"In the face of lifestyle stress, consumers often find relief and escape through foods and beverages"

— Paulette Kish, EVP of TNS Landis Innovation

About Us

We Love What We Do.

We’re not big on talking about ourselves. However, please see the profiles of our senior leadership team.

Senior Leadership Team

Jason Kelley | Founder

As Founder, Jason brings over 15 years of Digital Marketing experience to Oōtem on consumer centric brands, as well as, B2B accounts. Additionally, his clients have been rooted in both traditional brick and mortar and digital. He started his media career in 1994 at a little company called Microsoft as the Director of Strategic Relations where he oversaw all integration programs and relations with brands such as Wine.com, Columbia Sportswear, Target, etc. As one of the original dot comers in the 90s, Jason designed the products & services and lead sales & marketing as the Director of Sales & Marketing at SocialNet.com. Following SocialNet, Jason joined Tickle, formally known as eMode, as the National Sales & Marketing Director where he managed a large team and oversaw all sales & marketing.

In 2001, Jason left the publisher side to join agency life and hasn’t looked back. As VP of Marketing Services at Real Branding, Jason developed their media department from the ground up and grew their business from a department of 1 to over 30 with 32 clients and an increase in media revenue from five digits to nine. During his tenure, Jason spearheaded a number of firsts in media/marketing strategies, theories, practice and principles for the agency and their clients. After successfully achieving all of his goals at Real Branding, Jason moved on to consult for agencies such as Goodby Silverstein & Partners and others before joining Questus, a full service agency and creative shop, as the Managing Director. In this role, Jason was responsible for the entire P&L, agency direction, overall strategy, client service, research and more. Here Jason further fine tuned his skills on the fundamentals of running an ad agency and building a business while also fulfilling his client’s needs.

The following accounts represent clients where Jason acted in a senior leadership role: Diageo, Warner Home Video, Tickle.com, Monster.com, QuickenLoans, New Line Cinema, Sapporo, Corona, Darden, Rodan & Fields, YMCA USA, HD-DVD Consortium, eHarmony, CVS/Photo Center, Doritos, Genentech, Organic Beauty Now, New Castle, Hewlett Packard, Method, Sony PSP and Adobe. Jason has an undergraduate degree from Creighton University in Theology and a Masters degree from Northwestern University in Public Administration-Higher Education.

Patrick Schmidt | Marketing Director

Patrick offers a diverse digital advertising background with agency, publisher and technology experience. As a Media Planner/Buyer for Real Branding, Patrick developed strategic online media campaigns that successfully reached his client’s goals. Following Real Branding, Patrick signed on to become the 11th employee at the digital technology & media company, Adify.com, where helped lead all aspects of developing the Client Services & Account Management department.

Following Adify, Patrick joined MTV Networks Entertainment Group. As the Digital Integrated Marketing Director, he created online and cross-media promotions for fortune 500 companies in the Automotive, Entertainment, CPG, Gaming and Beverage categories. He also developed the first sponsorship for Atom TV show, planned/executed a sponsored film screening with an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and created the first 2 mash-up video contests for MTV Networks. Patrick’s role at MTV included working with the following divisions: Comedy Central, Spike TV, Game Trailers, MTV, South Park, Colbert Nation, The Daily Show, JibJab, Jokes.com and Atom.com.

Patrick’s agency experience includes brands such as Warner Home Video, HBO Home Video, New Line Cinema, eHarmony, Method and Newcastle. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from UCLA and also studied at the University of of Sydney in Sydney, Australia.

Sarah Lessen | Director, Client Services

Sarah began working in advertising over 15 years ago, and her experience includes both online and offline services. In addition to Account Services and Strategy, she has dabbled in Copywriting. Although she has sometimes felt she had some sort of authority in Design, she has been gently reminded by several brilliant designers that she does not. Clients include: Lipton Tea, Love.com, Quicken Loans, JobVentures, Logitech, Barclay’s Global Investors, Diageo, as well as independently consulting for several clients.

Sarah has a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

When Sarah is not busy bringing brand strategies to life, she is running after two year old twin boys. Current interests and hobbies include crayons, play dough, and the latest in stain-removal technologies.

Julianne Gurvich | Media Director

Julianne has worked in advertising for over 15 years with experience in both online and offline media. She brings a superior level of agency experience to Oōtem through her leadership roles at AKQA, Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson, Wunderman, FCB, Real Branding and Questus. During her tenure at these agencies, Julianne was responsible for strategic development and tactical implementation of media via print, broadcast, outdoor, direct mail and interactive. She also built cross-platform programs, brand and direct media strategies, and has a proven track record of optimizing advertising budgets to yield media efficiency and effectiveness.

Julianne’s client experience includes: Warner Bros Home Video, HBO, New Line Cinema, Diageo, Darden (Red Lobster & Olive Garden), Palm, Hewlett-Packard, eHarmony, E-Loan, Procter & Gamble, CNET, Barclay Bank, Suzuki Motorcycles, eHarmony and more. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.