and Back to the Future, which featured Pepsi and Doritos products throughout.

She was responsible for over $250M dollars in production budgets that supported $1B+ in media spending and spearheaded a massively successful creative advertising platform that was credited with an increase of 11% on a billion dollar brand: Doritos. In addition, Lauren was responsible for creating aggressive and innovative marketing campaigns on other large-scale and small-scale businesses via stellar execution in consumer communications, including packaging design, PR, and outdoor media on top of traditional TV, print and radio. 

Lauren was also part of a pioneering group of entrepreneurs creating online crowdsourcing sites. She created and founded MovieHatch.com in 2007 to fill a much-needed solution to the film - entertainment industry problem of using a “ gut guess” as its method for decision-making on original content. MovieHatch secured audiences up front – prior to investment in production – with both online and offline marketing promotions and events to improve a project’s ROI and to build a strong digital following. MovieHatch now boasts over 10 training programs to help aspiring artists learn the business side of the entertainment industry.

In an entrepreneurial role, Lauren has consulted on consumer insights and communications in a vast range of industries in both the online and offline world, including online gaming, consumer packaged goods, consumer services and B-to-B services. During the Internet boom of the late 90s, Lauren began working as a strategic marketing advisor for tech focused companies from home goods to artificial intelligence technology. 

In 1985, Robert was appointed Vice President, National Sales Manager at Katz Communications, American TV Sales division.  The youngest executive to be promoted to Vice President in the company’s 80-year history.  As V.P. National Sales Manager, Robert managed 91 TV ad sales executives in 21 U.S.  cities and trained more than 25 sales c a n d i d a t e s . During his ten years at Katz, Robert sold and created more than a documented $1.4 billion of commercial airtime.

He went on to work with KCOP-TV in Los Angeles as Vice President, National Sales Manager and then the Walt Disney Company as the Vice President, National Sales Manager for Disney’s broadcast division. Soon thereafter, Robert moved his television management and commercial sales expertise to Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asia. 

In 1995 Robert and Patrick Jucaud built, created, developed, and managed a new TV network in Eastern Europe, a post-Communist Eastern Europe. Robert created the sales division from the bottom up, training, managing, and setting budget goals, as well as, forging new business sales strategies.  Together they created Shopping TV in Hungary.

In 1998, Robert, partnered with Eicoff & Co. a division of Ogilvy & Mather and won the “Best Corporate Transactional TV Program” award for Kodak  and was also named “One of The Top Ten Media Executives Leading Us Into the 21st Century”  by Response Magazine. 

In 2004 Robert created the Media Fusion group of companies to serve the changing global media landscape. He expanded his consultancy to include advertising and marketing in more than 20 international countries. His annual marketing billing averaged $60 million from 2002 – 2010. Robert has consulted and or managed marketing for more than 70 varied companies since 2000.  

Robert is currently creating, producing, and syndicating television programming for national and international TV networks.  He had an average of 4,000 annual hours of programming airing throughout the world from 2006 -2013.  Robert has a keen and unique professional relationship with a great number of media and marketing companies throughout the world. 

In 2015, Lauren Williams, former Worldwide Director of Advertising and Consumer Communications at PepsiCo and Robert merged companies to create Global Media Fusion, an innovative media agency.   Together they have created amazing breakthrough projects for traditional media and digital platforms including online marketing initiatives.

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JOE BELMONTE

Joe’s impressive experience spans several senior account management and brand planning roles at NY agencies including as an EVP at Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson AmsterYard and DDB Worldwide, as well as the Chicago office of J. Walter Thompson. He has lead brand Strategy and new product launches for clients including General Mills, Bacardi, Dial/Henkel, Sephora/Sephora.com, Quaker Oats and Georgia-Pacific. Most recently, Joe has applied his learning from Fortune 500 businesses and has served as an independent consultant, leading strategic projects on a wide variety of products and services including healthcare, consumer goods, wearable technology, and financial services. He is currently working on exciting projects and start-ups in the fintech and cryptocurrency spaces, including advising clients on token launches, vc funding, and the metaverse.

The relationship between consumers and brands has evolved dramatically and brands no longer have sole control of the conversation. Consumers are now engaging (or not engaging) with brands on their own terms, time, and space.  This holds true for products, services, properties, and entertainment.  But, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Brands still need to stand for something so they can remain relevant in a crowded marketplace – a statement that has never rang truer for brand’s competing in today’s complicated world. Identifying this “something” is what gets Joe up in the morning and excited.  For him, it means connecting the truths inside an organization with the passions, needs and wants of your consumers and constituents.  Finding the right connection is even more important when resources and timing are tight.  Joe is constantly digging for insights that will help brands make powerful connections with their customers. With decades of leadership experience at some of the most renowned advertising agencies in the world, Joe calls on a unique mix of analytical and creative thinking to fuel his pursuit of brand truths, customer resonance, and innovative business strategies. 

Joe spends his free time indulging in all the great programming currently available through streaming services and riding his Peloton.  He also loves to visit grocery stores at any opportunity to look for any kind of packaging or product innovation in consumer goods.

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A native of Chicago, Joe is the first-generation child of Italian American immigrants.  As a child, Joe learned the language and culture by watching a ton of television and as a voracious reader.  He actually read an entire encyclopedia by middle school.  Joe attended the University of Illinois/Urbana and then Northwestern University, where he received a Master of Science in Advertising from the Medill School of Journalism.