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Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40: André Schunk

André Schunk

Age: 37
Company: Octagon
Title:
Senior vice president
Where born: Dallas
Education: Colorado College (history major, French minor)
Family: Wife, Sarah; sons, Elliott (9) and Hudson (7)


Organization supported: Our church.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Becoming a father … and canyoning in Slovenia.
Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Mark Cuban.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Roger Federer; what a life!
2015 will be a good year if: I don’t make premier status on two airlines and I get to play on the grass at Wimbledon.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I: Was a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” — and won a car … that I had to sell to pay the taxes.


OCTAGON

As an Octagon senior vice president, André Schunk has managed the accounts of global clients such as Budweiser and Johnson & Johnson during the FIFA World Cup. Last summer, Schunk was part of Octagon’s team in Brazil, working with global and local clients during the event. He credits the success of both the Budweiser and J&J campaigns to the approach Octagon took with them.

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Forty Under 40 editor Mark Mensheha and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss this year's class, some of the more interesting stories in it and how the selection process works.

“What set those apart was that we did things that had never been done before,” Schunk said. “We managed to find some activations and some programs and to build initiatives that had never been done before in the World Cup context. That’s what makes them stand out.”

Among those efforts, Schunk was a key player in the Budweiser Hotel initiative, a 30-day content hub set up on Copacabana beach. As for J&J, the plan was to use cause-related programs, such as blood drives, and displaying public service announcements via a field board as a way to promote the company’s brand throughout the event. “We were focused on telling Johnson & Johnson’s story rather than telling FIFA’s story,” Schunk said.

Last year’s Cup was Schunk’s third with Octagon, where he’s worked since 2002. Ahead of the 2006 World Cup, Schunk lived in Germany, where he reopened the country’s Octagon office working closely with the agency’s U.K. team.

Fluent in three languages, and with an understanding of cultural differences, thinking globally is nothing new for Schunk. “I think a big part of the reason I’ve been able to have the career that I’ve had is that the global nature of sports and the global nature of my profile fit together nicely,” Schunk said.

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