About Us.

Who is MarketCast?

MarketCast was founded in a Boston apartment in the late 1980s. Three sociology professors – Joseph Helfgot, Frank Romo, and Michael Schwartz – were grappling with the mysteries of movie marketing and were convinced that they could come up with better answers.

They moved the operation to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s and got a shot at helping Hollywood marketers figure out how to turn movies like “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Dances with Wolves” into box office success stories.

Their approach worked, and the MarketCast era was underway. Over the years, the company became a household name in Hollywood, recognized as one of top research firms focused on the entertainment industry.

Today, MarketCast is a global company whose experience extends far beyond film and into home entertainment, broadcast/cable, OTT, interactive gaming, and beyond. But even as we’ve grown, we’ve never forgotten those cramped apartment days back in Boston. That experience defines us and the personalized solutions we provide for our clients, whoever or wherever they may be.

In August 2017, MarketCast acquired Fizziology LLC, a leading social insights and analytics company in the media and entertainment space. Fizziology joined the MarketCast family alongside New York-based research and strategy agency, Insight Strategy Group, which was acquired in 2015.  

MarketCast is a portfolio company of Kohlberg & Company, a leading private equity firm headquartered in New York.

MarketCast is defined by its people. Together, we have diverse experiences and interests that allow us to build custom teams for each project, ensuring our clients an ideal fit.

Henry Shapiro
Chief Executive Officer

Henry Shapiro has more than 25 years’ experience serving in a variety of executive roles within the media sector, and been MarketCast’s chief executive since 2001. Prior to MarketCast, Shapiro worked in a number of capacities within Reed Business information, including stints as GM of Variety and of Variety.com. Prior to his move to the LA area, Shapiro worked at Meigher Communications, a New York-based start-up consumer magazine publisher, where he served as CFO from 1993 to 1995, and as Operations Manager from 1996 to 1998. Mr. Shapiro was previously an associate in Lehman Brothers’ media and communications group, where he was a member of an investment banking team serving the mergers, acquisitions and corporate financing needs of clients in entertainment, broadcasting, cable television and publishing. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Shapiro was an analyst and an associate at Chemical Bank, first in the Middle Market Group, and then in Syndications and Private Placements. A graduate of Harvard College and of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, he lives in Santa Monica with his wife, two children, two beagles, and five, no wait, four chickens.

Jeremy Radisich
Executive Vice President

Jeremy is driven by a passion and appreciation for the power of storytelling. This passion is manifested in both the stories associated with the properties he consults on as well as his goal of finding the story behind every research problem. But identifying the story is just part of the equation—Jeremy’s specialty is transforming that story into dynamic, actionable strategy and supporting the client through its execution.

As Executive Vice President, Jeremy provides guidance and direction that touches all aspects of MarketCast’s business, and directly oversees a large staff of analysts whose attention is focused on servicing the company’s core clients in the entertainment industry. He has been the primary contact for studio marketers, creative executives, and key stake-holders on hundreds of theatrical and home entertainment releases, with particular expertise in the development of marketing strategy for franchises in the comic-book, family-animated, and action/adventure genres, as well as many of the biggest entertainment brands and properties that have transitioned onto the screen.

Since joining MarketCast in 1999 Jeremy has held a variety of titles and worked in many different capacities, but has always focused on refining the company’s voice and analytical approach while ensuring that he and his team meet their clients’ needs, regardless of how big or how small. Before his time at MarketCast Jeremy earned his Bachelor’s degree from U.C. Davis and his Masters Degree at U.C. San Diego, where he studied English literature and art history. At home, Jeremy is both an ardent student and an avid consumer of popular culture, typically with wife and two daughters by his side.

Rachel Krauss
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Franchise & Content Strategy

Rachel’s passion for market research was an unexpected one, but comes from her love of understanding how people think and how their decisions impact the world around them. She believes that what we learn about other people and their habits helps us, as individuals, ultimately to learn more about ourselves.

As Senior Vice President and General Manager of FCS, Rachel oversees all aspects of quantitative study designs including, but not limited to, market positioning, post-release studies, franchise/brand assessments, development studies, and concept and title tests. The goal of her team is to customize its approach creatively to provide the most impactful answers to any question a client may be asking.  No two questions are the same,  hence no two projects are the same.

Before joining MarketCast in 2008 and moving back to Los Angeles where she grew up, Rachel spent ten years on the East Coast, where she worked as a Director at Dynamic Logic (NYC), the digital arm of Millward Brown, a WPP company. Prior to that, Rachel was a Senior Research Analyst at The Lewin Group in the DC metro area, where she worked with the Department of Health and Human Services and Administration for Children & Families to monitor and improve the federally-funded program, Head Start. Rachel received her B.A. in Economics and English from Colgate University in upstate New York.

