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The 30 best people in advertising to follow on Twitter
Most advertising executive and brand marketer's Twitter accounts are, frankly, rubbish.
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They're barely updated, and when they do tweet, it's just an RT of praise for their company.
That's why we pull together an annual list of the best people in advertising and marketing to follow on Twitter.
These are the executives who provide the best value to the industry with their tweets full of information, insights into the companies they work for, opinions on marketing, or humor and entertainment. Not all of them work at agencies or have "advertising" or "marketing" in their job titles, but we feel that these people all bring value to the advertising community.
Methodology: We've weighted our rankings using a (not entirely mathematical) scale of how often the user tweets, how often they engage with other Twitter users, and whether the majority of those tweets tend to be useful/opinionated/funny or simply brighten people's Twitter feeds day to day.
Handle: @Sukithompson
Occupation: CEO of Oystercatchers
Why: As the CEO of a management consultancy, Thompson spends her days rubbing shoulders with all the elite marketing and advertising execs. She regularly shares photos of the latest advertising events and award shows.
Sample tweet:
—Suki Thompson (@Sukithompson) November 11, 2015
Handle: @thesethrogin
Occupation: Mashable chief revenue officer
Why: Retweets of interesting articles concerning digital media and lots of selfies from his business travels.
Sample tweet:
—micmatbec (@micmatbec) November 12, 2015
Handle: @tomfgoodwin
Occupation: SVP of strategy and innovation at Havas Media.
Why: Useful opinion and links on the latest digital media and technology news.
Sample tweet:
—Tom Goodwin (@tomfgoodwin) November 9, 2015
Handle: @thejulielogan
Occupation: Director of brand strategy at Giphy
Why: A fun, visual account featuring, suitably, plenty of GIFs.
Sample tweet:
—glítter (@thejulielogan) November 11, 2015
Handle: @ladyxtel
Occupation: Brandwatch South East Asia vice president
Why: Quek shares the latest in digital advertising news and also chronicles the growth of Brandwatch, a company she recently moved to from Twitter.
Sample tweet:
—Christel Quek (@ladyxtel) November 10, 2015
Handle: @tomfishburne
Occupation: Founder of Marketoon Studios
Why: Every few days, Fishburne tweets his latest cartoon, which captures current marketing issues and trends.
Sample tweet:
—Tom Fishburne (@tomfishburne) October 11, 2015
Handle: @BrianSolis
Occupation: Principal analyst at the Altimeter Group
Why: Solis offers interesting opinions on the blend of where advertising and marketing meets technology, and also documents his adventures on the speaker circuit.
Sample tweet:
—Brian Solis (@briansolis) November 6, 2015
Handle: @lindsaymaxus
Occupation: CEO of Maxus Worldwide
Why: Pattison uses Twitter to help champion women in the advertising industry.
Sample tweet:
—Lindsay Pattison (@lindsaymaxus) October 12, 2015
Handle: @AdContrarian
Occupation: Partner at Type A Group
Why: The majority of Hoffman's tweets link to his great, straight-talking blog, in which he regularly sticks it to the worst parts of the industry.
Sample tweet:
—adcontrarian (@AdContrarian) November 12, 2015
Handle: @Dr_Draper
Occupation: @wellmark_health
Why: A cynic's view on the reality of marketing.
Sample tweet:
—Ryan Wallman (@Dr_Draper) November 11, 2015
Handle: @Mildenhall
Occupation: Airbnb CMO
Why: Mildenhall's Twitter feed is a fun-packed account of why he loves his job so much.
Sample tweet:
—Jonathan Mildenhall (@Mildenhall) November 2, 2015
Handle: @MissKatieMo
Occupation: VP of social media at Nielsen
Why: A mix of personal anecdotes, digital-media news, and updates from the latest industry conferences.
Sample tweet:
—Katie Morse (@misskatiemo) June 23, 2015
Handle: @mweigel
Occupation: Head of planning at Wieden+Kennedy Amersterdam
Why: Insights from agency life and academic views on brands, marketing, and advertising.
Sample tweet:
—Martin Weigel (@mweigel) September 16, 2015
Handle: @davetrott
Occupation: Chairman of The Gate Worldwide
Why: Trott wrote one of the most popular books about advertising, "Predatory Thinking." His Twitter account mostly sees him share posts from his frequently updated blog.
Sample tweet:
—dave trott (@davetrott) November 12, 2015
Handle: @Karinjr
Occupation: Associate director at OgilvyOne Social
Why: Useful and enthusiastic tweets, most often about social-media platforms. Robinson memorably manually analyzed her Twitter followers and found Twitter was reporting wildly different gender data than the actual male/female ratio of her follower list.
