About Mark McLaughlin

Mark’s career developed at large ad agencies working with large brands. His specialty is communications strategy which is a simple title for many disparate responsibilities. Mark explains the over-arching theme of his career this way;

“My passion is to understand brands. What does it mean to be a brand? How do we build and protect strong brands? How do brands stay constant in a tumultuous world? - Great training taught me to be relentless about studying the brand through the lens of the customer. Decades of real world experience working with brands that range from packaged goods to politicians helped me to develop a skill that I take great pride in - I work backwards from the customer into the company and I work downward from the business objectives into the operations giving both equal weight. There is always a sweet spot where it all comes together.”

Mark led the advertising industry into the digital era. He is credited with being one of  the first senior agency executives to re-think strategy in the context of digitally empowered consumers. This led to roles as a founder of the first company to focus on “rich media” digital advertising and to positions as the top executive running digital agencies. Before starting his own consultancy, Mark worked at Yahoo! from 2004 to 2008 positioning the company as a strategic partner for ad agencies and the 100 Leading National Advertisers.

Today, Mark lives in Asheville, NC. His consulting leverages the principles that work for the biggest brands in America applied in a way that is pragmatic and right-sized for privately held enterprises.