A Bit About Us

Launched by Sandy Tinsley in 1974 with little more than a desk and a dream, Tinsley Advertising has evolved into one of the most respected agencies in the Southeast, with an enviable roster of regional, national and international clients, and some of the best creative and strategic thinkers in the business. And in an era of conglomeration and consolidation, Tinsley Advertising remains lean, nimble and fiercely independent.

What We Do

Tinsley Advertising is a full-service advertising agency driven by strategic insight, powered by creative ideas, committed to quality and integrity, and dedicated to achieving our clients’ objectives. Whether your brand or product goals are local, regional or national in scale, we can accommodate your marketing needs. Our philosophy is simple. We actually like what we do. And for the most part, we like each other and our clients like us. We’re not slaves to trendiness and we’re not jaded. We believe that most advertising is either condescending or invisible, but occasionally there are ads that make you laugh, make you think or make you feel something. Those are the kinds of ads we do.

Founder

Sandy Tinsley

Sandy Tinsley started Tinsley Advertising and Marketing when few women were in the ad biz. She began as Ad Director for Holsum Bread, and eventually started her own agency with Holsum as her first client. Sandy pioneered content-based advertising when she created The Don Shula Show, the longest-running coach’s television show in NFL history.

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CEO/Owner

John Underwood

It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years since John first joined Tinsley. As an avid runner, John doesn’t tend to stay in one place for very long. But he’s been running Tinsley’s Florida Keys & Key West account team since 2001, and he’s helped us cover a lot of ground through some of the toughest circumstances anyone could imagine, 9/11, countless hurricanes, and of course, The Great Recession.

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CCO/Owner

Dorn Martell

Artist. Musician. World traveler. Environmentalist. Organic farmer. Dorn Martell has worn many hats in his lifetime, and now he’s adding one more: Advertising Agency Owner. After 25 years as Creative Director at Tinsley, including one of the most unimaginable years ever in 2020, Dorn has taken a seat at the helm.

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Media Director

Eric Gitlin

A veteran of the Madison Avenue rat race, Eric escaped from New York and showed up on our doorstep 26 years ago, and he’s been here ever since. (Well, except for an extraordinarily brief stop at “the-Agency-which-must-not-be-named.”) But Eric left us on good terms so the only thing we could do was say “we told you so” and welcome him back home again.

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Media Planner

Ricky Rosenberg

When most people think of advertising, they see slick account guys schmoozing on golf courses…or Don Draperesque creative guys lost in a fog of cigarette smoke and scotch. But there’s a whole other side of the business where the rubber meets the road. That’s the media department. These demigods of demographics know you better than you know yourself. For more than two decades, Ricky Rosenberg has been one of those hidden figures toiling behind the scenes, crunching numbers and analyzing data to make sure your message never misses your target audience.

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Media Supervisor

Nancy Stern

Statistics say the average person will have anywhere from 5 to 15 jobs over the course of their career. Lucky for us, and our clients, Nancy Stern is anything but average. Nancy arrived at Tinsley Advertising in 1983, fresh out of The University of Miami, and she’s been quietly toiling away in our media department ever since.

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Associate Creative Director

Rick Blitman

One day, some years back, this guy showed up at the office. He said his name was Rick and that he was the new writer. None of us had heard anything about it. But, to make him feel welcome, we gave him all the work we had. That turned out to be a stroke of genius.

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Associate Creative Director

Ulysses Busch

Named for the mythical Greek God of digital photo retouching and exceptional art direction, Uly walked into our offices several years ago and virtually revolutionized the Agency’s graphics capabilities.

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Associate Creative Director

Vanessa Burguiere

One part Amelie, one part Heidi, French-born, Swiss-raised Vanessa Burguiere brings a wonderfully quirky, delightfully European sensibility to Tinsley Advertising.

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Director of Traffic Operations

Lisset Mazur

We could talk about how Lisset joined Tinsley in 2023, stepping into the well-worn shoes of our legendary, long-term traffic director who went off to enjoy her retirement after 42 years here. And we could talk about how Lisset brings extensive experience in advertising, media, broadcast and ad-tech to the agency, along with almost a decade of traffic management and supervisory experience.

