Jody Merl

President and Founder

Jody began her career in Hollywood, shaping stories and packaging productions.
That instinct for placement and positioning led her into hospitality, first with L’Ermitage Hotel Group, where she discovered a world just as dynamic—tasked with filling rooms with entertainment executives and quickly realized that hotels, at their best, are their own form of storytelling. She moved on to lead global sales efforts for The Leading Hotels of the World, where she deepened her nuanced understanding of premium travel–its niche audiences, business segments and influential decision makers–and the challenge of competing with limited marketing funds.

This sparked her founding Innovative Travel Marketing in 1992. Her vision: to give hotels access to smarter media marketing—strategic, results-driven, fiscally brilliant and operationally nimble. That includes the ability to fund campaigns with minimal spend, and the ability to pay for initiatives in cash, trade or a savvy blend of both.

More than 30 years later, Jody and her veteran team (averaging 20 years with the firm) continue to fulfill that vision, writing client success stories spanning the industry landscape.

Their campaigns make every dollar work harder, and every placement count.