CURRENT & PAST Employers
BIO
A career built upon what's next
Rob is an interactive industry veteran in his 30th year of championing progressive digital innovation across entertainment, advertising and public relations.
He joined Publicis Groupe in February 2022 as Chief Digital Innovation Officer at MSL, building upon his experiences at Gannett, MTV Networks, IFC & AMC Networks and Ogilvy. He leads MSL’s Digital Innovation Center of Excellence which oversees creator partnerships, digital strategy, development and emerging tech.
Rob is known for launching the world’s first interactive TV game show, MTV’s webRIOT; developing IBM’s landmark digital film, “A Boy And His Atom”; and implementing new technology and algorithm-centric strategies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of video-based digital marketing.
Rob has a global reputation for speaking on digital innovation and content. He has been on stage at SXSW, VidCon, Google Firestarters, IAB conferences and dozens more across North America and Europe.
After completing his BA at the University of Scranton in 1990, Rob earned an MS in TV/Radio/Film from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University in 1993 and was later inducted into the alumni “wall of fame.” Rob is an avid musician and railroad historian working to restore his own historic locomotive.
Rob lives at the Jersey Shore with his wife, son, French bulldog and cockatiel.
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MSL (Publicis)
Chief Digital Innovation Officer
2022 - Present
Ogilvy
2008-2022
Head of Digital Innovation
Executive Director, Content Marketing
Executive Director, Advanced Video
Interactive Marketing Director
IFC & AMC TV Networks
Rainbow Media
VP, Digital
2003 - 2007
Gartner
Executive Producer
2002-2003
Spiderdance
Executive Producer
2000-2001
MTV Networks
Executive Producer, Convergence (experimental programming)
1998-2000
Gannett/In Jersey
Content Manager
1994-1998
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication
Syracuse University
MS TV/Radio/Film
1993
University of Scranton
BS Communications/English
1990
Recent Honors
Rob Guests on The Trending Communicator
Rob Named to PR Week Dashboard 25 Class of 2023 and 2024 (AI Edition)
Rob Named to PR Week Dashboard 25 Class of 2023 and 2024 (AI Edition)
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)
Rob Named to PR Week Dashboard 25 Class of 2023 and 2024 (AI Edition)
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.
Rob Named to PRovoke Media "Innovator 25" 2022
Rob Named to Business Insider Top Gaming/Esports Marketing Execs 2022
Rob Named to Business Insider Top Gaming/Esports Marketing Execs 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
Rob Named to Business Insider Top Gaming/Esports Marketing Execs 2022
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
Follow The Audience, Not The Market
Follow The Audience, Not The Market
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
Follow The Audience, Not The Market
Follow The Audience, Not The Market
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
Rob quoted in Axios article on Metaverse
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
Rob quoted in Axios article on Metaverse
Rob quoted in Axios article on Metaverse
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?
Rob quoted in Axios article on Metaverse
Rob and other YouTube experts share advice on getting views
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
Rob and other YouTube experts share advice on getting views
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 and other YouTube experts share advice on getting views
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 and other YouTube experts share advice on getting views
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.
