Samantha Maltin Brings Her Blend of Storytelling From Sesame Street to St. Jude

It was on her third visit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Mempis, Tenn., that Samantha Maltin decided to take on the role of chief marketing and brand officer at the center’s fundraising and research organization, the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC). The clincher was a picture that caught her eye in the hallway. Taken in 2014 of a then a four-year-old cancer patient named Hayden, the image showed his tiny silhouette in a Superman costume. “This was a kid who had just undergone treatment, wearing a superhero cape in the most difficult moment. I just thought, ‘this is where [these children] find courage, bravery, and hope.' It stopped me in my tracks,” Maltin told ADWEEK. “I thought, 'if I can help more children who are going through similar circumstances feel that sense of hope, that’s what I want to do,'” she continued. This image hangs in a hallway of St. Jude as an inspiration for patients and staff that pass it daily. St. Jude is a global leader in treating childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its flagship hospital sits in Memphis, with eight other affiliate clinics and fundraising offices across the U.S. Families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on their child's health. ALSAC is the nonprofit’s fundraising business, with the sole mission of raising money and awareness to operate and maintain St. Jude. Since its founding in 1962, the hospital has contributed to global childhood cancer survival rates increasing from 20% to 80%. In her new role, Maltin has been tasked with creating a marketing strategy that will help ALSAC raise the $2 billion each year it takes to run the hospital. She joins after five years at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind PBS’ iconic Sesame Street. In her tenure there, she expanded the brand’s global marketing team to include an audience development function and brought Big Bird, Oscar, Elmo and the rest of the gang to ads, storybooks, YouTube, TikTok and Roblox. At the heart of her approach was using the beloved show’s characters to steer children and families through everything from mental health challenges to the Covid-19 lockdowns. “For the last five and a half years, I've had the chance to serve children, families and communities, and particularly those most vulnerable, which is really what led me here,” she said. From Sesame St. to St. Jude Three weeks into her role, Maltin has already noted “so many common core values” between her old employer and her new one. “St. Jude cares for some of the world's sickest children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, beliefs, or their ability to pay. And so it really does have that same level of inclusivity,” she explained. With roles at Nickelodeon and MTV under her belt, Maltin understands how to create campaigns that are socially impactful, but also commercially successful. Though it’s early days, she wants to build a strategy around what she describes as “living charitably” for St. Jude. This will be a challenge amid ongoing inflationary pressures. Giving U.S.A. recently reported that fewer Americans are donating to nonprofits as they struggle with higher prices, marking a two-year decline in giving. Maltin recognizes these are “uncertain times” for people across the country. “People are holding their purse strings more tightly, not just in the U.S., but all over the world. It’s become more challenging, but we need to encourage future generations to live more charitably – for all charities, not just for us." A CMO-CDO team As Maltin starts to develop a brand blueprint to raise more funds for St. Jude, she will work closely with Ankur Jain, who was recently brought on as chief data and analytics officer to help drive performance marketing efforts for the charity. Jain formed Whole Foods' data division for Amazon Jain joined from Whole Foods, where he was VP of data, analytics, and science. At St. Jude, he’ll work alongside Maltin to drive deeper connections with donors with a focus on data science, engineering, AI, and analytics. He told ADWEEK he and Maltin’s goal is to create marketing programs that are not only authentic, but also personalized to the diverse and differentiated donors it has now and wants to reach in the future. “When I first became aware of the opportunity, the mission of St. Jude and the potential to drive impact for such a pure cause drew me in and made me want to learn more,” Jain said. “The more I found out, the more attractive it was – both in that the St. Jude brand is iconic and deeply trusted, and that CEO Rick [Shadyac] and the ALSAC leadership team are looking toward the future with a deep focus on being data, tech and digitally driven to scale the impact of the mission.” The duo will leverage data to personalize supporter journeys, surfacing content that showcases what happens with the dollars they donate. On Maltin's storytelling chops, Shadyac said: "I've watched her for a long time, seeing what they do at Sesame Workshop," he said. "She thinks differently, which I absolutely love." "Ankur is coming into a new role that will centralize our data function," he added, "I can already see the value he brings, he'll make sure we're focused on the right things."

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Samantha Maltin Brings Her Blend of Storytelling From Sesame Street to St. Jude

The CMO joins the hospital’s fundraising organization as it hires its first CDO, Ankur Jain, from Whole Foods

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