Fallon Veterans Reunite to Lead Zeus Jones Into the AI Era

Zeus Jones is ushering in a brand new management period, naming design chief Brad Surcey and former Fallon CEO Rocky Novak as co-CEOs, the Minneapolis-based indie company informed ADWEEK. The pair had been quietly appointed in July, with at this time marking the primary public announcement of their roles.Surcey has been with Zeus Jones since its 2007 founding, shaping the company’s design self-discipline and main longstanding shopper relationships with Chipotle, Hilton, Constancy, and others. Novak joins after 22 years at Fallon, the place he rose from media supervisor to CEO, constructing the company’s digital and analytics capabilities and overseeing campaigns for Arby’s, Walmart, Disney, and H&R Block.Zeus Jones at this time counts just below 40 workers, fluctuating relying on freelance help — a scale that each leaders say offers the store agility when working with blue-chip purchasers. The leaders labored collectively at Fallon within the early 2000s earlier than reuniting at Zeus Jones 20 years later. “At Zeus Jones, we’ve all the time had this concept that we should always fully blur that line and create inventive and design pondering that makes technique so much sharper, and vice versa,” Surcey mentioned“I’ve drifted far more into shopper relationship planning. We don’t have conventional account roles at Zeus Jones, so all of us type of play that function,” he added.For Novak, the enchantment was becoming a member of a smaller, nimble store. “It was time for me to be uncomfortable once more,” he mentioned. “I had an actual entrepreneurial draw to assist write the following chapter of one thing that was already current and thriving.”Each leaders mentioned Zeus Jones is leaning into synthetic intelligence not as an effectivity instrument, however as a option to construct “dwelling manufacturers” that evolve with tradition.“We’re really in a second of seismic change for the business with what AI goes to do with the best way that everyone works, the best way that folks reside,” Novak mentioned. “Our philosophy is {that a} model can now, at this second in time, come alive and that you simply want model entrepreneurs greater than ever.”“All of these inputs should not static issues—they’re like dwelling modules that we’re creating that plug right into a model which might be always being fed adjustments in tradition,” Surcey added.