Founded in 1997 and based in New Orleans, Morgan & Co. has grown into one of the top ad agencies in the region. We successfully manage offline, digital advertising, non-traditional media strategies and media buys for well-known brands like Children’s Hospital, Touro, Morris Bart, LLC, Zea Rotisserie & Bar, Ruby Sunshine, Broussard’s, Louisiana Office Of Tourism, Hotel Monteleone, and Visit Baton Rouge.
We possess an intense knowledge of our clients’ industries and are skilled in all facets of audience analysis. We use smart media strategy that incorporates new ideas and hard-nosed media buying. All supported by analytics that captures a true Return On Investment (ROI).
The success we deliver hinges on our understanding of how audiences use media to research, gather and share information, communicate with their circle, and are ultimately shaped and influenced to take action. While this success is built on research, data, focused strategies and audience insight, it also relies on an intimate knowledge of both online and offline media, and how brands can use them to connect with audiences.
Our media strategies and campaigns are built on systems that capture critical brand sales data and the media investment that drove the conversion. It allows the team to reveal, with clarity, how the media strategy, and specific media tactics, is contributing to the brand’s bottom line.
In short, we’re experts in using media to produce value (drive sales) for the brands we work with… and we’re very good at it.
Our Ad Agency Team
As a testament to our efforts, we are proud to say that each year, over the last seven, someone from our team won an Ad Person of the Year award from the Advertising Club of New Orleans.
It’s not all work and no play. Living and working in New Orleans is a blessing. The food, music, culture, people and atmosphere are second to none…we sound like an ad for one of our clients, but we believe it.
Around the office, “Team Building” is code for having fun. We take it seriously and even list it as an item on our time sheets. So, when we invite you over for a team building exercise, just say yes. You’re guaranteed to have a good time.
John Barranco
Morgan & Co. New Orleans Advertising Agency Team
John leads business development efforts for Morgan & Co. In this role, he brings together a team of media experts, who specialize in media strategy, buying and analytics, to help our clients acquire more customers, at a reduced cost per acquisition.
Previously, John was Senior Associate Commissioner for Corporate Sales and Marketing with the Sun Belt Conference. During the course of a sales career spanning over 20 years, John has consistently connected brands with the right marketing opportunities, producing value and measured returns. Prior to the Sun Belt, he was the Director of Sales for Cox Sports Television (CST), responsible for core and digital advertising sales. Before his time at CST, John served as the Associate Athletic Director for External Relations for the University of New Orleans Athletic Department, where he led marketing, sponsorship and development efforts for the Privateers.
John also applies his business development expertise in his charitable work. Since 2007, he has served on the board of directors for the Fore!Kids Foundation. In addition to generating revenue for the charities the Foundation funds, he also serves as venue captain of the 17th Green Suites and 1st Tee Announcer during the Zurich Classic. He was co-founder and Executive Director of the Leon V. Rosato, Sr. Memorial Golf Tournament benefiting United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Greater Birmingham. From 1999 – 2008, the tournament raised over $130,000 for UCP of Birmingham. John is a past president and current board member of the First Tee of Greater New Orleans and is a member of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson Parish CVB and New Orleans & Company.
Outside of his professional and charitable work, he is heavily involved in coaching youth sports in his community. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, John graduated from UAB in 1999, where he earned a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. He and his wife Natalie have two sons, Dominic and Vincent.
Kristen Wilson
With her roots in St. Louis and her heart in Louisiana, Kristen is our mid-western girl who traded in fried ravioli and Cardinals baseball for boiled crawfish and Tiger’s football.
As Account Director and Brand Strategist, Kristen is our client advocate who aligns their brand and marketing goals with Morgan & Co’s data-driven strategies and analytics to ensure positive performance and results. In addition, she supports internal and external teams with account management, big-picture ideas and tactical solutions.
