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21 Most Intriguing: Susan Smith Ellis
Jeremy Greenfield & Courtney Barnes

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CEO of (RED)

Red is the new black—at least it will be if Susan Smith Ellis has anything to do with it. As the newly appointed CEO of (RED)—the brand created by U2’s front man Bono and DATA Chairman Bobby Shriver to engage business and consumer power in the fight against AIDS in Africa—she is taking its already-ubiquitous presence to a whole new level. It’s a valiant mission, and one that took her by surprise.

A mere six months ago, Ellis was comfortably positioned near the management peak of global market behemoth Omnicom as executive vice president. It was only after a whirlwind round of calls from a recruiter, a polite decline on the part of Ellis, some emphatic urges to reconsider from her husband and two kids, and a meeting with Bono and Shriver that she accepted the position and became a student of (RED).

The progression raises two questions: Why leave Omnicom, a job she openly loved, and why the need for a woman of her ilk to become a student all over again? She jokingly offers an answer to the former question: “I had the perfect work-life balance [at Omnicom]. Obviously it was time to throw it all away.”

As for the latter inquiry, the answer becomes obvious if you consider the many layers of (RED), all of which she had to understand, manage and grow. Here’s the CliffsNotes version:

(RED) is not a charity. It’s an economic initiative that has become its own brand, and it acts as an agency of sorts, forging partnerships with other brands (Apple, Converse, Motorola, Gap and Hallmark, just to name a few) that sell products/services directly to consumers. The bottom line for consumers? They buy a (PRODUCT)RED – a red iPod, a red phone, red wrapping paper, a Gap (RED) T-shirt—and the partners send a portion of the profits to Global Fund, which then delivers medicine to communities in Africa. The bottom line for marketers is even more intriguing:

“We look at all our partners’ media plans and make sure they are marketing in the right place,” Ellis says, noting that magazines are consistently the "right place." “We want there to be ‘constant (RED)’ in the market, if you will. But our partner brands are the ones responsible for choosing their own marketing mediums.”

As it turns out, magazines are a massive piece of the marketing pie for these partner brands, and Ellis has a theory as to why: “Magazines are very powerful because people take time with them. You don’t TiVo out a magazine.”

Ellis herself is a self-proclaimed magazine junkie. “We subscribe to almost every magazine known to man,” she says. “I’m not sure it’s really good for the environment.” And speaking of the environment, it’s easy to wonder if this celebrity-founded initiative will be a fleeting trend, a la fuel-efficient cars at red-carpet events.

“I’m old enough to have lived through the last major green movement. With everyone ‘going green,’ it’s a wonder there’s any pollution at all,” she laughs. “But Bobby and Bono and I, we’re not going anywhere.”

1981-1992: Held various management positions at Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos in Boston, London, Sydney, Paris, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong.
1992-1998: Gave birth to a daughter (now 14) and a son (now 13)
1998-2000: Joined BBDO as an executive vice president; Worked to develop integrated marketing strategies for clients including Visa, GE, Gillette and Pepsi Co; Created Atmosphere, an interactive agency;Served on BBDO’s New York management board
2000-2005: Joined the DAS division of Omnicom Group as EVP
Spring 2005 - July 2007: Became EVP of Omnicom
July 2007 - present: Joined (RED) as CEO

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