Ovative Group

Dave Dugan, Vice President and Head of Global Ads Solutions at OpenAI, visited Ovative HQ and spoke at our latest Perspective Series talk as part of Trailblazers Live. He shared his background working at agencies and then Meta, and how it feels to launch ads for the fastest-growing AI platform of all time.

Dave shared the importance of using guiding principles when launching something new, including OpenAI's commitment to answer independence to ensure that trust is preserved.

Dave shared his optimism for the role that ads can play beyond monetization as well. He described how advertising can help bring free access to powerful models to more people around the world, to assist with both complex and mundane tasks in the future.

The talk included questions from the Ovative team about client adoption, the best applications for AI tools and new ways of working. His advice for the team? Maintain a culture willing to make calculated bets and reward people who can root out inefficiency to deliver high-value work faster.

Thanks to the OpenAI team for the continued partnership and for sharing your perspective!

Reflections: Prince's Paisley Park was the perfect backdrop for an afternoon of thinking big and challenging each other to be curious about the future.

This year's event was themed as The Curiosity Revolution. Through the lens of driving incremental customer, brand, and revenue growth, we paused to wonder aloud about creating real business impact. What better way to embrace the Trailblazer mindset than by gathering top leaders from brands and platforms for conversation in a space that Prince used to forge his own way through culture?

Honest conversation, panels featuring dynamic voices in media, and face-to-face collaboration made this event truly special. We dove into tough topics like aligning Marketing and Finance, managing change in brand-building, and thinking about AI's impact on the customer journey. And we had a lot of fun too.

Swipe through for a look into an epic day at Prince's palace, then check out our full recap: https://tinyurl.com/yujmzeux

As retailers gear up for another holiday season, here's a question worth asking: how do you drive immediate online sales without leaving physical store lanes empty during Cyber Week?

Petco and Ovative Group answered that question by expanding their strategy beyond social media, building one unified Google Demand Gen campaign designed to drive both online sales and in-store visits. First-party data, automated Max Conversion bidding, and a shoppable product feed let Google's AI decide in real time whether each shopper was headed for checkout or the store.

The result: a 626% lift in omnichannel ROAS, during the most competitive advertising week of the year.

With holiday planning already underway, this strategy is worth revisiting before Cyber Week hits again. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/47mIk9P

Recap: We were thrilled to have Chef Yia Vang as our emcee at Trailblazers Live: The Curiosity Revolution, Ovative's annual event, at Paisley Park last week.

Yia runs the nationally acclaimed Minneapolis restaurant Vinai, and curiosity fuels all of it. That curiosity keeps him asking questions and exploring what's possible. It has earned him multiple James Beard Award nominations and Esquire's 2024 Chef of the Year.

His curiosity reaches well beyond the kitchen to the humans behind the food. Yia keeps his attention on them, and he brought that same energy to our room of clients and partners.

Thank you, Yia, for being a Trailblazer and keeping us curious. We loved having you!

Our SVP of Media and Creative, Dianne Anderson, spoke recently with Think with Google.

She walks through how we helped Petco step outside the social media bubble during Cyber Week, and why the riskiest move was staying put.

"𝘿𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 '𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚' 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙡."

Read her full breakdown of the strategy behind Petco's holiday growth: https://bit.ly/3TwC4cr

Yesterday, Ovative took over Paisley Park for 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙯𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙇𝙞𝙫𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. 💥

We brought brand leaders, platform partners, and our team together to ask the questions this industry hasn't cracked: how do you connect marketing spend to business growth? The conversations were sharp and honest. With the live music, cocktails, expos, and a trip through the home of Trailblazer Prince, the energy was 𝙪𝙣𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙.

That's the Ovative way. We take the work seriously and ourselves a little less. Curiosity gets better when people are having a great time.

Huge thanks to every speaker, partner, and guest who came ready to play. 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨. 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙤𝙡𝙙. The revolution is just getting started. ⚡

How do you connect marketing spend to what 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 grows your business?

There's no easy answer, but curiosity gets us closer to one, together. At 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙯𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙇𝙞𝙫𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, marketing leaders from Aerie, Post Consumer Brands, Petco, Meta, HealthMarkets, Domino's, SKIMS, Google, UnitedHealthcare, OpenAI, and lululemon are getting honest about what's working in marketing and what isn't. And, it's all live from Paisley Park.

Tomorrow, we bring our Trailblazers together and get curious. We can't wait!

Ovative just won two 2026 Meta Agency Awards: 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 with American Eagle, and 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 with Boost Mobile. We're the only agency to win in both years since the Awards' inception.

Two different strategies. One shared approach: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. For American Eagle, we trusted creators to earn an audience organically before any paid support went behind their content. Engagement landed 237% above benchmark. For Boost Mobile, we turned casual scrollers into real conversations through WhatsApp. Brand recall rose 17.6 points.

Different challenges with one throughline: strategies built around what our clients' businesses need drive measurable impact.

See the full story: https://bit.ly/4dqn7PO

Driving real impact for clients is the work, and growth is what follows. That focus is why ADWEEK just named Ovative to its Fastest-Growing Agencies list for the fifth year running.

Ovative stays independent so every media plan serves the client's business, not a holding company's inventory targets.

"Five years on ADWEEK's Fastest-Growing Agencies list comes down to one thing: we've hired a team that treats every client's business like it's their own," said Jesse Grittner, SVP of Growth at Ovative.

This recognition caps a strong year, including a joint win with Aerie and finalist recognition with Boost Mobile at ADWEEK's Media Plan of the Year awards.

See what's behind our streak: https://bit.ly/3ThDAPu

Ovative is a Meta Agency Awards finalist in 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 this year.

American Eagle, Boost Mobile, and LOFT each came to us with a different business problem to solve. We built a plan around 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙙: a creator program for American Eagle's push into Gen Z culture, a WhatsApp strategy for Boost Mobile's mobile-first customers, and turning scattered signals into sharper targeting for LOFT.

All three were 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙨: growing revenue, winning new customers, and building brand equity.

Scroll to see what each strategy delivered, and check the full list of finalists: https://bit.ly/4zOWqOx