Objective Media Expands Management Team

Last year, we launched Objective Media, a cutting-edge new venture focused on revolutionizing digital advertising. Today, after a year of exciting development and unprecedented success, Objective Media is expanding its leadership team and preparing for explosive growth in 2021.

We sat down with the new management team of Joe Lakin (CEO), Nick Foppe (Managing Partner), and Katie Canova (COO) to see what they have planned.

So, introduce us to the new team. How has it grown?

Joe Lakin: I’m Joe Lakin. When Objective Media launched last year, I stepped in as CEO and I’m continuing to fill that role, but I’m thrilled to add Nick and Katie to our leadership team.

Nick Foppe: My name is Nick Foppe and my role is Managing Partner at Objective. I’ve spent the past 25 years in a variety of marketing and sales roles within the industry. I re-launched the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand to the counterculture and headed up marketing efforts for a new car-sharing brand at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

In addition to working on the client side, I’ve spent half of my career in agency leadership roles while implementing a variety of processes and adding new services. I was a former partner at Moosylvania and Founder at Latigo, two different advertising agencies.

Three years ago, I launched a new agency within Maritz called Cartwheel where I served as the Managing Director, which is where I first started working with Joe and his team.

I split my time between Colorado and St. Louis. Outside of work, you will find me spending time with my wife and two kids or skiing, fishing, and mentoring young start-ups.

Katie Canova: Hi, I’m Katie Canova and I’ll be serving as Objective Media’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the day-to-day operations of Objective and helping to grow our client base.

In the last 12 years I’ve worked for both large media and full-service agencies and as well as the client-side.

I managed digital and social efforts across several of the largest CPG brands including Stella Artois, Shock Top, Bud Light Lime and Cheez-It.

Before coming over to Objective, I worked with Nick and led the account service team at Cartwheel, a Maritz Agency, working across several hospitality, financial services and manufacturing brands.

I love creating and executing smart, impactful media strategy and content plans focused on customer insights and data.

I enjoy cooking, reading, traveling and spending time with my husband, Ryan and two young daughters, Clara and Margaret.

What was the vision behind Objective and what has the company’s year been like?

Joe: We created Objective Media to deliver a digital media marketplace solution within the political space focused on decision sciences and leveraging media buying capabilities.

Nick: We’ve seen explosive growth and upheaval in digital advertising just in the last year. The adoption of digital advertising was already taking off and the challenges created by the COVID crisis really accelerated the adoption of, and need for, comprehensive digital marketing solutions.

Katie: We’ve been thrilled to see our clients really get behind the potential of digital advertising. It’s helped them adapt to the changing consumer landscape and see real improvement in ROI and effectiveness in their campaigns.

Was there a particular need in the market that Objective was created to meet? Does that still exist, how has it changed, if at all?

Joe: Yes, the need was that the digital media buying process was fragmented and ROI was only focused on winning and losing elections.

Nick: While that remains the most important goal, the path an agency takes to achieve that goal can differentiate based on market size, reach, frequency of ads, intent within search, sentiment, etc. Objective will bring all those pieces together along with leveraging custom data audiences to improve overall campaign results.

What does Objecitve’s future look like over the next few years?

Nick: Objective has a unique opportunity to take this business model to more candidates, elections, and campaigns while expanding into the general market for companies with products and services in Pharma, Manufacturing, CPG, Financial, Retail, Automotive, etc.

Katie: Objective will lead clients via big data and strategy which will inform all of our communications and creative while leveraging our media buying capabilities to reach new audiences.

With this expansion, is Objective better positioned to help clients?

Katie: Absolutely! We are in the process of growing all of our creative capabilities in addition to our big data and digital media placement services.

VE.com: How can clients get started with Objective?

Joe: The best way is to visit online at Objective.biz. We’re always excited to meet new clients and show them how our approach to digital advertising can deliver the explosive growth they need at prices they can afford with metrics and trackability they can trust.