MARC USA’s Cogniscient Media, the division of the Pittsburgh agency selected to handle all media planning and buying for the Maryland Lottery, has opened a Baltimore office in the Spaces co-working building in Stadium Square in South Baltimore.

Leo Mamorsky, managing director/chief marketing officer for the Maryland Lottery, said, “We were very impressed with MARC USA’s media expertise and advanced data analytics capabilities in addition to its 16 years of helping the Pennsylvania Lottery grow.”

The new office is headed by Rob Rex, senior vice president/performance marketing, who joined from Laureate International Universities, based in Baltimore. He worked for MARC USA from 2012 to 2016.

Dave Buklarewicz, the agency’s executive media director, told MediaPost, “we’re building out our media staffing for our core team in Baltimore. They’ll also be supported by team members in Pittsburgh and Boston with Lottery expertise.”

MARC USA has ads run for the following positions in Baltimore: Associate Media Director, Media Planner (Integrated) and Digital Media Planner. See the Capitol Communicator’s coverage of the account win.

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) District 2 announced the 2019 American Advertising Award winners. In total, American Advertising Federation of Baltimore (AAFB) winners received 17 district level awards; 3 Gold Awards and 14 Silver Awards.

In addition to a Gold Award, Mission Media was presented with “Best of Show – Interactive” for its NASA Home & City Microsite entry. Gold Awards were also presented to idfive for the Smithsonian Institution’s Public Service Annual Report and FifteenFour for Ciena: The Adaptive Network™ Video.

The District 2 Awards are the second tier of the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) national awards program, and encompasses the Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore chapters of the AAF.

“As part of District 2, we are in a fierce competition with some of the best creative minds in the country,” said Matt McDermott, AAFB president and creative director at idfive. “We are proud of our winners and excited to have several moving on to the national competition. This speaks to the caliber of creative work being produced in Charm City.”