John Pietrolungo
Chief Financial Officer

With over 25 years of media, entertainment, and professional services accounting and finance experience, John has been instrumental in creating the company’s back-office capabilities and functionality.  He makes sure all of the trains run on time and run smoothly. Previously, John served as CFO of Modern Luxury Media and served on the board of Juli-B.com. He co-founded 1100.com, a publishing company producing custom Apps and hyper-local content for both print and tablet distribution.

John graduated from UC Santa Barbara and earned an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Chris Rethore
Chief Operating Officer

Chris revels in breaking down strategies and brands to see how they work and then reconstituting them in new and interesting ways that make them more compelling and impactful. He believes in approaching marketing problems as you would a puzzle – taking a series of intricate, fractured pieces and through thorough analysis of consumer data, putting the various pieces together in a single, coherent whole. Understanding how consumers think and the different connections they make is key to getting an actionable picture of what they want.

As a key member of MarketCast’s leadership team, Chris consults on major global entertainment properties for existing clients and is also focused on expanding the firm’s East Coast footprint. Externally, he oversees key client relationships, pursues new research partnerships, manages MarketCast’s thought leadership initiatives, and spearheads efforts to expand MarketCast’s analytical capabilities and optimize internal processes.

Prior to MarketCast, Chris was Vice President within the Media and Entertainment Research practice at Penn Schoen Berland, a WPP company. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Chris has spent over a decade developing and optimizing marketing strategies for entertainment and media-focused consumer brands.

Frank Romo
Chief Research Methodologist

Frank Romo’s background in sociology, mathematics, applied research, and statistics has made him an integral part of MarketCast’s approach to entertainment research since 1987. As a co-founder of the company, he is responsible for determining the methodological, analytic and statistical approach applied to the company’s research, as well as the development and application of forecasting, modeling, and advanced analytics techniques. Romo received his M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Mathematical Sociology from Yale.

David Breihan
Executive Director, Operations

David is driven to solve challenging problems. Whether it’s planning his next mountain climb or figuring out how to improve a process, David constantly strives to get the most out of both his personal and professional life. Over the last 12 years at MarketCast, he has been instrumental in building the infrastructure necessary to support our growing operations.

As the Executive Director of Operations, David oversees everything from field operations to researching new innovations. He is passionate about understanding how everything works and spends most of his time bringing people together to meet whatever challenges need to be solved. His ultimate goal is to ensure that our client services team has the best support in the industry so that they can continue to provide our clients with the top notch service and quality advice to which they have grown accustomed over the years.

David earned his undergraduate degree in Marketing from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Master’s degree in Organizational Behavior / Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University.

Matthew Collins
Senior Director, Franchise & Content Strategy

Beyond taking a thoughtful approach to studying brands and entertainment marketing, Matthew enjoys developing creative ways to present information and tell market research stories visually. He believes that market research is only as actionable as it is accessible.  Insights – not just data – should be delivered creatively and digestibility for everyone who works on a film, TV show, video game, or brand whether they are market researchers, marketers, producers, or developers.

At MarketCast, Matthew is a leader within the client services team, responsible for overseeing custom research projects for major entertainment brands, films, video games, and TV programming – both on linear TV and for streaming services. 

 Outside of the day-to-day, Matthew brings to the table a diverse array of entertainment interests, consuming everything from high-concept sci-fi to low-brow reality to soapy teen dramas. If it’s onstreaming, he’s probably binging it. Matthew is an avid gamer, movie buff, and anime fan. Before joining MarketCast, Matthew was Director of Video Game Research for Penn Schoen Berland’s Media & Entertainment Group. He is an alumnus of the College of William and Mary

Lee Doyle
Executive Vice President, Global Client Strategy

Few individuals in the industry have the type of deep and far-reaching client experiences Lee brings to MarketCast. As Executive Vice President, Global Client Strategy, Lee brings a wide range of category experience to MarketCast, from Entertainment and Consumer Goods to Telecommunications and Retail. He has led teams with clients as diverse as AT&T, Paramount, Lionsgate, Target, Walgreens, Bayer, Novartis, Pizza Hut, Unilever, Kraft, and Procter & Gamble. He was drawn to MarketCast because of the firm’s impressive analytics capabilities and respected clients in the dynamic entertainment industry.

He leads Global Client Strategy across all its business units, including Insight Strategy Group and Fizziology. Throughout his career, he has witnessed the need for greater accountability and more data-driven decisions across all sectors of consumer products and services steadily increase. This priority has made him very focused on the research and analytics capabilities of the agencies he has worked with. And he knows MarketCast is in a unique position as more and more marketers are looking to move at the pace of entertainment. As he bounces back and forth between New York and fully relocates to Los Angeles, he is excited to be able to combine his experience and passion to drive the business forward.

Greg Ferland
Managing Director

Greg helps clients by providing them the tools and results to make them look even smarter. Each client and project has different needs and goals, and determining how research can answer these questions in a timely and productive way is Greg’s main focus. While the movies or television shows constantly change, the client is constant, and Greg is here for their needs.

