Marc Simons is the West Coast Director of OMD’s Ignition Factory - a catalyst creative group dedicated to thinking new and thinking different.

The Ignition Factory is designed to keep OMD and its clients at the forefront of communications through technology, marketing and creativity across all platforms. Additionally, OMD’s Emerging Media, Gaming and Mobile specialty units are housed within the group. Supported by a team of creative and emerging media specialists, the group works closely with client teams to complement, inspire and execute creative marketing and media programs with a technology twist.

As the West Coast Marketing Director for OMD’s Ignition Factory, Marc leads the Los Angeles media innovation team in the development and implementation of creative marketing ideas and emerging media strategies that put clients at the forefront of new technologies and platforms. The impact of the group has resonated with clients and the industry. Campaigns such as the first ever video-player in a magazine for clients CBS and Pepsi and the groundbreaking delivery of advertising on the Amazon Kindle for Showtime have garnered accolades in press and nearly all of the major ad industry award shows. In the five years since its founding, OMD’s Ignition Factory has been recognized with more than 30 industry awards, including multiple Adweek Buzz Awards, One Show, OMMA, MIXX, Golden Drum, Internationalist, Creative Media Awards and two prestigious Effie Awards.

Marc also leads the VC@OMD practice, in which the agency helps startups tackle their advertising products. Since taking the helm, Marc has developed an exclusive partnership with Flipboard and continues to provide guidance to the startup as its advertising products mature. Marc also led the creation of the first-ever “Shazam-able” TV ad for Dockers. The test with Shazam has evolved into what is now a major revenue driver for the audio recognition startup. Recently, Marc has also developed test-and-learn relationships with Trippy, ShowYou, Turntable.fm and more by working with OMD clients to experiment on the new social platforms.

Marc lives in Los Angeles and received a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University in Boston, MA.