Hi. I'm Sam Weston, a marketing and communications strategist building brands and reputations for the intelligent era. I currently lead global communications and industry marketing at GroupM.
Read more about me here, scroll down to find out what I’ve been doing for work, or listen to a Notebook LM Deep Dive on my career.
Over the last two decades I’ve had fun shaping public opinion, building global brands, and leading next generation marketing teams.
Right now, I head corporate communications and industry marketing at GroupM. The world’s most influential media investment company, GroupM is responsible for more than $60B in annual advertising spend. We’re finding new ways to fuse technology, media, and culture to help companies connect with global audiences.
In the 2010s I cofounded an AI policy organization and managed marketing and communications for Huge and Essence, agencies that helped make user experience design and data-driven marketing foundational to the way many companies operate today. Collectively, we generated nearly $4B in revenue.
I started out working in political consulting and market research. In the early-mid 2000s, I helped Labour Parties in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK secure unprecedented re-election victories and aided Democratic campaigns in multiple US election cycles.
Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to work for and learn from many people I admire. Stephen Mills, Stan Greenberg, and Aaron Shapiro all taught me the value of being relentless in the pursuit of things that matter. Joe Stewart made me believe in the power of designing things for people. My time at Rubenstein taught me the importance of accountable and egoless leadership. I try to bring all of those things with me to the way I lead teams and approach work.
GroupM
Head of Global Corporate Communications & Industry Marketing - GroupM / 2020-present
SVP, Global Marketing & Communications - Essence / 2018-2021
In 2018 I joined Essence to lead global marketing and communications at what was then a recently acquired data science agency in the GroupM portfolio known for managing Google’s global digital advertising. Over the next 3 years we scaled revenue and industry awareness, pushed people to start thinking about the implications of applied AI, modernized the brand, and navigated the pandemic.
In late 2020 I was promoted to lead GroupM’s overall global corporate communications and marketing initiatives. Since then, we’ve delivered a transformation program that streamlined business operations across more than 80 countries and a dozen brands, while modernizing capabilities and growing by around 20%. We’ve led the industry on media responsibility and sustainability while also helping clients navigate one of the most complex macroeconomic, cultural, and political periods in recent history.
AI Policy Labs
Cofounder / 2017-2018
There’s no shortage of attention to the coming impact of artificial intelligence these days. But in the summer of 2017, AI was still a long way from being taken seriously by policy makers - let alone the general population.
To help bridge the gap between DC and AI, I cofounded AI Policy Labs to advance AI education, research and policy. While the need for AIPL was ultimately short lived, we succeeded in bringing White House policy experts, legislators, and tech companies together at a critical time in the development of AI and defined a research and engagement agenda to inform policy and smooth the transition to an AI-led future.
Huge
VP, Communications / 2010-2018
In the early 2010s, most companies still saw the Internet as peripheral to their business rather than the most important way to interact with people. Between 2010 and 2018, I led marketing and communications for Huge as we turned a small design studio in Brooklyn into a global institution helping many of the world’s most iconic brands transform into digital businesses.
Like it was for many people who worked with or for Huge during that time, the experience was foundational. I learned to apply design principles to communications and company culture and began to see the potential for brands to become real-time, personalized experiences, playing roles in people’s lives by anticipating and solving specific user needs.
Rubenstein
Director, Marketing & Special Projects / 2007-2010
In the 1950s, Howard Rubenstein founded a company that would go on to become one of the pillars of the 20th century public relations and reputation management industry. In 2007, I was part of a core management team helping his son Steven Rubenstein reinvent the business for the Internet era. While Apple was launching the iPhone and the global financial crisis was turning the economy upside down, we were pioneering new kinds of information and reputation management services, helping brands and high profile individuals manage the transition to rapidly accelerating news cycles and use the Internet, social media, and direct-to-audience communication to their advantage.
Political Consulting
Director, Marketing & Communications - Greenberg Quinlan Rosner / 2003-2007
Research Analyst - UMR Research / 2001-2003
I was very fortunate to begin my career in research and political strategy, working with personal heroes like Stephen Mills, Stan Greenberg, James Carville, and Jeremy Rosner. On elections, in campaign war rooms, and analyzing surveys and focus groups across the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, I learned how to use public opinion to shape public opinion and the essentials of effective strategy, communication, and leadership.