• Ovative Named Adweek Fastest Growing Agency

    Ovative Named Adweek Fastest Growing Agency

    Ovative ranked number 49 of 75 National Agencies and 8 for Midwest Agencies.

    Ovative Group, 10/24/2022

  • Ovative Hires Veteran Marketer Annie Zipfel As Next EVP

    Ovative Hires Veteran Marketer Annie Zipfel As Next EVP

    Ovative named their newest Executive Vice President of Media, Annie Zipfel, out of their Minneapolis Headquarters. Zipfel will oversee client delivery and growth across paid and owned media (digital, traditional, retail media) and creative services. She will lead a team of over 240 media experts. Zipfel has 30 years of marketing experience for retail and consumer product brands. As former Chief Marketing Officer of Andersen Windows & Doors, Vice President of Marketing, Loyalty Innovation, and Personalization at Starbucks, and leadership roles at REI, Target Corporation, and General Mills, Zipfel understands how to develop marketing strategies that connect consumers with brands to drive success. She will report to Dale Nitschke, CEO and Founder of Ovative Group.

    Ovative Group, 10/12/2022

  • Ovative x Duluth Trading Named National Finalist for Search Engine Land Awards

    Ovative x Duluth Trading Named National Finalist for Search Engine Land Awards

    Ovative was named one of five national finalists by Search Engine Land Awards for Best Local Search Marketing Initiative. Ovative’s winning application highlighted work with Duluth Trading Company for a Holiday 2021 campaign. Duluth Trading has been an Ovative client for over five years. Judges were looking for innovative strategies and creative tactics implemented, best practices/white-hat methods employed, resources and technology utilized, and tangible/measurable business results.

    Ovative Group, 10/20/2022

  • Ovative Named an Agency Disruptor by Meta

    Ovative Named an Agency Disruptor by Meta

    We are proud to be recognized by Meta as an agency disrupter! What does this mean? Our team says it best: 💪 "We are helping our clients get to the next level and navigating a tough, ever-changing space in the digital media landscape." - Jenny 📈 "We are changing the measurement industry. What we are bringing to the table with EMR [Enterprise Marketing Return] is groundbreaking." - Joe

    LinkedIn, 08/19/2022

  • Star Tribune Names Ovative Group a 2022 Top Workplace   - Ovative Insights

    Star Tribune Names Ovative Group a 2022 Top Workplace   - Ovative Insights

    Ovative Group was ranked #12 within mid-sized companies on Star Tribune’s Top 200 Workplaces list for 2022. This is Ovative’s seventh consecutive time on the Minnesota list. Additionally, Ovative earned National Top Workplaces accolades for Employee Appreciation, Professional Development, Innovation, Compensation and Benefits, Purpose and Values, and Leadership.

    Ovative Group, 06/15/2022

Client Start Year End Year
Rue 21 2021 Current
Puritan's Pride 2020 Current
Musical Instrument Museum 2018 Current
La-Z-Boy 2022 Current
Electrolux 2022 Current
Disney 2021 2022
CVS Health 2021 2022
1-800-FLOWERS.COM 2022 Current
Domino's 2021 Current
Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman) 2019 Current

Ovative is an independent, digital-first media and measurement firm. We were founded in 2009, currently have a team of 400+, and manage $1B in media assets. We help change makers across industries drive and deliver measurable performance. Ovative was created to address two glaring market opportunities:

1. Help clients take a more customer-centric, enterprise focused approach to managing and measuring their marketing programs. We know customers should be at the center of all decisions. We saw an opportunity to craft marketing and media strategies that are informed by and supportive of your customer goals. We believe your marketing and media program should be designed and managed holistically. Decisions should be made with the total customer experience in mind. We believe marketing and media performance should therefore be measured based on the total incremental impact to your business (online and offline) and customer goals (contribution to customer acquisition, retention, and reactivation).

