Shaping the Future of Marketing with Kat Ott, President of Havas Chicago

Justin Levinson (00:10)‍

Hey everybody, welcome to the Agency Side podcast. I'm your host, Justin Levinson. And today our guest is Kat Ott, president of Halas Chicago. Kat's a people first, digital first leader who spent her career helping some of the world's biggest brands grow through creativity, data, and culture. Since stepping into the president's role in 2024, she's been focused on building momentum, strengthening agency culture, empowering teams, and producing standout campaigns. Thanks so much for being here today, Kat.

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Kat Ott (00:37)

Thanks, Justin. Great to be here.

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Justin Levinson (00:39)

Yeah. So just to start things off, I know it's kind of a, it can be kind of a long-winded question, but how did you get into this particular agency space?

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Kat Ott (00:46)

did I go into the dark side? Well, I started my career on the client side as a marketer for one of the largest national home builders. And like any 25 year old who has a lot to learn, I went to the agency side strategically because I was like, if I go there.

I could figure out how things get done and then I could do them faster. So don't have to wait two weeks for an email to be scrubbed and out the door. And I don't have to wait three days for a website update to be made. And then of course I learned because of privacy law, there's a reason it takes two weeks to deploy an email and you have to always scrub the list or this and that or the other. But I really wanted to learn how everything got done. So as a marketer, I could.

Not worry about how and worry about, worry about what needed to be done and like really focus on strategically solving business challenges. And then I fell in love with the agency world. Why do I love the agency world? I'm asking myself my own questions now, Justin, but I've stayed because I love a wide variety of marketing challenges. And I love that today I'm going to touch five major brands in 10 hours and thinking through.

different ways of bringing distinctiveness to a CPG category, to breaking through a CS sameness and a financial category, how to dominate social in a way that their brand is in their category. So that's why I've stayed, is I like the diversity of work.

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Justin Levinson (02:20)

Yeah, we hear that from a lot of folks who are on the agency side that can make things a little, can keep things interesting. Your particular journey, I noticed that you kind of began a project manager, account direction, kind of like worked your way up. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about like that journey and how, you know, how things led to where you are today.

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Kat Ott (02:43)

Great question. I see myself as a real hybrid from the kind of marketing that I do as well as how I was raised in this industry. So you've, picked it up on my resume. I am a real hybrid between client services and ops. And I think that as I've grown through my career from running a program to running a piece of business, to a group of businesses, to departments, and now an agency, being able to.

Identify a problem, be able to solve it. My client relationship skills are just being able to listen and being able to like do what's best, you know, for the partnership. But also that ops background has always allowed me to get stuff done. And I think that has been really, really, ⁓ a secret weapon for me as I run this company, because of course I'm here for the work and I'm here for the relationship, but I also have to run an efficient.

agency so that we can, you know, invest in things to drive the growth we want to do and do the great work that we want to do. So I feel very lucky that I was, that I have both an ops and a business background, because I think it's a secret sauce I bring, just like having a background in consumer experience and digital transformation, then getting into comms and brand planning. Like that hybrid experience has really been interesting and fun for me too.

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Justin Levinson (04:09)

Yeah, that's great. How many people are in the Chicago location?

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Kat Ott (04:13)

We have just a little bit over 200.

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Justin Levinson (04:16)

So in terms of, you know, keeping culture in a place like that, how, how do you keep it as a good culture with such a large number within an agency?

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Kat Ott (04:26)

You set a vision and you set values so that all of you together can believe in something bigger than yourselves, which is to accomplish your vision and your goals. know, have our Chicago, Frank and Chase and I, Frank is the chief creative officer, Chase is the chief strategy officer. We run this company together and we sat and we said, we're going to do two things. We're going to do the best work of our lives, which is no small task because we have worked on some of.

The most innovative pieces of work doing first that no one's done before to just worked on some of the best brands in the world. Like we're so blessed, but also we wanted this to be the greatest place that our employees have worked at while they ever work at an agency. And that is again, no small feat that we're putting for our goal line. But, but what we did is we aligned with the company and the values on how to do that. And it's really about taking care. It's really about taking care of each other.

and making sure that every day when people go into work, they feel like this is a collaborative space. It's a place where everyone will be listened to, where everyone will thrive. It's a place where passion is contagious. You can hear it in my voice. When you meet with any of us, you can feel it. But it's also taking care of the work. We're a creative agency. We're not a optimization agency. We can do performance, but...

