Awards & Press

Five Ovative Group Employees Win ‘32 Under 32’ Award 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. May 24, 2023  

Five Ovative Group experts were recently honored as winners of AdFed Minnesota’s annual ‘32 Under 32’ Awards. Its ’32 Under 32’ event recognizes young professionals going above and beyond in the marketing and advertising industries, with 21 total Ovative employees being nominated. Of the 21 total Ovative nominees, five were named a ‘32 under 32’ winner: Claire Doty, Courtney Stoesz, Lauren Scheidler, Mia McMurray, and Tommy McQuillan. 

This year’s theme for the award was: SPOTTED. “Nominees are not only in this group of must-watch young professionals because they’re hard workers and excelling in their roles, (duh) but because their peers and mentors have spotted their brilliance and are ready to share it.” quotes the AdFed website 

AdFed had a record number of more than 140 nominees for this year’s award. Ovative’s 21 outstanding nominees spanned different areas of Ovative’s business. Five of the 21 nominees were crowned winners through an anonymous scoring process by local marketing and advertising experts. 

Claire Doty, Senior Analyst of SEO, was nominated for her ability to align her technical skillset with long-term career goals. Claire worked with Ovative leaders to build a role that “focuses on improving SEO practices and making Ovative better by spending time driving automation for the team and exploring new ways for the team to utilize technology and AI”. Her generosity is felt both within and beyond Ovative due to her many volunteering and mentorship experiences outside of her Ovative career. 

Courtney Stoesz, Manager of Brand Marketing and Events, was nominated for her work in bringing the Ovative employer brand strategy to life, among many other accomplishments including brand and partnership work. Courtney is “always the first to volunteer for challenging projects” and “drives to exceed expectations, not for the recognition, but because she deeply cares.” She is involved in many different areas of Ovative outside of her direct role, including the DEIB Committee and Growth Connectedness Committee, making Ovative more inclusive and connected as a whole. 

Lauren Scheidler, Manager of Paid Search, launched her career at Ovative, beginning as a summer intern. She now leads some of Ovative’s largest clients. Lauren tackles problems with a strategic lens and is “helping bring Holistic Search to life for clients, showing them unique ways to manage Paid Search and SEO together to make strategic business decisions that drive enterprise business results”. Lauren is a team player and takes the time to share her individual insights and learnings with the entire Ovative team to help everyone collectively grow. 

Mia McMurray, Senior Manager of Measurement Solutions, was nominated for her deep expertise in Ovative’s technology portfolio and her drive to help others. Mia serves a critical role on her team by “routinely engaging directly with senior leaders of Fortune 500 companies to help them maximize the value they earn from their marketing.” Beyond this, Mia helped Ovative launch and educate around Ovative’s industry-defining marketing metric, Enterprise Marketing Return, to Ovative team members, which is now at the core of Ovative’s measurement strategy. 

Tommy McQuillan, Director of Video and Programmatic Media, has worked at Ovative since 2015 and is a key part of Ovative’s growing success with programmatic media strategies. Over the years, Tommy has harnessed his passion for paid media technology and “influenced, motivated and trained his team to continue to drive impact for clients and build out the technology to sit on top of the paid media ecosystem.” He also participates in industry events and is seen as not only an expert and leader internally but externally, as well. 

To learn more about the ‘32 Under 32’ award and view all the nominees, visit https://adfed.org/ad2/32-under-32-2023/ 

ABOUT OVATIVE GROUP

Ovative Group is an independent media and measurement firm that helps clients drive and deliver measurable marketing performance. Founded in 2009 by Dale Nitschke, Ovative brings media, measurement, and consulting together under one roof to measure the holistic impact of marketing on clients’ total business using its proprietary metric, Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR). Ovative’s team of marketing experts serves as a trusted partner for its national world-class client base of marketing leaders across many industries. Ovative is recognized as an industry leader and has received awards including Adweek Fastest Growing Agencies, Star Tribune’s Top Workplaces, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Fast 50, and Inc. 5000. For more information about Ovative, visit ovative.com or follow Ovative on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  

 Media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]  

ABOUT ADFED

The Advertising Federation of Minnesota (AdFed) is a non-profit, professional trade association that has served the Minnesota advertising community including agencies, advertisers, suppliers, and students, since 1906. AdFed is a part of The American Advertising Federation (AAF), the nation’s oldest national advertising trade association. To learn more, visit https://adfed.org/. 