2. We also saw an opportunity to redefine what it means to be an agency partner. Most of Ovative’s leadership team spent their careers as operators – working for large enterprise organizations leading media and measurement programs. This experience has translated to institutional knowledge and empathy for our client’s day-to-day responsibilities. We designed the firm based on how we would want an agency partner to show up. We believe an agency partner should be more than a vendor. Your agency should be as invested in growing your business as you are. We should know the numbers inside and out and understand how the scope we are supporting ladders up to your broader business goals.

These foundational beliefs have informed everything we do at Ovative. All the services and products we offer are aligned to this customer-centric, integrated enterprise mindset.

Our services include:
Customer Foundation
For us, everything starts with your customer. We immerse ourselves in your customer, company, and competitive data, augmenting gaps and translating insights into data-driven customer metrics and activation strategies for performance marketing channels, including:
• Customer Activation Strategy
• Customer Research & Insights
• Customer Segmentation
• Customer Growth Analytics
• Customer Experience Design

Comprehensive Strategy
Knowing customers interact with you across media channels (traditional, digital, site, email, etc.) and conversion channels (online, call center, field agents, etc.), we develop comprehensive marketing, media, and creative strategies to support a seamless consumer experience and fuel consumer and enterprise growth goals, including:
• Marketing Strategy
• Media Strategy & Planning
• Creative & Messaging Strategy

Full Funnel Activation
Actions are more powerful than words so we don’t stop at recommendations. We bring customer, marketing, media, and creative strategies to life across all digital, traditional, paid, and owned channels, including:
• Paid digital media strategy and management: Paid Search, Paid Social, Display (including Programmatic and Brand Partnerships), Affiliate, and Marketplaces
• Owned digital media strategy and management: SEO, Digital Experience Optimization (including site and app conversion rate optimization, A/B testing, landing page optimization, personalization, and tagging/analytics setup and management)
• Traditional media strategy and management: Video and Audio (including national, local, direct response TV, addressable video - including OTT, CTV and linear; terrestrial radio, and streaming audio - including podcasts), Print, and OOH
• Creative services: Content Marketing, Creative Production

Enterprise Measurement
We have found that many organizations struggle to fully apply customer data and advanced measurement capabilities in ways that are actually useful to marketers. Our advanced measurement specialists, reporting capabilities, and measurement technologies help clients make better business decisions and establish a more holistic view of their marketing impact. Our measurement offerings include:
• Measurement and data strategy
• Best in class media performance reporting
• Test design, execution, and analysis
• Marketing Analytics Platform (MAP), our proprietary unified MMM and MTA model helps clients measure the impact of your marketing investments on total company performance

  • Troy Neidermire

    Troy Neidermire

    Vice President

  • Shannon Kast

    Shannon Kast

    Vice President, Client Services

  • Jen Alcott

    Jen Alcott

    Vice President

  • Jay Eyunni

    Jay Eyunni

    Vice President, Client Services

  • Jasmin Stevens

    Jasmin Stevens

    Vice President, Marketing

  • Erin Aberg

    Erin Aberg

    Vice President, Talent Services

  • Ericka Strickland

    Ericka Strickland

    Vice President, Paid Media

  • Jo Hamburge

    Jo Hamburge

    Senior Vice President, Consulting

  • Jesse Grittner

    Jesse Grittner

    Senior Vice President, Growth

  • Dianne Anderson

    Dianne Anderson

    Senior Vice President, Media

  • Beth McKigney

    Beth McKigney

    Senior Vice President, Measurement

  • Steve Benson

    Steve Benson

    Chief Financial Officer

  • Steve Baxter

    Steve Baxter

    Executive Vice President, Media

  • Bonnie Gross

    Bonnie Gross

    Executive Vice President, Talent Services

  • Annie Zipfel

    Annie Zipfel

    Executive Vice President

  • Dale Nitschke

    Dale Nitschke

    CEO & Founder

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