We are a creative agency, so it's all about taking care of the craft and the storytelling of creative. And then, you know, yeah, and that's really where it starts, right? It's like aligning on values, and those values are all about taking care of each other and taking care of work and really, and it's contagious.

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Justin Levinson (06:02)

Yeah. Do people come into the office or do they work remotely or how's that?

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Kat Ott (06:06)

We

have a great in the 90 % tile attendance rate, but why do we have that is because we listened. When is the best time for you guys to collaborate together? It's Tuesday through Thursday. Great. We also have makers hours during that time. So people, we have a very strict no meeting rule during that time. And unless it's like a huge, huge time sensitive thing or big CMO meeting, we really adhere to that because we give people, we've listened to how they want to collaborate.

We just also have this beautiful new space in the historical Marshall Fields building in downtown Chicago, which is one of the first department stores ever in America. You know, and it's, it's historical when you work in Chicago, you have a lot of pride for that space. So listening to making the space something that is inspiring for the team, as well as how they can collaborate is why we have such a high success rate of people wanting to come into our office.

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Justin Levinson (07:02)

Yeah, that's great. I was seeing that you guys have won a bunch of awards lately. was kind of curious if you could, ⁓ I got it written down, but I feel maybe I'd want to hear it from you and said kind of some of the things that you guys have been, up to rewards was.

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Kat Ott (07:15)

I'm really proud of the work that we've done. There's been a few this year that we've really have hit it in the awards circuit and that we're really, really proud of. And the first is the work that we did with Plessey, is a health drink brand, a nutritional brand created by Michelle Obama to bring to young Americans a healthier juice and a healthier soda option. And we've hit the circuit. We've won the circuit with ⁓

with some more creating a sugar pack. So we created all this unused sugar that we don't put in Plessey drinks that people put in the competitors, print their drinks. We actually designed back to school wear in a backpack based on that sugar, which is pretty cool. So that has been just a fun way to get an RTB out there and engaging in a cultural first way. And then the other is something really close to my heart, which is.

We did some work for the Chicago Red Stars and the Chicago Red Stars is a female soccer team. And wouldn't you believe that their attendance rate is significantly lower than any of the other sports teams in Chicago? Why? Because they're out in the burbs. And so they want to get funding for a new stadium. They want that funding to cover a stadium in Chicago. And they say, saying, that's not worth the investment. You guys can't sell out a stadium of 3000 people. There's no world you could.

fill out a stadium. So we said to them, challenge accepted. We took over Wrigley field. Yes, Wrigley field. Fun fact, this is the first time since the Gina Davis league of their own world, you know, World War days that a female has played, played any sport in Wrigley field. So we took it over ⁓ and we had record attendance. They sold out well exceeded their goals and they actually, and this is why this is really important.

to me is not only servicing the community of female athletes for today and tomorrow, they went to legislation and because of how well this work did and how well they got an attendance, they actually passed a bill to get equal funding for female sports facilities as male sports facilities. So like, again, like really beautiful, meaningful work. We have quite a few things up our sleeve for next year. You know, you've probably seen our new Stanley Steamer work.

There's a lot of great work cooking and coming out that some of it I can't talk about, but we're expecting to have just another year of celebrating great work.

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Justin Levinson (09:44)

Just the power of the work too. That's really awesome and such great things to be a part of. ⁓ How did these campaigns come to be? mean, maybe you could walk me through how it starts from inception, how you land the job and what it looks like in terms of like, do you get together in a think tank or what does it look like? ⁓ If I could be a, you know, a, I don't know.

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Kat Ott (10:50)

One thing I want to say, I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of the process. I will in some cases, I'll give you an example, but I think it's important that you understand our operating system because this is how it gets to great work. We believe our North Star for everything we do. what we just, the examples I showed you is do the undeniable. What's the undeniable? It makes you feel something.

