Sawyer Studios Expands to Los Angeles, Adds New Staffers

New York-based entertainment advertising and marketing agency Sawyer Studios has expanded to Los Angeles, establishing its first official West Coast presence with the addition of Kailey Peterson as Strategic Account Director, joining from Alchemy where she was Director of Digital Marketing. This comes on the heels of a number of significant hires in their NYC office, with Courtney Jones joining as Account Director, Joseph DiIorio as Senior Ad Operations Manager and Michael Ben Lawson as Account Director. The addition of an official West Coast presence is in response to Sawyer’s successful data-driven media and VOD marketing campaigns for some of their top clients with a strong west coast presence, including Fox Searchlight, Participant Media, Focus Features, Cinedigm and Magnolia Pictures among others. 

The growth of the agency comes on the heels of former EVP Zachary Soreff’s recent promotion to President and Partner, marking the agency’s first equity partner in its 35 years in business. He has been with Sawyer Studios since 2009, and has spearheaded the agency’s effective data-driven approach along with a robust VOD marketing operation. As a thought-leader in the entertainment marketing arena, Soreff has been tapped to speak at top industry events including SXSW, Toronto Film Festival, Independent Film Week and IAB Programmatic Summit as well as education programs at NYU Film School and the New School Film School.

Peterson comes from a marketing background, with experience crafting and executing comprehensive in-house marketing strategies across the film and technology industries. She will leverage her extensive distribution experience gleaned from her marketing positions at Alchemy and Amplify to work directly with Sawyer Studios’ Los Angeles clients, creating and tracking custom-tailored entertainment marketing campaigns, leveraging big-data marketing and optimization strategies with a deep understanding of VOD across cable, satellite and OTT platforms.

“With our client’s goals increasingly falling at the intersection of entertainment and technology, Los Angeles is more relevant than ever,” notes Sawyer Studios President and Partner Zachary Soreff. “Between Hollywood’s established entertainment foothold and Silicon Beach’s burgeoning tech scene, it is important for Sawyer to increase our west coast presence, since our campaigns are progressively more informed by data and our client business in LA is in rapid-growth mode.”

Joining Sawyer Studios from CBS, Jones fuses pervasive media savvy with a knack for strategic business development. Her broad knowledge of the entertainment distribution and marketing space comes from a background in roles allowing her to wear multiple hats. In more than 5 years with Sawyer Studios client Film Movement, she spearheaded business development, simultaneously increasing the company’s subscriber base while exponentially expanding its relationships with home entertainment retailers and digital, streaming and platform partners. She also has extensive creative campaign management experience which she brings to Sawyer’s core clients.

Joseph DiIorio comes to Sawyer Studios from Turner Broadcasting, where he was a Digital Service Representative in Client Services and Ad Operations. He managed over $30 million in custom sponsorships, branded entertainment, viewability-based deals and other campaign types across Turner’s portfolio. DiIorio will continue to leverage his digital media savvy at Sawyer, working closely with clients to devise and monitor data-driven online marketing strategies.

Coming to Sawyer Studios from a film distribution background, Michael Ben Lawson brings an in-depth knowledge and enthusiasm for connecting audiences with compelling content to his role as Account Director. He previously worked to promote top entertainment titles at Candy Factory Films and FilmBuff and is working closely with broadcast and platform partners to deliver cutting-edge integrated campaigns.