Matt Maher serves as Vice President, Strategy and Innovation for Assembly, one of two full-service media agencies within MDC Media Partners (MDCMP). His role is a hybrid of two equal parts: creative media strategy and technological innovation. Matt is responsible for infusing creativity into Assembly’s data-driven framework by identifying emerging media opportunities and conceptualizing ideas that push clients to challenge convention. He is also charged with developing, distilling and presenting thought leadership on media innovation and technology. He has written multiple whitepapers on artificial intelligence and has presented his findings at CES, SXSW and private client events. Matt works closely with MDC Media’s creative artificial intelligence agency Born A.I, to build artificially intelligent products including conversational interfaces, A.I. agents and IoT activations that support clients’ marketing objectives. He also serves as a Ventures Squad Leader for MDC Ventures, responsible for helping evaluate prospective investments and identifying collaboration opportunities with startups.
Prior to joining Assembly, Matt was Director of Content Production at IPG Mediabrands Initiative, where he led production teams in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In this role he oversaw scriptwriting, filming, directing and editing of content for both client and internal needs. He began at Initiative as a Social Media and Content Manager where his efforts helped define the agency’s social media strategy and led to explosive growth in its following across all supported platforms. Matt began his career as the Marketing Director for the athletic facility ProSwing. During his tenure, he dramatically increased online traffic and brand awareness by creating an original content series on YouTube that generated over six million views.