Why does it matter that you have to feel something? Because it makes you do something. It makes you have a relationship with that brand from following it on social to picking it up at shelf to, you know, driving results, driving growth. And so the way we do that is we punch the high low. So our talent and the way that we approach many, many, many marketing challenges is we say, you've got to think like a brand and you got to act like a content creator. So what does that mean? So when a new project comes in.

We have to launch a soft, bev brand. We need to do the rigor of brand positioning, differentiation in the category, building the brand foundations from a Viz ID to a nomenclature to all the jazz, right? Like you have to show up with that rigor today, right? And you have to be able to think like a content creator because cultural capital matters today. It matters today. Just like performance marketing matters.

So does cultural capital. And so to do that, that's when you have to do modern audience design. You have to look at things like M.R.R. Simmons to really understand the audience, but also listen on social to understand the cultural, the micro-culturals that people are part of, the cultural impact they have. That means you have to create and brainstorm differently. PSA, heard it here first. The days of agencies going away for weeks to do strategy and weeks to do creative concepting are over.

Clients do not want to does clients as I like to say they want to taste the batter It's too late to bake the cake. You've to have them in there with you. So we again create Strategies in a few days call a client. We saw call it. Hey girl. Hey, I'm thinking that the message strategy could be here I think the positioning could go here. What do you think and we we riff it together? We work in the the wet paint together with the client, right? Yeah, and then they help us get to the finish line

And then the same thing happens in creative concepting. do this thing called spark sessions where you're not allowed to use your cell phone. You're only allowed to use your laptop for research and it is a closed room for creatives and strategy and any account team, which we call marketers to get in a room and start riffing on ideas. So again, that brings a lot of magic. That brings a lot of stuff very quickly. And then we can go to the clients very quickly and then start iterative.

doing interviews to get the work to where it could go from a garden marketplace. So punching the high low is very important to us to come up with these ideas, but also being very collaborative. That is very important. That's how we roll.

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Justin Levinson (13:48)

That sounds like a super fun room to be in. Riffin' and, you know, getting-

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Kat Ott (13:52)

No,

I'm not invited. I'm rarely invited. But I did talk to Frank Dottello, our CCO. He has given me a second title. am a junior art director currently, which means I am allowed to concept.

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Justin Levinson (14:05)

That's awesome. So they can't have their cell phone, but they can have their laptop. Is AI involved in anything? Are you guys using that or how is that taking part? Because I know you said obviously you're people first and digital first. Imagine that AI is a big guy.

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Kat Ott (14:20)

AI is very important to be a modern marketer. It's very important in doing modern content creation. Just like having people that sit in house that can do content creation, you need to be able to have AI that can help you. So this helps us from anywhere, of course, from concepting and bringing in, you know, but also research. This is a great way to use AI is to get a higher fidelity stem for like

one like an 80th of the price and you know, and in the speed, I mean, we used to spend like weeks and weeks and weeks building animatics. Now we can do it in like a week with all the legal approvals because we can use AI. Also AI can be used, you know, in live content experiences too, but you just have to really understand a few things, right? Like what is the regulations?

because there's no licensing of these assets. So if you want to make sure that you're creating distinctive, ownable brand assets, you need to really understand how AI plays in that. You know, I think back in the days of COVID, when a lot of brands were doing messages to stay home, right? And I was part of a big brand that was doing that messaging too. And because we couldn't shoot and because we had to create content in days, we used a UGC pool. And guess what happened? Because there wasn't licensing for these rights to be just exclusive.

a lot of ads looked exactly the same with the same message and actually using the same asset. So again, you've got to make sure like you're following regulatory licensing with what your clients, know, know, ⁓ in partners appetite is, but you absolutely can use it for content and social. You absolutely can use it in all of the channels. But again, it always has to has the human touch. And that's the thing that I love about AI is from even

We use it from really understanding audiences and driving creative performance in media too. Like some of these tools we're using for AI and media and consumer journey mapping is like, it's like weeks of research distilled in like a minute, but it's because we're always feeding it. It's kind of like a sourdough bread starter. It's like, you're always feeding it. And so now it's like growing and evolving, but like that's why I love it to help empower go to market efficiencies and just empower.

like getting to that consumer insight even faster, but it is on the human to prompt it creatively. And it is on the human to prompt it and feed it strategically to get those goodies from it.

