Digital Leadership
Recent News
MSL Launches DBI.ia: a tool for raising digital brand influence in the AI era
Most brands only know their digital impact from internal data. They know their web traffic. They know their social media engagement. They know their SEO ranking. What they don’t see is how they appear through the lens of the prospect or customer in “digital” real life. They don't see what they are missing. And that’s where the opportunity for growth lies.
Rob Guests on The Trending Communicator
In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle welcomes award-winning digital innovator, public speaker, and agency executive Rob Davis, the Chief Digital Innovation Officer at MSL, for an engaging conversation on the future of communications and marketing.
Rob Named to PR Week Dashboard 25 Class of 2023 and 2024 (AI Edition)
PRWeek’s Dashboard 25 is a prestigious annual list of the primary movers, shakers and innovators in the comms tech space. It celebrates visionaries and leaders driving the PR industry forward from media monitoring services, newswires, in-house brand and corporate departments, PR firms, private equity, social media management and much more.
MSL and Clients Lead Nominations at the 2024 Innovation SABRE Awards
For the second year in a row, MSL has received double-digit nominations at the Innovation SABRE Awards shortlist, a prestigious program that celebrates innovation and excellence in content creation, data and analytics, comms tech, digital innovation, creativity and much more. With 21 shortlists, these awards underscore our commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation and creativity in the industry and reimagining what PR can accomplish.
Rob Named to PRovoke Media "Innovator 25" 2022
The 10th annual Innovator 25 class in the Americas features some of PR’s most forward-looking thinkers, individuals taking the lead, and the risk, in advancing the industry through ingenuity at a time when the winds of change of demand it.
Rob Named to Business Insider Top Gaming/Esports Marketing Execs 2022
Business Insider identified the top 31 execs who are working to find new opportunities for advertisements in video games. They come from ad agencies, new startups, video game developers like Roblox, and brands like Chipotle and Bud Light. We chose these individuals through our own original reporting and nominations.
Articles & Thought Leadership
PR Embraces Generative AI, but the Real Transformation Is Yet To Come
Twenty-two months since Chat GPT brought generative AI to the masses, there are two essential questions every brand, agency and – arguably – individual needs to ask of themselves: 1) What are we doing with AI? 2) What is AI doing to us? PRWeek’s recent AI Deciphered event in New York City provided an opportunity to hear how each of these make-or-break questions might be addressed by the agencies, tech companies and educators assembled for the day. Several moments stuck with me:
Follow The Audience, Not The Market
There are lessons to be learned from the dot-com boom — and bust — in the current economic environment.
Rob on the Ethereum merge
Rob on the Ethereum merge
In the eyes of the crypto-savvy at marketing and PR firms, brands may find blockchain more appealing now that Ethereum has completed its “merge” and drastically shrunk its carbon footprint.
Rob quoted in Axios article on Metaverse
"Companies are rushing to build for a metaverse — even as consumers are still trying to understand the concept..."
Rob in the new Instreamatic Report
I had the pleasure of being interviewed for this report. It's a good read on how the era of screen ubiquity quickly morphed into an aurally-driven revolution.
Is Your Brand on Mute?
We live in a screen-optional world. That may seem incongruous given society’s obsession with screen-time...
Rob and other YouTube experts share advice on getting views
YouTube wants to help viewers find videos and keep them engaged and satisfied. Learn 17 expert tactics to earn your YouTube videos more views.
Rob Joins the Yale Law School #MediaApocalypse webcast
Rob Joins the Yale Law School #MediaApocalypse webcast
My colleague Jeremy Katz and I were the featured guests on Ep. 6 of the Yale Law School's #MediaApocalypse series. We discuss why all marketers should want the Fourth Estate to thrive.
Bumbling Back to the Bundle
Rob Joins the Yale Law School #MediaApocalypse webcast
Coaxial liberation promised to place unprecedented levels of programming control and fiscal prudence in the hands of the TV viewing proletariat. But has it worked?
Rob's Sonic Branding Editorial from Adweek
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
Rob's Sonic Branding Editorial from Adweek
A few words on why marketers need to give sonic branding the same breadth, rigor and detail that has been historically reserved for visual design:
Rob's Adweek Editorial on Esports
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
Rob's Sonic Branding Editorial from Adweek
Any brand not marketing in the esports world Is already behind the curve. Let me explain why…
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
With 140,000 online views, the ebook The Digital Social Contract has reached #2 on the list of digital works published by Ogilvy. And the content is as valuable as ever for those trying to understand the world of digital creators and their audiences.
Cordless: The Radical Redefinition of Television
Cordless: The Radical Redefinition of Television
The Digital Social Contract: As relevant as ever
I was a proponent of Internet-delivered TV during my time in the late ’90’s and 2000’s at MTV and IFC. How did upstarts like Netflix push TV networks into the very situation they resisted? Join us for a look at a cordless society.
Podcast: The Link Between Data and Innovation
Cordless: The Radical Redefinition of Television
Podcast: The Link Between Data and Innovation
Marketing strategist Steve Mudd speaks with Rob Davis, Head of Digital, Ogilvy USA to explore the connection between data and innovation, how companies shield themselves from new ideas, and why brands need to get down with OTT.
Work Highlights
IBM: A Boy And His Atom
23 million views and counting. The legendary IBM film. Cannes Grand Prix winner.
Merck & Minecraft: Periodic Odyssey
A STEM learning tool that was the first branded partnership authorized by Minecraft.
