News

Mullen announced today that Ross Dobson has joined the agency as a managing partner with responsibility for leading the digital, direct marketing and analytics groups and fostering company-wide integrated marketing initiatives. Dobson has extensive experience in digital, direct and alternative channel marketing, including an eight-year term at Digitas, where he worked on behalf of several industry-leading brands, including AOL, American Century, Delta Airlines, FedEx and General Motors. As a member of Mullen’s executive committee and senior management team, Dobson will be a key strategic leader in evolving the agency’s integrated marketing model to serve the unique needs of a diverse group of current and prospective clients.

“Ross is a special talent: a proven business strategist and creative thinker who is focused on leading clients and is immediately embraced and respected by agency peers and associates,” said Joe Grimaldi, chief executive officer of Mullen. “Ross has an exceptional blend of knowledge, passion, intelligence and pragmatism that will serve Mullen and our clients well in this age of convergence marketing. He has real expertise in the area of digital and direct marketing that will bolster both our stand-alone practice groups and our cross-discipline approach to solving client challenges.”

“I truly believe Mullen understands where advertising and marketing is heading and has the people and the perspective to capitalize on this for the company and our clients,” said Dobson. “Consumers don’t think in terms of advertising or marketing, they think in terms of experience and they are in control. CRM is now CMR, customer-managed relationships. Digital channels are the cockpit of control for the consumer, but at the same time provide a rich, creative canvas for agencies. Everyone says this. Few do it. I believe with the core capabilities Mullen has and my experience, we can.”

Dobson comes to Mullen most recently from his position as managing director for strategy and enablement at Stone Ward, an agency that he helped grow from a regionally focused general advertising shop in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a more integrated marketing organization working with national brands such as Snap-On Tools, EverBank and Sport Clips. Previously, Dobson was with Digitas in Boston from 1998-2005, reaching the level of senior vice president with direct responsibility for managing the agency’s FedEx and Terminix relationships. Dobson expanded the FedEx relationship beyond online advertising and direct mail to include national sports marketing programming in connection with the brand’s NFL and NASCAR sponsorships. Following his graduation from Boston College in 1989, Dobson started his career with Shawmut and Fleet Bank, both in Boston, where he focused on and led thinking and development of alternate channel marketing.