Joel Babbit (born August 11, 1953) is an American marketing executive and entrepreneur. He is CEO of Narrative Content Group, which he co-founded in 2009 with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
Early life and education
Babbit was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia, graduating in 1976 with a degree in advertising. He received the university's John Holliman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Babbit began working at McCann Erickson in 1978, and would later be executive vice president of Chiat/Day and president of WPP's GCI Group. He co-founded Babbit & Reiman Advertising with business partner Joey Reiman, and was CEO while it became one of the largest advertising agencies in the U.S. Southeast. In 1988, it was acquired by London-based Gold Greenlees Trott. Babbit also co-founded 360, a marketing firm later acquired by WPP's Grey Global Group.
Babbit has been profiled by a variety of national and international media outlets, including Forbes, Advertising Age, Fortune, The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
Narrative owned TreeHugger and Mother Nature Network, the company's flagship property, which was ranked by Alexa Internet as the most visited for-profit website in the world in its environmental category.
Through MNN, and in partnership with Southern Company, Babbit and Leavell also created and produced the White House Correspondents' Jam, which was held annually in Washington, D.C.
In February of 2020, Narrative sold Treehugger and Mother Nature Network to digital media company DotDash, an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IAC).
Civic involvement
Following Atlanta’s selection to host the 1996 Summer Olympics, Babbit took a leave of absence from the private sector and was appointed by Mayor Maynard Jackson to be the city’s first chief marketing and communications officer. He also was a member of the mayor's cabinet.