As Managing Director, Greg oversees key client relationships, project creation, and presentation of results. Since joining MarketCast in 1991, he has worn many hats in the organization, developing various capabilities across the firm’s research scope – beginning with Positioning/Concept testing, advertising materials testing, screenings and exit polls, brand and franchise analyses, and other custom projects. Greg is a central point of contact for many of MarketCast’s long-standing clients, and is also instrumental in making new and potential clients feel right at home at MarketCast.

Prior to MarketCast, Greg received his degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, where he also completed courses on film theory and criticism. He enjoys working with clients across the varied entertainment research groups – theatrical, television, home entertainment, and digital.

Andrea Marker
Senior Director, Franchise & Content Strategy

With a background in marketing and product development, Andrea brings a unique perspective to the MarketCast team. Andrea joined MarketCast in 2017 from AT&T, where she worked on the launch strategy for DIRECTV’s OTT services—including DIRECTV NOW—and oversaw VOD marketing. Prior to AT&T, Andrea founded Hulu’s consumer insights practice, established an in-house usability lab, and oversaw product development for all features relating to user engagement for the OTT service. She began her research career at Penn Schoen Berland, where she led the firm’s video games research practice and consulted on brands for clients in the film, TV, OTT, and CPG industries. Andrea received her BA in Politics from New York University.

Jenny Matkovich
Marketing Director

Beyond her educational background in marketing, Jenny has a passion for all things marketing communication. As Marketing Director, she is charged with developing and implementing the brand strategy for MarketCast’s entire portfolio of new and existing services. From events to PR, she oversees the execution of MarketCast’s global marketing initiatives.

Jenny is a proven marketing leader equipped with in-depth service and product-positioning expertise and a strong brand-building background. She has held the Marketing Director title in the past for both technology and consulting organizations and is a driven leader with a strong foundation in acquisition and enterprise-wide product/service brand development and management. Her former positions were held at T2 Tech Group and Cerner Corporation. Jenny serves on the board of the LA International Association of Business Communicators as the Vice President and spends her free time getting acquainted with the city of Los Angeles.

Jenny holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.

Henry Piney
Managing Director, International

Prior to joining MarketCast, Henry worked in a range of production, business and marketing research functions, most recently running Nielsen NRG’s international business (including the re-launch of international tracking) and Frank Magid Associates, where he developed extensive experience with major video games and television companies. Outside the research space, Henry launched and ran Live.tv, a start up video streaming service in conjunction with a major Scandinavian teleco. Piney began his career working for ABC News, covering a variety of major news events. Henry holds a MA from The University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he was also recipient of the annual William and Mary scholarship. In his spare time, he ineptly chases a ball around a ‘real tennis’ court.

Chris Rabey
Executive Director, International

Chris is responsible for leading on major client projects and overseeing the London-based team. Before joining MarketCast, he worked for Paramount Pictures International as Director of Media & Research, where he was a happy and satisfied MarketCast client. Whilst there he gained experience applying insight to guide campaign strategy and improve returns from marketing. Prior to working on the client-side, Chris started his career in creative and media agencies within the DDB and Aegis Networks, planning and buying for major international clients. Chris holds a degree in Political Science and a Masters in Marketing.

Kathleen Sauvé
Senior Director, International

As a Yank living in London, Kathleen is fascinated to see how US culture translates overseas (or not) and how foreign cultures can inform US entertainment trends. She supervises operations and analysis for the international client services team, delivering actionable and intuitive research insights to help clients in making informed marketing decisions.

Starting her career in Los Angeles working for Nielsen NRG and then Interpret LLC from a start-up, she was initially focused on domestic research before shifting to international. Since 2007 she has conducted brand and title-level work for major film, TV and video game studios in markets around the globe. Kathleen has dual degrees in Psychology and Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She and her English husband are constantly affirming the old adage of two countries ‘separated by a common language.’

Bart Story
Senior Director, Research Analysis

Bart has been involved in researching various segments of the entertainment business throughout his career and has developed a keen understanding of the driving forces behind the industry. He particularly enjoys unearthing the hidden nuggets of information that lie below the surface – looking past the more obvious or expected findings to discover practical and actionable results that often prove critical to a property’s success.

Bart currently serves as a Senior Director within the Client Services department at MarketCast. Having worked on the advertising campaigns of hundreds of films over the past several years, he takes the lead role on a number of advertising materials testing projects for a variety of clients. Besides having a management role within the department, Bart also oversees MarketCast’s qualitative research work.

Bart Story joined MarketCast in 2004 after serving as the Director of Research for the Screen Actors Guild, helping to inform the Board of Directors on entertainment industry economics that, in turn, shaped much of their contract negotiations. Previously, Bart spent nearly a dozen years researching the home entertainment business, winning awards for his work at a trade publication and developing the first point of sale video rental tracking system for the industry’s trade association.

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