Aderwize

Chief Creative Officer / VIA

Greg Smith is the CCO of VIA, AdAge's Small Agency of the Year for 2011. Housed in the Baxter building, built in 1888 as the public library of Portland (Maine), the agency was once named "Hogwarts of Advertising". 

Greg has been at VIA so long it seems impossible that he had a career before that. Rumor has it, though, that after graduating from Columbia University, Smith bounced around New York City, first as an actor onstage, in commercials and on film; and then behind the camera, writing, producing and directing for indie films. 

One day something life-changing happened. Another struggling writer/director friend had just made a TV commercial and reported back that not only was it fun, but you actually got paid to boot. Greg liked the sound of that (almost as much as his young bride, Emily, did), so he jumped into advertising and hasn’t looked back. 

Since then, he’s solved some pretty tough problems for a lot of marketers, including Welch’s, Klondike, Samsung, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Perdue, Pepsi and Sony. He’s been crucial in setting the agency’s creative standards and work ethics and attracting rising creative stars from all over the country and as far away as Sydney, Australia.