Pioneering Creative and Data Driven Ad Agency Now Female Owned

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawthorne Direct, a creative, analytics and technology-driven advertising agency, announced today that CEO Jessica Hawthorne-Castro is now sole owner of the company, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Tim Hawthorne, Founder and former Chairman/CEO, will continue with the company as a board member and strategic advisor. Hawthorne-Castro, who became CEO in May 2014, first joined Hawthorne in 2007. Since then, she has been representing the "next generation" of brand marketing experts, overseeing the agency's position as a leader in accountable advertising. She spearheads innovations in creative solutions and analytic systems that consistently deliver optimum return on investment for Hawthorne's clients.

Tim Hawthorne founded Hawthorne Direct in 1986 as the first long form ad agency and has been a leading direct response television advertising pioneer for 30 years. He co-founded the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA), wrote the definitive textbook on accountable TV advertising in 1997, received the ERA's Lifetime Achievement honor in 2006 and was inducted into the Direct Response Hall of Fame in May, 2014. Hawthorne said: "There is no one better suited to lead Hawthorne Direct in this new age of data-driven, multi-platform, accountable advertising than Jessica. She has proven her dedication to the company and staff, and brings a powerful array of strategic, analytical and management skills to our corporate leadership. We're proud she is our new owner and leader."

Hawthorne-Castro said: "I am truly honored to have the opportunity to own and lead this legacy company with such a talented and experienced team. I am excited to continue to develop new and exciting products and services, push into new categories, and experiment with new approaches. The world is moving very quickly and we are surpassing that speed with continuous development of our technology, proprietary analytics and brand engagement that broadens our reach and continues to deepen the relationships with our clients and their customers. I firmly believe that technology and analytics have empowered both advertisers and specialized agencies more than ever.  We're poised to leverage our long history of data-driven decision making."

Throughout her tenure with Hawthorne Direct, Hawthorne-Castro has fostered service-oriented relationships with the company's high profile clients, helping them to envision, create and execute their advertising plans. Her strategy is renowned for its hands-on and highly responsive approach. To date, her clients have included 3M (Command, Filtrete, Post-it, Scotch-Brite), Armor All, Black & Decker, Gerber, L'Oreal, Hamilton Beach, Remington, SanDisk, Pella, Transamerica, PETA, Carbonite, Audible, Hoover, and United Healthcare, and many more.

Recently, Hawthorne-Castro was named "2015 Female CEO of the Year in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations" by the CEO World Awards. She's a  Board Member of the Digital Hollywood organization and last year was named a 2014 "Women in Business" Award Nominee by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Prior to joining Hawthorne Direct, Hawthorne-Castro had been a successful television literary agent with WME/William Morris Endeavor (formerly Endeavor), one of Hollywood's leading full-service talent agencies representing writers, directors and producers for television. As the agent for an impressive list of WME's top TV talent, she identified and negotiated opportunities for shows airing on all major broadcast and cable television networks. She also packaged key elements necessary to develop TV shows, working regularly with executives from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, HBO, USA, Bravo, and others. In this capacity, Hawthorne-Castro assisted the creators of a number of top rated television programs, including "Entourage," "The Office," "Heroes," "24" and "Law and Order," to name a few.

Hawthorne-Castro holds a Magna Cum Laude MBA degree from Loyola Marymount University, with a double emphasis in Management and Marketing. She also holds a Cum Laude Bachelors degree from UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture. 

ABOUT HAWTHORNE DIRECT

Hawthorne Direct, a creative, analytics and technology-driven advertising agency, specializes in strategic planning, creative development, production, media planning, buying and analytics, and campaign management for integrated marketing campaigns. With nearly 30 years of proven excellence, the agency combines persuasive brand messaging with best-in-class analytic systems to create accountable, high performance advertising campaigns.

Hawthorne helps brands efficiently target their consumers, improve cost per acquisition, optimize the lifetime value of a brand's customers, and even drive consumer response to key retail outlets or corporate locations. As a leading analytic and data driven, accountable brand advertising agency, Hawthorne specializes in integrated campaign solutions. The company offers a full suite of integrated solutions with creative, media, digital and mobile services. Hawthorne maintains brand integrity and metrics to efficiently and effectively optimize the results of its clients' integrated media budgets via leading edge and proven data analytics.

Hawthorne has developed successful award-winning campaigns for countless Fortune 500 brands.

For more information, please visit www.hawthornedirect.com  and  http://www.linkedin.com/company/hawthorne-direct

SOURCE Hawthorne Direct

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http://www.hawthornedirect.com