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Justin Levinson (16:45)

Yeah. Does this require like a person, like an expert within the agency that's sort of leading AI and technology or how is, how is that?

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Kat Ott (16:53)

So that's something that's a benefit. I've now been to all the holding companies in this 25 something year career. one thing I love about Havas is the network support. we have Arthur Fullerton, our chief technology officer, who is a wonderful partner to me and the other presidents and CEOs of the agencies. And he has a point of view from a network. He has a whole team.

That is one step ahead from technology, from a development perspective, production perspective, creative perspective, all of those things. And what we do is this is something that is a living, breathing approach, right? Change is always a good thing in the digital space. It means we know more or we can do more than we did yesterday. So like the best is just to adopt it and understand it and move and keep on going. So.

We're always sharing with each other. have a task force that sits in the agency of a group leader above across all departments. And we're meeting quarterly and saying, okay, what's hot tools, what's capability are people doing, getting licensing, getting training. But we all just have this point of view where like, what we learned today is something going to be different in three days or two weeks. And we talk again or three months and we talk again. So we just all have to put our uncomfortable pants on that. This is just like.

growing and changing. And so we really are set up from a network perspective with Arthur and his team, but even locally how we adapt and how we use it and make sure I think it's really important is people, take time to train people and make sure they understand what's available to them and how it can make their lives easier.

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Justin Levinson (18:28)

Yeah. There are certainly a lot of tools out there and it can be a full-time job. Just, uh, just trying them out and seeing what works. We hear from a lot of agency owners that reach out to us and are always like, we're looking for the new, the new thing, or we need somebody that can, can, you help set up our agency as much, you know, using AI to its full capability. So I'm always interested in what, um, different agencies are doing as far as technology goes. How do you guys go about finding, attracting and keeping top talent? know you said it's obviously it's a very important part of, of the agency, uh, you know,

told me about these meetings where everyone's getting together and being so collaborative. I imagine like a lot of that is selling in itself and obviously there's a big name brand in your agency. But curious if there's anything, any secret sauce there on how you're able to find people.

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Kat Ott (19:17)

When we entered, so the business plan we presented to our, to our board entering 2024, 25, excuse me, was if you build it, they will come. And that's from a movie. Basically, if you bring in the top talent and you build a culture where they will thrive, so will the revenue, so will the clients, so will the awards, so will the work and the buzz.

And that was our business strategy. went on a mission to have the best executive leadership team we could have with the introduction of Frank DiTalo and Chase Cornette, our CCO and CSO respectfully. And we did the same thing for our senior leadership team. I can look around the table and say, wow, this is some of the best group creative and strategy and account directors I have ever worked for and with, worked for that's appropriate in my career. This is top talent. How do we keep them?

We build a culture where they feel listened, where they have autonomy. We're not very hierarchical here. You know what I mean? We don't have like, you got to go to this review and then you go to this review and then you go to cat review. Like that's like, we don't work like that. We work in a much more modern agency. all like, again, it's all about building a culture that fuels collaboration. And again, like people have autonomy to do their job and like, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? They're going to make a mistake. Well, they're going to learn from it. Like some of the mistakes that.

Some of the best things I do today, Justin, is because I have messed up the biggest in my career. Like I'm never going to forget network clearance. Don't tell a 23 year old cat out about network clearance. She's going to die. No, but really, you know, like, so it's, you know, it's, it's all about building a runway for your team to soar.

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Justin Levinson (20:59)

Yeah. I know a lot of folks in, in, you know, in larger agencies, sometimes they feel like they're like a junior level person. Sometimes this is not specific to your agency. It's just people we speak to out there. It's sometimes they feel like they don't have a voice, like, especially if they're not in senior leadership, they have an idea that's really great, but it kind of gets squashed. So I know what you're just saying there. It's very important that everyone sort of has a voice within an agency. sounds like you guys have nailed that.

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Kat Ott (21:22)

Yeah, because guess what? Everyone's a consumer and everyone has a different me search story being brought to the table. And so just because I'm the president doesn't mean my voice is in my consumer experiences better than a senior PM. In fact, it's great to hear from different perspectives and different POVs, especially when, you know, I think one of our secret sauce is that we're from the Midwest and we have a pulse on Americans in a different way the coast don't. And so

you gotta listen to your audience and make sure everyone's voice can be heard.

