We Are Proof

Proof was created in 2010 by merger, acquisition, a lot of hard work and a little luck.
Day one, the agency was at $60 million in billings with 65 employees.

Over the past 10 years, we've grown by 70 percent and added 40 employees and a few accounts, like Texas Tourism, Travelocity, Subway Restaurants, Mouser Electronics, and the American Heart Association.

Our work and POV have been featured in top industry and general interest publications, including Advertising Age, Adweek, Creativity, Communication Arts and The New York Times. Subway named us their Agency of the Year three years in a row, and Advertising Age recognized us as one of their Small Agencies of the Year with five awards in 10 years.

 

Three words we live by:

Nothing Watered Down

It means speaking the truth, no matter what.
It means having a perspective,
not just an opinion.
A belief informed by data, not restrained by it.
It means valuing insight more than information and defending a great idea.
It’s climbing out on a limb and doing something that hasn’t been tried before.
It’s about celebrating what works and learning from what did not.
“Nothing Watered Down” is how we do business.

What We Do

 

We help brands thrive.
We strengthen their relationship with consumers by
instigating conversations at the right time and in the right place.

Thinking is ignited from insightful strategies, concepted across departments without silos and propelled across channels utilizing a mindset to address every platform
with a purpose.

 

RESEARCH+ANALYTICS+PLANNING | BRAND POSITIONING+STRATEGY | CREATIVE+DEVELOPMENT+DESIGN
MEDIA PLANNING+BUYING | SOCIAL+EVENTS+ACTIVATIONS | INNOVATE+INVENT

Who We Are

Bryan Christian,
President/Owner

Bryan started in 1993 with McCann/Worldgroup in St. Louis, directing events/promotions for Coca-Cola, Six Flags, GM and Days Inn. Publicis then recruited him to manage national and field accounts for La Quinta Inns. He returned to McCann/Southwest as VP, Director of Business Development and Integration, where he managed the Texas Tourism, MADD and La Quinta accounts. Subsequently, he was promoted to VP, Director of New Business at the flagship McCann office in New York. In 2002, Bryan returned to his native Texas to lead Kolar Advertising. In the fall of 2010, he purchased the agency and relaunched as Proof Advertising, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary by winning its 5th Gold from AdAge’s Small Agency of the Year, this time for 2020 Campaign of the Year.

Jocelyn Friedman,
Associate Partner/Managing Director

Jocelyn started her career at Kolar Advertising (now Proof Advertising) in 1999. Over her time with the agency, she has run accounts like Sun City Texas by Del Webb, Schlotzsky’s Central Texas and Eddie V's Edgewater Grill while also building premium private label brands for Wal-Mart, Kroger and Vienna Beef. She helped launch a new division for 3M in St. Paul, MN, and for the last 16 years, has run and helped grow the Subway Restaurants account overseeing all 24,000+ shops across 206 markets in the US and over two- thirds of all Subway Canada shops. She knows restaurants. Knows consumers. Knows retail. Knows how to get results.

John Kottmann,
Chief Strategy Officer

John has led NY and North American strategy teams at McCann, Ogilvy and DDB over the past two decades. In these roles, he has helped create iconic and effective brand platforms and creative work for clients from Microsoft to McDonald’s. He believes that planning has never played a more important role in connecting data and creativity to drive business goals than it does today. John has extensive experience across the beverage category. He has been the planning director on Coca-Cola, Coke Light, Nescafe, Powerade and Nestle Waters businesses. And he has led projects for Sobe, Aquafina, Sierra Mist, Honest Tea and Coke Zero on a range of topics including brand idea development, customer journey, product innovation, digital communications, calendar/promotional planning, and consumer trends and insights.

Craig Markus,
Executive Creative Director

A native Californian, Craig began his professional career as an Art Director at Ogilvy & Mather. Next, he made the move to Deutsch NY as Creative Director, where he helped grow the agency with award-winning work for Snapple, FootLocker, Diageo, and Pfizer to name a few. Craig then joined McCann/NY where he co-founded TAG, guiding young adult efforts for clients such as Absolut, InBev, Levi's, Verizon, and the launch of Xbox. He subsequently moved into the role of Executive Creative Director after helping McCann win the US Army account. His 'Army Strong' campaign remains one of the most recognizable of the past 10 years. In addition, Craig was a creative lead for Coca-Cola global. Most recently he was the ECD at Cramer Krasselt NY. Along the way, he founded Rage, Grace & Partners, a branding studio based on his thesis work at BSCL. Craig is also a painter and an adjunct professor in the advertising design department at FIT/NY.

Claire Jordan,
Creative Director

Starting at GSD&M as a copywriter, Claire honed her ad chops on a wide range of brands including Southwest Airlines, BMW, and United Healthcare. Next came a move to New York City where she wrote for Delta Airlines, Jaguar, and Thomson Reuters. After returning to Austin, she founded the lifestyle brand, “Moms I’d Like to Know,” creating original content, interviewing famous mothers from entrepreneurs to Dixie Chicks, and hosting the annual Moms Rock! Music festival during SXSW. Four years ago, she joined Proof where she has guided the brand story for some of her favorite things including wine, travel, and the great state of Texas.

 
Member of Worldwide Partners
 

Proof Advertising is a proud member of Worldwide Partners
Worldwide Partners represents a global network of more than 70 independent and diversified market services agencies in over 40 countries who support the world’s most heralded brands across 90 industry verticals. Unlike the traditional agency holding company model, Worldwide Partners does not own the agencies in the network. We, the agencies, own the network.