Ally Hugg is the Executive Director of Media at McGarrah Jessee (McJ), the independent creative company known for building fanaticism for brands like Whataburger, YETI, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Shiner Beer.

She leads McJ’s media discipline across planning, buying, optimization, and reporting, with an omnichannel team of specialists spanning OOH, broadcast, digital, search, social, and beyond. She has built media strategy for clients across retail, CPG, financial services, and food & beverage, powering award-winning creative campaigns.

Her approach is guided by two beliefs: media is creative and creative is media, and media runs on data. It’s a philosophy that shows up in how McJ is built, with the media discipline sitting within the technology department, reporting into the Chief Technology Officer — underscoring that modern media strategy is inseparable from the digital landscape, measurement, and signals behind it.

In 15 years at McJ, Ally has risen from PR and social strategist to executive director — giving her a fluency across paid, owned, and earned media that few leaders can claim. Fittingly, her love of media doesn’t clock out at 5: she spends her free time consuming it in every form, from movies to live shows in the Live Music Capital of the World to virtual reality with friends.