Lillian Smith

Senior Analyst, Paid Social

About the Author

Lillian is a Senior Analyst on the Paid Social team at Ovative.

Dale Nitschke

Dale Nitschke

CEO & Founder

About the Author

Dale is the Founder and CEO of Ovative. After years of operating a large omni-channel business and leading a customer data initiative, Dale knew there was an opportunity to create a marketing firm that helped clients become more customer centric and drove better performance outcomes. A gap existed between business consultancies and advertising agencies that modern marketing approaches demand. He also believed that a strong, healthy culture could attract and develop smart, talented team members. In 2009, he formed Ovative to bring media, measurement, and consulting together under one roof to enable an enterprise approach that drives more revenue and grows clients’ customer base.

Prior to founding Ovative in 2009, Dale spent 23 years at Target Corporation where he served as President of Target.com and grew the ecommerce business from start-up stage to a $1 billion+ business and established the foundation of Target’s Guest database capabilities. Previously he served as SVP Merchandising at the Department Store Division of Dayton Hudson. Dale has advised retailers and brands globally on business, growth, marketing, and measurement transformation strategies.

Outside of Ovative, Dale is a leader on topics including business strategy, change management, and team leadership. He serves on the board of Allergy Amulet and on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison.  He enjoys spending time with his family, up north in northern Wisconsin, playing golf, and cheering on Wisconsin sport teams.

Seth Brand

Senior Manager, Consulting

About the Author

Seth is a Senior Manager on the Consulting team at Ovative.

Amanda McCann

Senior Manager, Consulting

About the Author

Amanda is a Senior Manager on the Consulting team at Ovative, specializing in Retail Media Networks.

Jenny Reinke

Senior Analyst, Measurement Solutions

About the Author

Jenny is a Senior Analyst on the Measurement Solutions team at Ovative.

Annie Zipfel

Executive Vice President, Media

About the Author

Annie is the Executive Vice President of Media at Ovative. She oversees delivery and growth across paid and owned media (digital, traditional, and retail media) and creative services.

Annie has more than 30 years of experience in media, brand management, insights/analytics, marketing, and product. She has also developed large, high-performing teams and built new measurement capabilities. Annie led the marketing team at Andersen Windows & Doors, leading the digital, social, content, customer insights, and creative functions. Prior to that, Annie served in multiple marketing leadership roles at Starbucks, REI, Target, and General Mills, with a keen focus on brand, media, insights, analytics, and measurement.

Annie is an industry leader in brand management, customer insights, e-commerce, social media, and analytics. She enjoys hiking, traveling, cooking, fishing, and spending time with her sweet dog and two sons.

Bonnie Gross

Executive Vice President, Talent Services

About the Author

Bonnie is the Executive Vice President of Talent Services at Ovative. She is responsible for attracting and retaining top talent and creating a culture in which our team thrives personally and professionally. Under Bonnie’s leadership, Ovative has defined an industry leading leadership and development program and transformed our approach to talent recruitment with a focus on diversity, equality and inclusion. Prior to her current role, Bonnie led Ovative’s Client and Business Development team overseeing client satisfaction and new growth opportunities.

Before joining Ovative in 2014, Bonnie spent 13 years at Target Corporate as the VP of digital and Digital Marketing where she led the launch of Cartwheel, an industry-leading social shopping application. Bonnie was the VP of Marketing for Fingerhut for 15 years prior to joining Target.

Leander Cohen

Analyst, Consulting

About the Author

Leander Cohen is an Analyst on the Consulting team at Ovative.

Will Silva

Analyst, Measurement Solutions

About the Author

Will is an Analyst on the Measurement Solutions team at Ovative.

Sarah Chang

Sarah Chang

Analyst, Consulting

About the Author

Sarah Chang is an Analyst on the Consulting team at Ovative.

More Awards & Press

Digiday Finalist

Ovative Group Named Finalist for Digiday Awards’ Most Innovative Agency

Ovative was named a finalist for Digiday Awards' Most Innovative Agency. This award highlights Ovative’s innovation, dedication, and operational... Read More »


Ovative

Insights Team

Ovative Named Media Agency Partner

Ovative Group Named Media Agency Partner for Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx have chosen Ovative as their Media Agency Partner.... Read More »


Insights Team

Award

Ovative Group Wins Digiday Technology Award for Best Marketing Analytics Platform and Earns Finalist Spot for Best Data Team

Ovative is a winner of Digiday’s Technology Award for Best Marketing Analytics Platform and a finalist for Best Data... Read More »


Insights Team

accent bar