OFFBEAT AND ON TARGET

O beat and On Target

SHEP OGDEN HAS HIS FINGER ON THE PULSE OF TODAY’S DIGITAL MEDIA-SAVVY GENERATION

Story by ALLEN ALLNOCH Photos Courtesy of UGA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Shep Ogden, CEO and co-founder of Off beat Media Group, accepts the award for fastest-growing business on the 2022 Bulldog 100 list.

As CEO of Atlanta-based Off beat Media Group, Shep Ogden leads a digital media company with a client list of heavy hi ers such as TikTok, McDonald’s, Twitch, Netfl ix and Warner Music Group. While he’s immersed in that vast online landscape, however, Ogden is grounded by strong roots in his hometown of Jesup.

“My closest circle of friends and family are still in Wayne County, and have always been my biggest supporters,” says Ogden, a 2014 graduate of Wayne County High School. “No ma er what crazy idea I’ve had, my family and my best friend, Chase Williams, have always helped me believe it was possible.”

Ogden majored in fi nance at the University of Georgia, with minors in computer science and new media. The 2018 graduate co-founded Off beat Media Group with two fellow Terry College of Business alumni, COO Bailey Grady and CCO Christopher Travers. Their fi rm, which specializes in building and brokering media content for a digital generation, recently was named No. 1 in the Bulldog 100 ranking of the fastest-growing businesses owned or operated by UGA alumni.

“Being the No. 1 fastest-growing company owned by UGA alumni was quite the honor and nothing I would’ve expected this early on,” Ogden says. “It has certainly opened up more opportunities for us, helped us get press, and led to

ACHIEVEMENT P

hundreds of recent UGA grads applying to work at our company over the last few months. It was an important honor that gave us the chance to take a step back and refl ect on what we’ve built, but also realize, we’re just ge ing started.”

Ogden was headed for big things in the digital world before he even graduated from UGA. Entering his senior year, he launched a social media marketing agency that owned and operated Instagram accounts such as @DowntownSavannah and @SaintSimonsIsland. Those accounts quickly gained large followings, which he leveraged to build a broader roster of clients throughout Georgia.

A mutual friend introduced him and Grady, who was managing his own social media marketing company while a ending UGA. The two began collaborating, which led to deals with big-name mobile apps, record labels, and even well-known brands such as MTV.

“After our fi rst few deals, our initial clients came back asking for more, which is when we offi cially started our company,” Ogden says.

Another UGA graduate, Kevin Planovsky, serves as advisor to Ogden, Grady and Travers. After launching, Off beat Media Group quickly gained traction and caught the a ention of billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who reached out through the company’s website contact form looking to invest. Since partnering with Cuban in 2021, the fi rm has grown from about 10 people to nearly 45 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Off beat Media Group’s work includes a growing network of partners and brand relationships. It also develops its own new media properties, such as the show “Excuse Me, What?” which has nearly 1 million followers across social media; and invests in new technology such as virtual infl uencers, which is a fully computer-generated infl uencer with a fi rst-person perspective. You can learn

Kevin Planovsky, Advisor, Shep Ogden, CEO and Co-Founder, Hairy Dawg, and Christopher Travers, CCO and Co-Founder.

more about this industry on their website, VirtualHumans.org.

Leading a company at such a young age has its advantages, Ogden says. “It’s surprisingly benefi cial to be a 26-yearold CEO in my industry. When I’m speaking with a CMO of a major brand, they realize that I grew up with social media and our team likely has a deeper understanding of these platforms than they do, giving us an edge.

“Brands come to us when they need to reach the younger generation in a culturally relevant way,” he continues. “The reason some of the world’s biggest brands trust us is because we have the proof that we know what we’re talking about. The brands that come to us are looking to do what we’ve already done.”

Refl ecting on his confi dent approach to business development and his penchant for out-of-the-box content creation, Ogden again returns to his Wayne County upbringing.

“I regularly thank my parents for how they raised me, as I credit much of my business success to them,” he says. “My dad, Dan, has been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember, and from a young age loved to teach me about fundamentals of business. I can remember being 8 years old asking him about his plan to grow his business and being able to provide my own ideas. This type of conversation was commonplace for me growing up, which I now realize has given me such a leg up when it comes to growing my own business.” |WM