With nearly 20 years of experience, Kristen brings real-world agency and senior-level corporate expertise to the Morgan & Co team. She has served as Senior Account Strategist for national and regional corporations, including Cox Communications, CC’s Coffee House, Cane River Pecan Company, Our Lady of the Lake Health System and more. Kristen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communications from Drake University, where she also served as cheer captain.
When Kristen isn’t running mom-shuttle between football practice and gymnastics, you can find her running her best mile before the break of dawn. She is an avid half marathon runner who enjoys downtime with her feet in the sand and a hand raised with a glass of champagne.
Ally MacPherson
Dynamic and creative, Ally was born in one music city and now lives in another—one with a little more soul. Born in Nashville, schooled in Mississippi, and now working in New Orleans, Ally’s southward journey has been driven by an innate enthusiasm for learning, growing, and engaging with the world around her.
At Morgan & Co. and Roux Advertising, Ally gets to exercise her love of engagement by creating and researching content for social media. Additionally, as Account Coordinator, Ally communicates with clients and reps to ensure all digital, print, and outdoor materials are completed and distributed on time.
Ally graduated from Ole Miss, where she majored in Integrated Marketing Communications and minored in Business. She excelled in her internship role as a content researcher and creator and marketing strategist with a Jackson-based digital marketing agency before joining Morgan & Co.
Out of the office, Ally finds inspiration in color. She can be found paintbrush in hand, restoring old furniture, helping friends with photo shoots, or walking the enchanting paths of the New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park.
Liz Harris
Whether planning her next adventure, baking for friends and family, or strategizing a new client’s digital advertising, Liz approaches everything in life with heart, humor, and a keen eye to the advances and innovations constantly changing our world.
As a Digital Media Manager at Morgan & Co., Liz works with clients to select the best digital ad placements and tactics for meeting their customers or potential clients on mobile devices, tablets, computers, and TV screens. With a decade of experience in digital media alone, Liz’s specialty is building dynamic, cross-channel digital strategies.
A Birmingham native, Liz began a career focused on bolstering and growing businesses and non-profits right after graduating from Birmingham-Southern College in 2006. Her previous roles as Digital Media Director, Account Coordinator, and Project Manager with Birmingham-based firms fostered her love of development, management, and analytics while advancing her depth of skill.
A curious traveler at heart, Liz is an avid adventurer, especially in her own backyard. Quite literally, she can often be found in her yard, chasing down her two-year-old and the family’s two dogs: Renzo, a border collie, and Mevi, an Australian shepherd.
Amanda Ayala
Balance is one of Amanda’s core strengths—with 17 years’ experience in the accounting world, she successfully balances professional life with the joys of family and fun as a wife and mother of four.
Amanda joins the Morgan & Co. team as Accounting Manager and oversees the financial reporting, billing, collections, payroll, and budget preparation and analyses. Her role includes managing all financial aspect of the agency, ensuring client billing and financial matters are accurate and timely. She works with agency teams to maintain constant knowledge of client initiatives and keeps the accounting department equipped to properly handle A/P, A/R, and related responsibilities.
A New Orleans native and graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University with a BA in Communications, Amanda discovered and nurtured a love of numbers as she rose the ranks in accounting roles across nearly two decades in the automotive industry. Having served as a Controller, Accounting Manager, and Senior Accountant, she brings significant expertise in preparing and reviewing financial statements, coordinating projects, streamlining processes, and improving revenue.
When not pouring over numbers and detailed reports, Amanda relishes time with friends and family celebrating all the Gulf Coast has to offer: festivals, food, music, and laidback beach vacations along the Florida coast.
Lori Duke
A first-degree Tang Soo Do black belt, Lori Duke knows how to pack a punch both on the mat and in business. With a keen eye, Lori is talented at assessing projects and executing the right moves for greatest impact.
As Assistant Media Buyer, Lori works directly with the media buying team to assist in the planning, negotiation, buying, management and reporting of TV and radio campaigns. She assists with the review and audit of client media spending and approval, ensuring campaigns adhere to their budget and parameters while achieving clients’ goals.
