Media Place Partners is run by people, not a black box. Every plan, buy, and optimization decision that touches your budget gets handled by someone on this team, not handed off to a junior account or an automated system you'll never talk to. Get to know the people behind Orbit, Hi-5, and the results MPP delivers.
Scott Brew is the President and CEO of Media Place Partners, the one responsible for keeping the lights on and the people happy.
A University of Illinois graduate, he came to Grand Rapids for a job with a dial-up internet company. He broke into the online scene when one of the company's clients, the owner of a popular website, couldn’t pay their hosting bill. Scott had the idea to run ads on the site to cover the bill and later left the phone company to run ads full-time. Since founding Adtegrity in 1999, Scott has steered the ship through a global shift towards online advertising. Adtegrity was a pioneer in the online world, running ads for the earliest websites on the net.
In 2017, Adtegrity acquired Media Place Partners. MPP handled traditional media advertising, making the combination perfect for fulfilling the vision of an all-media marketing agency. At MPP, Scott brings the power of big-picture thinking and the ability to see all the moving parts of the advertising world. He loves to tackle a variety of client demands with his extremely talented team of professionals. If he could go back in time to give himself one piece of advice, he would say “Anything worth doing is worth doing now,” highlighting the importance of staying ahead of the curve.
Outside the office, Scott enjoys golfing with friends and keeping up his 6-year streak in the mobile game Flow Free. He’s also a dedicated family man, spending plenty of time with his wife and 6 kids.
Jason Balk is Media Place Partners' ace in the hole, handling CFO, HR, and CIO responsibilities in one role. He's quietly run the back end of Adtegrity and MPP for over 24 years, using his combined finance and IT background to fully automate payroll so he can focus on Human Resources. He also makes time to mentor new employees.
Jason has been with the team since 2001, and in that time he's learned to stay informed and considerate before every decision. Outside of work, he's an active father and husband who still finds time for local concerts and comedy shows. He's known around the office for a sharp memory and an eclectic knowledge of trivia, especially anything Jeopardy related.
Tracy Unger is the Chief Media Officer at Media Place Partners, leading the traditional media team across radio, TV, billboards, and more. She'd already spent over a decade in the media business before co-founding MPP in 2005 to fill a gap in West Michigan's advertising market, where creative talent was easy to find but true media buying expertise wasn't. Twenty years later, that focus on planning, negotiating, and stewarding client budgets is still the backbone of how the traditional side of MPP operates. The 2017 acquisition by Adtegrity expanded that expertise into digital, letting the company adapt to the modern ad world without losing what built it.
Tracy has learned that reputation is everything in this business, and that maintaining client relationships is the real key to long-term success. Outside of work, she's an expert online shopper, plays casual golf, and has been a lifelong MSU football tailgater.
Tim Woodcox is the VP of Business Development at Media Place Partners. However a company finds MPP, he takes the first meeting. Mostly he wants to understand the business before anyone talks about media. What's been tried, what it cost, who's asking questions about it internally. If MPP can help, he stays with it through the contract, onboarding, and introductions to the team who'll do the daily work. If MPP isn't the right answer, he'll say so.
Tim got into sales in 2001 and has worked all three sides of media. He spent 2001 to 2014 running his own business, signing the leases and training sales teams, advertising it himself with newspaper ads and cold calls. He was spending his own money on a tight budget that had to be right. That's part of what drives Tim today. Every client MPP knows what their ad buy costs, and Tim would rather have the hard conversation about it early than defend a number later. After spending three years selling digital ads at a Michigan news organization he came to MPP in 2017.
He's a dad of four and head coaches his youngest son's football team. Every morning he rucks 2.5 miles with 45 pounds on his back, Moxie his Bernedoodle setting the pace. He hasn't missed in years. That’s the sort of commitment you can expect working with Tim.
Todd Morris carries the title VP of Brand and Creative, but he's really MPP's Swiss army knife, tackling whatever lands on his desk and plenty that doesn't. That versatility comes from nearly two decades at the company in a range of roles since 2004. He got his start as a freelance web developer in the early internet days, then joined Adtegrity after answering a job posting for Publisher Relations Manager. His creativity and eye for the digital medium helped him spot problems, pitch solutions, and implement fixes that pushed Adtegrity to the front of early internet advertising, eventually leading him to build Adtegrity's Marketing department from scratch and become its first VP.
Todd's advice to other marketing professionals: "Just because a job doesn't exist doesn't mean it can't exist. Coming up with creative solutions and pitching new ideas increases your value as an employee." In his free time, Todd bicycles long distances, draws, paints, composes music, and writes under the name The Salty Marketer.
Ellen Witkowski is the VP of Digital Media at Media Place Partners, leading the digital arm of the company. She handles strategy, oversees the Account Managers, and acts as digital lead for many of MPP's clients. After graduating Michigan State University, Ellen landed at a sales job at WOOD TV. From there, she joined Adtegrity in 2007 and has stayed through the acquisition of Media Place Partners, bringing years of leadership experience and industry know-how with her.
Ellen loves being client-facing while managing and teaching her digital media team, and she's especially good at building relationships that lead to consistently overperforming campaigns. That commitment showed clearly during Trinity Health's onboarding: when Trinity moved over from a previous agency, Ellen and her team worked overtime to keep all affected Trinity Regional Health Ministries running with zero downtime.
Ellen's top tip for working in digital media: "Go above and beyond. Give clients what they ask for and more. It builds trust and establishes your expertise." Outside of work, she golfs with her husband, makes the most of Michigan summers, and holds her own as an expert-level Minesweeper player.
Liz O'Brien is an Account Director at Media Place Partners, overseeing major client accounts while also managing the traditional media buying team. Since joining MPP in 2018, she's played a key role managing relationships and accounts for several of the agency's largest clients. Liz brings a sharp business sense and a knack for juggling whatever the job throws at her, and she thrives on the daily challenge of creative problem-solving.
Liz has experienced life at an agency as well as at a publisher. That experience translates to smarter, sharper media buying. Knowing how the sausage is made and what is important on both ends of the relationship makes for better, well-informed decisions for clients.
Her advice to Account Managers and Directors: "Relationships matter. Handle them with care, and stand your ground." Outside of work, Liz is happiest spending time with her husband and their three kids, trying the next great restaurant, or planning the next trip somewhere new.