Sample tweet:
—Karin Robinson (@karinjr) October 28, 2015
Handle: @Roi
Occupation: Shine CMO
Why: Ad blocking has torn a rupture down the middle of the advertising industry in recent months. As the chief marketer at an ad-blocking company, Carthy never hesitates to stoke the fires, which can result in some boisterous debates.
Sample tweet:
—Roi Carthy (@Roi) November 6, 2015
Handle: @jason_kint
Occupation: CEO of Digital Content Next
Why: Pointed opinions on the digital-media business, particularly ad blocking.
Sample tweet:
—Jason Kint (@jason_kint) November 6, 2015
Handle: @ericfranchi
Occupation: Undertone cofounder
Why: Franchi is usually among the first non-journalists to share the latest ad-tech news. He is also prone to a tweetstorm and joins in the debates on the big ad-tech and media topics of the day.
Sample tweet:
—Eric Franchi (@ericfranchi) November 12, 2015
Handle: @copyranter
Occupation: Advertising critic
Why: Former copywriter Duffy will tell you why he hates some terrible ads — and often the state of the ad industry, too.
Sample tweet:
—Mark Duffy (@copyranter) October 4, 2015
Handle: @ProfByron
Occupation: Professor of marketing science and director at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia
Why: A wealth of information and intellectual thinking about marketing and science and where the two meet.
Sample tweet:
—Byron Sharp (@ProfByron) November 11, 2015
Handle: @WarJessEagle
Occupation: Social media and comunity manger at Under Armour
Why: Smith shares useful insights on social media in sports, from the latest campaigns to data on which teams are performing best on social.
Sample tweet:
—Jessica Smith (@WarJessEagle) November 10, 2015
Handle: @aripap
Occupation: Beeswax CEO
Why: An ad-tech veteran, Paparo amusingly comments on the latest news and trends in ad tech. He even makes up ad-tech jokes: "Header tag walks into a bar. Bartender says, "Can I serve your drink to this other guy?"
Sample tweet:
—Ari Paparo (@aripap) November 11, 2015
Handle: @NathalieNahai
Occupation: Author and psychologist
Why: Nahai offers a psychologist's perspective on consumer behavior toward advertising and tech.
Sample tweet:
—Nathalie Nahai (@NathalieNahai) July 29, 2015
Handle: @ischafer
Occupation: CEO of Deep Focus
Why: Schafer is opinionated on all matters where media, tech, and advertising cross over. Great for quick reactive analysis on new products and platform news.
Sample tweet:
—Ian Schafer (@ischafer) November 9, 2015
Handle: @robleathern
Occupation: Founder and CEO of Optimal.com
Why: Leathern gets stuck into the debate on ad blocking, bots, viewability, and everything else concerning digital advertising.
Sample tweet:
—Rob Leathern (@robleathern) November 9, 2015
Handle: @cindygallop
Occupation: Founder of IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn
Why: Former advertising boss Gallop regularly tweets about "changing the ratio" of gender disparity on the top advertising and creative roles. She also gives insights into her personal life, tweeting pictures of the classy hotels she stays at and fancy dinner spots she visits.
Sample tweet:
—Cindy Gallop (@cindygallop) November 11, 2015
Handle: @robnorman
Occupation: Chief digital officer at GroupM
Why: As the top digital boss at the world's biggest media-buying company, Norman has an informed —but usually light-hearted — take on all of the biggest ad-industry issues of the day.
Sample tweet:
—robnorman (@robnorman) November 10, 2015
Handle: @adambain
Occupation: Twitter COO
Why: Bain will be quick to tweet out the latest Twitter product and ads news. Plus, he usually shares some healthy banter with colleagues and his advertising industry pals.
Sample tweet:
—adam bain (@adambain) November 6, 2015
Handle: @adweak
Occupation: Comedy account
Why: Fun, satirical "breaking" news on agency life.
Sample tweet:
—ADWEAK (@adweak) November 11, 2015
Handle: @TessAlps
Occupation: Chair at TV marketing body Thinkbox
Why: Alps is a huge telly fan and is quick to dispel myths around the data published by digital platforms — which she and Thinkbox often refer to as "numberwanging" — and the internet's threat to TV as an advertising medium. She's a respected figure in the UK advertising industry, and her Twitter account gives you a good indication why.
Sample tweet:
—Tess Alps (@TessAlps) October 14, 2015
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