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Justin Levinson (21:53)

Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I guess on a personal level, kind of things do you do to enjoy yourself outside of work? Do you have any personal passions or interests that you have to be part

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Kat Ott (22:03)

I do. I am the proud dog owner of an 86 pound Aquarius German Shepherd. Nice. And we spend most of our mornings catching the sun rise on a beach in Chicago on Lake Michigan. It's pretty awesome. But I am really, really committed to my family. have, you know, I love spending time with my nieces and nephews and I love just like, I don't know, like doing a lot of family time has always been important to me. And I do have a guilty pleasure.

I've been following the same exact band since I was a teenager in the 1900s. And I still consistently make it a priority to spend time with my friends and dance it all off, all the stress, all of it. I'm at my favorite band, which is the band called Fish.

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Justin Levinson (22:51)

Nice. Well, that's interesting that you mentioned that because I hail from the Green Mountain State of Vermont. So I am familiar with fish. In fact, I have played with members of fish before. Yeah. Yeah. Mike Gordon. Yeah. I've performed with him before. Yeah. So he's in Vermont and he lives here. So he plays in lot of... He'll play in some of the local cafes and stuff. So it was probably maybe 10 years ago.

They do this thing in Burlington at this club called Radio Bean called Honky Tonk Tuesday. And they basically just call on like local artists and you know, they come up and they play like a, you know, an old Honky Tonk song. And so yeah, Mike Gordon was playing the bass that night. He's played the whole evening. They go from like nine to like, to like 12th. It's like three and half hours of like Honky Tonk. But they called me up and I played, what song did I play? I played ⁓ a song by the birds, B-Y-R-D-S. I can't remember. ⁓

can't remember the name of the song offhand, but I performed it with, I can say that I shared the stage with a member of Fish, so.

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Kat Ott (23:50)

And I can see in your background like four or five guitars. So for anyone listening, can vouch that this is a true story. I can see the guitars.

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Justin Levinson (23:58)

It

is true. But yeah, that's cool. Yeah, they're, great band. So have you, have you gone to a lot of shows? Have you ever been a, like a fish head, as you call them?

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Kat Ott (24:08)

or a fishzilla. Yep. I call them fishzillas.

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Justin Levinson (24:12)

Cool, Fishzilla, have you gotten to many performances?

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Kat Ott (24:15)

I sure have. That's cool. More than I'm going to publicly announce in the stamp. But I will be spending my New Year's at Madison Square Garden with fish. like I do most years.

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Justin Levinson (24:29)

Sounds pretty fun. Do you have any favorite books? Are you an avid reader? Is that something in your?

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Kat Ott (24:37)

No, I'm not as much of an avid reader as I am. I go to a lot of concerts. I listen to a lot of music.

And what I read honestly is the trades. I'm always in ad week. I'm always in ad age. I'm always like following all the, so like I'm always following all the trades in the industry, ⁓ in different category. Like when I was running for digital practice, I was of course always like in auto news and those things. I do look, I do spend my morning time, my reading time, I would say really seeing what is happening. And I'm also like to spend a lot of time looking at work.

I get out of bed in the morning for creative. Like once I got bit by the creative agency side, like I said earlier, like getting to see that much great work, like even when I was only working on say the Chevy business at Goodby, I love like sitting and watching all the Super Bowl spots that are about to air at the Friday preview. I'm like, look at that Doritos ad, that's awesome or whatever. you so I do like to spend a lot of my time looking at creative and like seeing what's live. And, you know, I follow a lot of the agencies.

and brands of course that I work within their competitors and just like always getting a pulse on like what are they cooking and what do I.