Lori’s arrival at Morgan & Co. marks a return to where she feels most at home: the advertising world. She began her professional journey after studying mass communications and advertising at LSU. Lori worked as an Account Executive at WGNO-TV in New Orleans before taking on roles with Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Texas and Canada.
Known for her good business sense, this mother-of-two also knows good fun. During parade season, you can find her marching—or shimmying— as “Molly” down the avenues as part of the all women dance troupe The Muff-a-Lottas.
Laura Viator
Laura Viator notices the beautiful things in life and has a knack for helping others see them too. She also has a knack for seeing the numbers—the analytics that reveal what’s working and what’s not when it comes to a client’s digital presence. And that alone is a beautiful thing.
As Digital Media Buyer at Morgan & Co., Laura oversees all digital aspects of a client’s media buy, including research and strategy.
With eight years of experience in digital marketing, Laura previously worked as a Social Media Analyst managing social strategies for auto, legal, and e-commerce accounts. During that time, she learned the value of a deep dive into analytics, what it can reveal, and recommendations she could bring clients to help grow their businesses. Laura is also Meta Media Buying certified, which further bolsters her formidable social media expertise.
Outside of developing effective digital buying strategies, Laura loves travel and exploration, art, and gardening. This Baton Rouge native can often be found walking the neighborhood with her husband and black Lab mix, Tux, or joining friends for a glass of wine on a breezy, flower-lined patio.
Molly McWhorter
Tenacity and ingenuity are hallmarks of Molly McWhorter’s personal journey and professional approach, and with more than two decades of experience in advertising, Molly is an expert at planning and navigating paths forward.
As Media Planner/Account Director at Morgan & Co., Molly is a client advocate—she understands a business’s imperatives and challenges and introduces sound, consistent media strategies that get results. A team-focused collaborator, Molly facilitates open communication throughout the entire process, relaying the research and insights that drive the work.
A Virginia native, Molly attended Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, before moving to New Orleans and beginning her advertising career as a strategic planner at a large firm. Following Hurricane Katrina, she started her own consultancy—and a family—in Baton Rouge, where she spearheaded marketing plans for small business owners and provided freelance support to local advertising agencies.
Molly’s creative outlets include all things flowers and wine. A licensed retail florist and aspiring sommelier, she organizes floral arrangement workshops with a happy hour twist in her new hometown of Charleston, SC.
Ellyn Davis
There is no secret that the world of marketing is rapidly evolving. Sometimes, overnight. And we feel being in control of all the moving parts is a strength on a resume. So, when a resume came across our desk that read: to-do lists + organization + attention to detail + marketing = Ellyn, it was clear we found our person.
As a Project Manager, Ellyn is deeply involved in the design, execution and accountability to getting the highest quality work out the door, on time. Her primary role is working with account teams to manage their assigned tasks, monitor workload and bandwidth, and address hurdles that would prevent projects from being completed on time. Because of her category experience, she will work alongside most account teams and media disciplines.
Ellyn came to Morgan & Co. after a four-year tour with the Louisiana Restaurant Association, where she coordinated and oversaw the popular Restaurant Week New Orleans, fundraising events, and other responsibilities that included the coordination of advertising and event initiatives. Prior to that, Ellyn cut her teeth in the ad agency world on the Account Executive and Advertising teams at a several agencies in Southeast Louisiana. In those roles, she was responsible for maintaining weekly client status reports, coordination of team bandwidth and workload to ensure projects and outreach initiatives adhered to rigid timelines. She managed the planning of many events for Louisiana Office of Tourism’s National Tourism Week, and planned video shoots for financial clients.
She is born and raised in New Orleans, but finished high school in The Woodlands, TX (thanks, Hurricane Katrina). Armed with a degree in Public Relations from Louisiana State University, naturally she’s a Tigers fan. Ask what her passion is, and she’ll probably say: “I love working off of a good to do list – both at work and at home”. In her spare, time you can find her organizing, cleaning or thinking of ways to rearrange her furniture.
