Octopus Appoints Media Industry Veteran Bennett Fogel as Chief Commercial Officer

July 29, 2020 — Octopus Interactive, the leading rideshare advertising platform, has appointed Bennett Fogel as the company’s new Chief Commercial Officer. 

Bennett joins Octopus from Aura Financial, a fintech small dollar lending platform where he was Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to Aura, Bennett was the Chief Revenue Officer of NCM, the nation’s leading Cinema Network. While at NCM, he implemented new strategies that successfully positioned the network to compete for premium video budgets across national, local and digital platforms that drove record revenues to over $450 million dollars.

When asked about joining Octopus, Bennett shared, “I have had the good fortune of finding career opportunities to help grow market leading media channels with unique selling points and great potential. Octopus Interactive is a rare new platform that checks all the boxes. By aggregating and engaging the highly desirable rideshare audience with interactive games and content at national scale, it offers brands the ability to extend reach with premium video, geo targeting and attribution.”

Prior to NCM, Bennett served as EVP, Sales and Marketing Partnerships for Univision, the largest Spanish language media company in the US. At Univision, he grew revenue from $250 million to over $1 billion by re-positioning it as a leading network regardless of language, and  leading a team to develop successful marketing partnerships with Fortune 500 brands.

Earlier in his media career, Bennett served in leadership roles at The Walt Disney Co. and Cox Enterprises. Octopus CEO Cherian Thomas explained, “We see a lot of market opportunity in being able to capture more budgets from TV and OTT. With Bennett’s extensive background in this space, we couldn’t ask for someone better to be joining the leadership team.”

Bennett marks a key hire in the broader expansion of Octopus’s commercial team which recently made a number of key hires in both sales and marketing as it positions itself for dramatic expansion in 2020 and beyond. 

About Octopus Interactive (www.playoctopus.com)

Octopus Interactive has the largest network of rideshare screens throughout the United States. Octopus provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a captive and engaged audience by providing local and national brands with a premium interactive video platform. Our drivers earn better tips and ratings by enhancing the customer experience for riders.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/play-octopus/
Instagram: @playoctopus
YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PlayOctopus