Phil Guarascio Joins Simulmedia Board of Directors
Inventor of Current TV Paradigm Sees Simulmedia As Future Of TV Ad Sales
NEW YORK – Simulmedia, a targeted television advertising company, today announced that Philip (Phil) Guarascio, the former Vice President of Corporate Advertising and Marketing at General Motors and Lead Executive, Marketing and Sales at the NFL has joined Simulmedia’s Board of Directors.
“Simulmedia is on the cutting edge of the future of television advertising that will be driven by audience targeting and big data analytics,” says Mr. Guarascio. “I am very pleased to be part of their Board and to help Simulmedia deliver on their promise of more efficient, effective ad targeting.”
Also on the Board are Wenda Harris Millard, President & COO of Media Link LLC; Bill Burke, most recently president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies where he oversaw all operations of The Weather Channel® network; weather.com; Weather Services International (WSI); and various digital cable, radio, newspaper and interactive television products; Rich Levandov, a partner in Avalon Ventures, a Cambridge, MA-based venture firm; Rachel Lam, SVP and Group Managing Director of the Time Warner Investments Group – which along with Avalon Ventures and Union Square Ventures – has invested in Simulmedia; Brad Burnham, a managing partner at Union Square Venture; and Dave Morgan the company’s founder and CEO.
“Many are called legends in their field, but Phil is a genuine legend in advertising having developed wide-ranging programs to make General Motors advertising across all divisions more scientific and accountable,” says Mr. Morgan. “That he invented the current TV ad sales paradigm, yet sees the future in Simulmedia, is gratifying and affirming on many levels.”
Mr. Guarascio has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PG Ventures LLC since May 2000 where he serves as a marketing and advertising business consultant. He has been a consultant for the National Football League since October 2000 and has been a consultant for the William Morris Agency since October 2001.
For 16 years, Mr. Guarascio was with General Motors where he served as Vice President of Corporate Advertising and Marketing primarily responsible for worldwide advertising resource management, managing consolidated media placement and before that as General Manager of Marketing and Advertising for General Motors’ North American Operations. Mr. Guarascio introduced the GM Card and managed the General Motors corporate brand to a 20 percent increase in customer purchase consideration.
He joined General Motors in 1985 after 21 years with the New York advertising agency, D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles.
Mr. Guarascio currently serves as Chairman Emeritus at The Advertising Council, Inc. He was the Non-Executive Chairman of Arbitron Inc. from May 2009 until September of this year, when it was acquired by Nielsen. He has been an Independent Director of Arbitron Inc. since March 30, 2001 and has been a Director at Papa John’s International Inc., the nation’s third largest pizza seller, since 2003. Phil also served on the Boards of Hot Jobs (sold to Yahoo), Snyder Communications (acquired by Havas) and IAG, a research company sold to Nielsen.
Among many other boards and committees, Mr. Guarascio serves as the Chairman Emeritus of the Advertising Council and serves on the Executive Committee of that organization. He serves on boards of the Association of National Advertisers, the Korey Stringer Institute, and the Ellis Island Restoration Commission. Mr. Guarascio holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Marietta College in Ohio.
Simulmedia, Inc. (www.simulmedia.com) is a New York City-based television ad targeting company and operates the Simulmedia Audience Network, the world’s first data-driven audience network for television. The company’s targeting platform leverages predictive technologies and anonymous viewing data from more than 50 million US TV viewers to help national advertisers and their agencies better reach target audiences, and better measure the results. Simulmedia aggregates TV audiences through partnerships with TV system operators and national networks and reaches all 115 million US TV households. Over the past year, the company has helped more than 30 advertisers and their agencies target, deliver and measure hundreds of campaigns and see results that were 25-300% better than they were able to achieve with traditional TV ad scheduling and targeting methods.
