Bench Media has announced two significant senior promotions. Sebastian Diaz, previously Senior Digital Solutions Specialist, will assume the newly created role of Head of Media Innovation. Nate Vella, formerly Senior Digital Strategist, has been elevated to Brand Strategy Lead.
These new roles are designed to expand the agency’s media solutions offering. The promotions follow recent business wins, including Best Gift Group, Genea Fertility, and FlexiRoam joining Bench Media’s growing client roster.
“When talking to marketers, we realized that even with strong internal marketing resources, they are often one degree removed from the latest innovations happening in the digital advertising ecosystem,” said Anthony Fargeot, VP of Growth at Bench Media. “As an agency, it’s a big part of our day-to-day to be in contact with media, tech, and data vendors and how their offerings and capabilities are quickly evolving to stay ahead of the curve. We keep our finger on the pulse and share our knowledge with brands, infusing it in their marketing strategy so they can continuously improve their ROI.”
Drawing from his past experience at NewsCorp and OMD, Diaz is a member of the IAB Ad Effectiveness Council. His three-year tenure at Bench and his promotion to Head of Media Innovation will be instrumental in spearheading the release of new media products, meeting brands’ growing needs for advanced and bespoke solutions.
Diaz said, “In the past three years, I’ve witnessed cookie-less ID solutions come to the fore, the attention-based economy thrive, and green trading finally taking a front seat.
“2024 marks the era of generative and predictive AI and the influx of commerce solutions and retail media networks. In an industry that rapidly needs to evolve to meet client needs, it can be challenging to navigate at the best of times, so it is great to be part of an independent agency that prides itself on being client-led and always keen to encourage the testing of new technology to market.”
Vella added, “More and more, brands are seeking a centralized and stable strategy team to integrate with their day-to-day ways of working. Bench has the experience and capabilities to be able to support this while also creating further valuable connections with our network of partners to drive success and achieve tangible business outcomes.”
“It is impressive to see Nate operate and how he can embed himself with brand marketers and speak their language, understand their challenges, and come up with ingenious solutions to address them. His role will be a huge contributor to our continued success working with brands, and I’m very excited to see him take on this new role,” added Liam Garratt, General Manager at Bench Media.