Eric Morgan
Morgan & Co. New Orleans Advertising Agency Founder, Eric Morgan
Eric Morgan has a rich background of over 25 years of media strategy, planning and buying experience in offline, online, non-traditional and promotional advertising tactics. He has designed and managed media strategy for many regional brands, including Louisiana Office of Tourism, Hotel Monteleone, Visit Baton Rouge, LCMC Health, Touro, Children’s Hospital, Morris Bart, LLC, Frank D. Azar & Associates, Harrah’s Casino, and New Orleans & Co.
Eric earned an M.B.A. at Tulane University and a B.A. from Loyola University in Advertising Communications with a minor in Marketing. In demand and passionate about sharing what he knows, Eric speaks regularly at conferences, including the Southeast Tourism Society, Louisiana Hospital Association and the Louisiana Restaurant Association. He sits on the Boards of Directors for Entrepreneurs’ Organization Louisiana and Good Work Network, and is a former Board of Director for Tulane Association of Business Alumni. Eric has taught Advertising Media Planning in Loyola University’s Communications Department. He is a fellow of Loyola’s Institute for Environmental Communications and the Institute of Politics. In 2009, the Advertising Club of New Orleans named him Top Executive of the Year.
The father of four young children, Eric is an avid hunter and fisherman. Or perhaps we should say was. These days he spends more time hunting for small shoes and chasing down a daughter and triplet boys than he does on Louisiana’s beautiful waterways and marshes.
Brenda Cole
Morgan & Co. New Orleans Advertising Agency Team
Remember that roommate who balanced her checkbook to the penny every month? We hired her.
At Morgan & Co., Brenda manages all financial and operational matters of the company. She works with client account teams to manage annual budgets, client billing, reporting and the receivables and payables process for online, offline and promotional media advertising campaigns.
Her accounting background is the culmination of over eight years with Hibernia National Bank. She was a Product Manager of Account Analysis, Cash Vault and Float Management within the Treasury Management division of the bank. Her responsibilities required continuous improvement in work processes along with research and development of new product offerings for the bank’s commercial clients.
A graduate of Tulane University with a B. A. in History, she was recently named Operations/Administration Person of the Year by the Advertising Club of New Orleans. Brenda grew up in a military family on the move, but she is now officially deemed a local New Orleanian. She’s more than earned her stripes attending countless local festivals, fishing the marshes and voting in her share of elections.
Renee Stuart
Morgan & Co. New Orleans Media Buying Team
Fanatical LSU fan meets sharp, hardnosed, analytical media buyer.
With 15 years of experience, Renee is Morgan & Co’s Director of Media Buying, overseeing our media buying team and all aspects of our clients’ broadcast, cable and radio buying strategies. She also manages detailed analysis and insight of each market. Renee has media buyer experience within the legal, education, tourism and hospitality, events, healthcare and public utility industries.
Brought up in some tough media circles, her indoctrination into the world of media buying started in politics. Renee managed broadcast, cable and radio campaigns for statewide candidates, and public affairs initiatives. The fast-paced and frenzied field of political media helped her to excel to the point of Senior Buyer for large-scale national accounts like GM, Lowe’s and Popeye’s.
She is the Executive Director of the American Advertising Federation’s New Orleans Chapter and currently an open Board Member, a fellow of Loyola’s Institute of Politics and in 2011 was named Advertising Club of New Orleans Media Person of the Year.
Renee is a graduate of LSU with a B.A. in Mass Communications. Her favorite teams are the Tigers and anyone who beats Saban and Alabama!
Open Positions
We’re always looking for amazing people who appreciate the world of media and advertising. So, while you might not see a position posted that fits your skills, send us your resume anyway. We want to know about interesting people who can benefit our clients’ initiatives.