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Director of Information Services

Peter Leeman

Born in the Downriver Detroit area Peter was considered genius level IQ at Palmer Park nursery school. This would serve him well at his first agency position helping implement the Nikon Image management system for Greenstone Roberts Advertising Coconut Creek.

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Account Supervisor

Jaclyn Fortier

It’s impossible to paint Jaclyn with too broad a brush. Although she’s relatively new to Tinsley, (note: anyone here for less than a decade is new to Tinsley), her career in advertising started years ago at Tambourine, Kaseya and most recently, Zimmerman – where she worked on accounts including McDonalds, Kay Jewelers and JetBlue Vacations. Her life experience outside the industry left her well prepared for whatever she’d encounter on the inside: she was a high school art teacher – with a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Wheaton College and a master’s in Marketing from FIU.

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Account Executive

Steven Calles

Disney fanatic? Check. Tommy Bahama admirer? Sure. Ukulele player? Of course. If there was ever a poster child for not judging a book by its cover, Steven Calles would most definitely qualify as a candidate. Because on the surface, you might dismiss him as just another guy from the creative department. But look a little deeper.

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Account Coordinator

Meera Tikku

Born in New Jersey as a first generation South Asian-American, Meera is also part of a fresh new generation here at Tinsley. A recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Meera holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications, with a minor in non-fiction Creative Writing and a certificate in Professional Writing. You’d think she’d be a writer, right? Wrong.


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Senior Copywriter

Mark Slatko

What do fly-fishing mountain streams, a fascination with the cosmos and a Mac laptop all have in common? Tinsley Senior copywriter Mark Slatko, for one.

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Senior Art Director

Lauren Zuckerman Saab

Y’know the old saying: “If you let something go and it comes back…then it was meant to be”? Well, that’s sort of how we feel about Lauren. She came to Tinsley as a summer intern while she was still a Design student at Syracuse University.

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Senior Art Director

Josh Guilfoyle

Whoever coined the phrase be careful of the quiet ones could easily have been referring to Tinsley Art Director Joshua Guilfoyle. Because while Joshua isn’t the most vociferous member of Tinsley’s creative department, his work takes no prisoners.

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“Following a comprehensive search for a full service ad agency in 2019, we selected Tinsley Advertising. Working with them has been an outstanding experience.  The team did a great job immersing themselves with our brand while taking the time to learn about our team behind the brand.  They have elevated the quality of the creative work and have executed media plans which have contributed to our successes.  What has impressed me most is the responsiveness of everyone on their team including senior level leadership. I would highly recommend Tinsley Advertising to those searching for a new agency of record.”
Craig Schoninger – Director of Marketing, Ponte Vedra Beach Resorts

“The team at Tinsley Advertising readily embraces the mission statement of the Florida Keys and Key West, then creates a campaign that is on time and on target. In a world of constant media messaging, the team at Tinsley Advertising knows how to cut through the noise and capture the consumer’s attention by establishing a brand’s style, integrity and authenticity.”
Stacey Mitchell – Director of Marketing, Monroe County Tourist Development Council

“We were confident that Tinsley understood who Holy Cross was and would faithfully tell the story of what sets Holy Cross apart from other health care providers in our market. We congratulate them for the numerous awards and Healthcare Marketing’s acknowledgement of their efforts on our behalf.”
Christine Walker – Director of Marketing & Communications, Holy Cross Hospital

“Tinsley Advertising has donated incredible in-kind support to Coral Restoration Foundation™. Over the years, their passionate team has crafted impactful campaigns that have helped us reach millions of people, sharing our mission with the world and directly contributing to our fundraising goals.”
Alice Grainger – Communications Director, CRF™

“Tinsley has been an integral partner in helping us to clarify and communicate our brand. The strategies, campaigns, collateral and videos they’ve developed and executed for us have furthered our mission and have helped us to raise millions of dollars. The agency’s responsiveness is only topped by the generosity they’ve extended to Rainforest Flow through their donation of pro bono services for more than a decade.”
Nancy Santullo – Founder and Executive Director, Rainforest Flow