Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO/owner of Hawthorne, announced to
day that she has joined the DMA ECHO Board of Governors, the elite group behind one of the most coveted prizes in marketing. The vote was unanimous and Hawthorne-Castro’s first meeting with the board will be at the DMA’s annual ECHO Awards Gala, held Sunday, October 8th in New Orleans.
Hawthorne-Castro is a noted leader in the marketing and advertising industry. As CEO/owner of Hawthorne, she transitioned its legacy of performance-driven advertising to brand response. By leveraging analytics and digital attribution techniques, Hawthorne’s creative advertising is able to deliver transparent and measurable results.
Jessica joined Hawthorne after a successful career as a TV literary agent with William Morris Endeavor and rose quickly through the ranks. She became CEO in 2014 and owner in 2015. Through her efforts, the agency has produced highly-responsive campaigns for brands including: 3M (Command, Filtrete, Post-it, Scotch-Brite); Audible; Armor All; Carbonite; Black & Decker; Dyson, Gerber; L’Oreal; Hamilton Beach; HomeAdvisor.com; Hoover; Remington; SanDisk; Pella; Transamerica; PETA; United Healthcare, Zulily.com and many more.
Under Jessica’s leadership the agency Hawthorne has have been awarded numerous awards including Hawthorne being on the 2017 Inc 5000 list, a certified as a Great Place to Work, a certified Women Owned Business and hundreds of creative awards. Hawthorne-Castro is an industry thought leader and author across publications such as AdAge, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and has personally been awarded many accolades including being a semifinalist in the Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year”, “Top 40 Under 40” and a “Women to Watch” recognition for the “Marketing Hall of Femme” by Direct Marketing News, a “Woman of Influence” by L.A. Biz and Biz Women, “Female CEO of the Year in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations”, presented by the CEO World Awards organization, and Marketing EDGE’s “Rising Star Award”.
As a member of the DMA ECHO Board of Governors, Hawthorne-Castro will contribute her deep and forward-thinking expertise to the DMA International ECHO® Awards—the longest-running marketing competition that celebrates strategy, creativity and results. Other members include Jennifer Monaghan, CMO, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business; Josh Blacksmith, SVP, Group Management Director, FCB; Bill Burkart, President, Wunderman Data Management, and more.
The judges will unveil the winners of the first-ever DMA 360 ECHO THROWDOWN competition, launched by The Data & Marketing Association, at the ECHO gala in New Orleans. Nominees submitted videos to the contest featuring their most exciting work, including case studies from Snickers, Audi, Sony, Comcast, Hilton and more. To help choose the winner, go to theDMA.org/Throwdown, click on the video tile you would like to watch, click on the “thumbs up” Icon to register to vote, and then repeat for any other videos that inspire you.
The ECHO gala will be held at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center – Great Hall. The festivities kick off at 6 pm on October 8th. For more information, visit: https://andthen.thedma.org/echo-awards/.