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Justin Levinson (25:52)

You're a social media person too? you like to check TikTok and stuff to get on every piece of current? Yeah. Are there any industry events that you typically like to go to? I'm always fascinated on what's out

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Kat Ott (26:01)

I always go to A &A Masters. I think that's important. think that I do go to Cannes. I think that's important. know, when Brand Innovators does local events, I like to go to those too. I think they're always great to like, they can be inspiring sessions as well. And then in my back, you know, I've spent a lot of years at CES. I've spent a lot of years at South by Southwest is like running digital for a brand or, and I still like going to those. like, again, I like Cannes because

I like looking at the work. I like walking the wall. like seeing like ideas. They inspire me, you know? Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (26:39)

Do you see any big cultural shifts marketing wise coming up? there anything that you're on the pulse to that I'm not that you can share?

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Kat Ott (26:49)

think we're all on the same poles of how do you really future-proof brands in a sea of sameness and which is no new news. And then I really think ⁓ we have to connect with consumers and social first in modern content ways. I, you know, I think that it is a reality that people scroll three plus miles of content a day. More and more content is going to look the same and more and more content is going to be digested with AI.

So like buckle up everyone, the differentiation game is on. That's what I would say. It's all about how can you drive differentiation and how can you make someone feel something in your work? Because the CS sameness and the amount of content people are consuming is not gonna slow down. It's actually gonna be sped up with AI.

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Justin Levinson (27:40)

Yeah. Get it up. Yeah, I know, right? Do you work with lot of influencers as well too? Is that a big part of the...

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Kat Ott (27:47)

Yes,

you know, think, you know, working with content creators is absolutely ⁓ a mission critical part, I would say for many brands, not every brand, but many brands, I think that's an important part. And, you know, you always have to find again, like the right influencer for the right target for the right KPI and the right goal that you want to have. I mean, there's very many, very different goals that you can have from an earned

of course, in an ROI driving perspective based on who you're working with in the social space, because it really does it all in that space.

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Justin Levinson (28:21)

Do you think it's hard to convince some like, you know, legacy brands that influencing influencer marketing is a big important part of their, their brand recognition, or is that, do they seem pretty hip to it for the most part?

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Kat Ott (28:33)

think many brands, legacy brands, like Stanley Steamer for example, I would consider them a legacy brand. They know that they need to show up in social in a modern way. And I'll tell you what, some of the social content we do of course, but lot of the social content they do themselves. It's very, we say social has to be two things, useful and entertaining. And I think their content is useful and entertaining. I would say they adopt it. I don't think it's if you're a legacy brand or not. I really have to tell you, I think...

The biggest shift is the brands who have really prioritized their budgets and their marketing efforts and their media dialers to ROI driving only and performance only. And I think that those brands, think need, there is an opportunity to show up in a way that will build brand love and also build cultural capital because you need both today to really future-proof yourself. For the Zs and beyond to really care about your brand.

It can't just be because you're winning in a programmatic way. Especially with what's happening with inflation and prices of things like private label is taking a lot of lunch that was not being taken before because of price point winning a shelf. again, how do you win at that? That's not a performance private offer game. That's a brand love and cultural capital game. Right. it's, I'm not, listen, we got to drive that our do not slow down performance marketing, a lot of success.

is there, but I would say you have to build a modern, synchronized marketing ecosystem that cares about brand love and cultural capital as well. And that's where social wins. You really can win in social by winning over Zs and millennials from a brand love perspective. Just doing useful and entertaining things like Nutter Butter. I love following Nutter Butter on social. And you know what? Now I'm buying Nutter Butter, but they're fun because it's useful and

It's worth my time. Plus, you also don't know how the algorithm works today, right? So this is something I learned recently that I think is really fun, is that you are only going to be served up less than 10 % of the people you follow on your feed. That's wild. But now you're going to notice. Now you're going to notice, why am I always getting served up like 80s girls caboodle? Like, because I'm from, like, they're targeting me because I was a kid from the 80s. But my point is, when you start looking in your scroll, you're like, wow,

I'm not even the people I'm following. So it's a whole different game. And it's all about doing entertaining content that people want to see. Right. And want to Totally different. It's a totally different way to win at social. again, all brands really need to keep their, their eye on that. Cause that is where people are consuming content. When's the last time you watched a television ad for real.

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Justin Levinson (31:08)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, funny too, cause it's like nowadays it's like, you, mean, even in entertainment, it's like, you just get alerted on your phone when there's like a new thing coming out. It's like bypasses the marketing and it's like, this is what I know. I want to watch. And here it is. You know, it's kind of. Things are very accessible and yeah, definitely to stand out is a, an important thing. It's not easy. Are you, are you interested in experiential marketing at all? you ever been?

Yeah.

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Kat Ott (31:52)

I think there's a time and place for different brands, but I do think it can really work very well in many categories like tobacco and alcohol specifically. And nicotine.

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Justin Levinson (32:06)

Yeah. Yeah. Um, cool. Yeah. I've been a fan of a fan of experience. have a lot of experiential clients in experiential marketing world. So we're always looking for events producers and helping organize things. They can be pretty fun. there a, you know, I guess, is there sort of a challenge that, like any, any moments that you can think of in your career where you had to like react and,

and come up with a resolution like something like a campaign wasn't going well or some sort of type of thing where you were able to turn a ship around in a challenging situation.

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Kat Ott (32:40)

I mean, I feel like, yes. I mean, feel like my career is filtered with that, right? I think from like creating an agency from the ground up with opening huge Detroit and leading that, like that was a huge challenge. But I would also say, a lot of times in my career, I have been brought in on a really difficult client relationship that wasn't going well delivery wise or just like.

creative wise and like getting in there and having to turn it around. mean, like that is a big part also when you are in a, I would say group leader of above, like you kind of are part of the fire marshal team that comes in and helps the team. And so again, I'm going to be redundant, but like it all really starts with like really listening to what the problem is from a business perspective or listening to what the audience need is, or if it's an issue in the relationship, listening to what's going wrong in the relationship and really getting people together.

and being like, let's drive alignment and how we're going to solve this. What's our action plan and how we're going to solve this. What do we need to do from a marketing perspective or relationship perspective? Cause you know, both in their agency relation, you said you really are dealing with both. And I would even say like at Havas Chicago, I was brought on so that we could hit our highest potential and we could really re-energize our relationships and re-energize the way that we show up in the world. You know, it all started with the culture, right? And then it started with the talent.

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Justin Levinson (33:49)

Yeah.

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Kat Ott (34:05)

And now it's happening with the work and now it's happening with the partners and now we're generating buzz. like it all, ⁓ you know, it usually, it usually, you know, you got to find that common ground and, I'll be aligned on how you're going to solve it. And then you can just do it. Right. I'm a big fan of alignment. Yeah. I think it's with them. I tell the agency, I think we're having to stop a line in role moment. Like we're going to stop. We're going to align.

and then we're gonna roll. And I think when you do that, it can really turn things around creatively and relationship-wise.

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Justin Levinson (34:39)

Our last question I want to ask you is if there are people that like there are folks that are interested in working for you, like in being part of the Habas Chicago team, how can they stand out, get your attention? How can they, you know, wiggle their way into being an employee of your company?

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Kat Ott (34:57)

Well, I would say that they really should show how they have, if they are in creative, like let's see the work. We really want to see great work. We really want to see how you can punch the high low. How can you think like a brand and act like a content creator? How is there a full marketing ecosystem of examples that you're doing? Right. And then I would say from a non-creative is a proven track worker that you know how to take care of the work and you know how to take care of each other and you know how to drive alignment and push the ball forward.

all the time, right, to solve those problems and those marketing challenges. I think that everyone should follow Havas Chicago on Instagram. It is really fun. It's very useful and entertaining. It's a passion project for us. I was in a meeting with a bunch of local CEOs and they said to me, how are you getting resources to work on your social? Are you are you allocating them and forecasting them? Are you giving them deadlines? I'm like, no, I just let them do it.

and they want to do it because they love it. It's their social channel. They take a lot of pride in it, you know? So I would say follow Havas Chicago and learn about our vibe and show us your work.

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Justin Levinson (36:06)

love that. Awesome, Kat. Well, thank you so much for being on here today and offering your insights, telling us about your story and about Habash Chicago. It's been a great conversation and I hope to have a part two at some point.

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Kat Ott (36:19)

I would love to connect again and who knows, maybe I'll run into you at the next Mike Gordon solo show I go to. Wouldn't that be a treat?

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Justin Levinson (36:26)

That'd

be a delight. It's a possibility. Awesome, Kyle. We really appreciate your time. care. Bye. ⁓