Women to Watch: Meredith Strang Burgess leads ad agency, raises money to fight cancer in Maine
Photo / Tim Greenway
At Burgess Advertising & Marketing, President/CEO Meredith Strang Burgess leads a seven-person team based out of a Portland office.
Burgess Advertising & Marketing
75 West Commercial St., Suite 202, Portland burgessadv.com- What it does: Full-service advertising agency providing strategic brand development, graphic design, media and digital strategy and placement and website development
- Employees: Seven
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Every summer, Meredith Strang Burgess is the ceremonial last finisher of Maine Cancer Foundation’s Tri for a Cure fundraiser. She herself has raised close to $190,000 in 17 years, including $30,400 in 2024 alone. A breast cancer survivor who aims to “make each day count,” she leads a seven-person team at Burgess Advertising & Marketing in Portland.
Mainebiz: How has advertising changed since you started your career?
Meredith Strang Burgess: Aside from the obvious huge technology evolution over the past four decades, the other huge change is the process. In the 1970s, great creative ideas were still born on cocktail napkins while flying to the client presentation. Then in the '80s and '90s, consumer research came in along with account planners, internet and digital. Information began to flow so fast that the process sort of took over.
We work hard to pull the best of everything together to create the most strategic solution for each of our clients.
MB: What recent campaigns are you most proud of and why?
MSB: We have had the extreme honor to have worked with most of the Maine blue chip clients over the past 37-plus years. We are proud of each and every client, but admittedly New England Cancer Specialists is near and dear to my heart as a 25-year cancer survivor where I received all my lifesaving cancer treatment.
We have created a number of memorable campaigns over the years but a few of our recent ones have centered around amazing patient stories. Last spring, we won a national award for our ‘high-risk cancer genetics’ integrated campaign. More recently, we created a bold campaign featuring a patient in active treatment who spurned her doctor’s referral order to work with the doctors at New England Cancer Specialists.
MB: How does your experience as a cancer survivor inform your leadership approach?
MSB: Probably as a result of my cancer, I do feel extra driven to make each day count and pack in as much as I can along the way. Every new day is a gift.
MB: What keeps the Tri for a Cure fresh for you every year?
MSB: The women. Every year, the composition of participants is unique. And unfortunately, each year new women are diagnosed with cancer and when they can, they find their way to the Tri — almost as a rite of passage, which we actually heard from a first timer this year.
And of course, the money … Maine is one of just a few states where cancer is the No. 1 killer. The money we raise says 100% in Maine and goes to the Maine Cancer Foundation to fund many essential programs across Maine covering prevention education, patient support and research. This year, we raised a new record amount of over $2.1 million — and more than $24 million in 17 years. Wow!
MB: How has politics changed since your time in the Maine Legislature?
MSB: I was in the Maine State Legislature from 2006 to 2012. Initially, there was still a strong element of collaboration and bipartisanship. It began to change in 2010 and has continued to devolve to the current level of animosity, unproductive rhetoric and lack of collaboration. Sad.
MB: What are you reading this summer?
MSB: Whatever free time I have, which is very little, I am working on editing my book, ‘Breast Cancer and the Single Woman — Dating without Boobs.’
MB: What’s still on your personal or professional ‘bucket list’?
MSB: My professional list is short — to work with more smart clients who appreciate the unique insights we bring to the table. But my personal list is long: Finish my book. Then get back to finishing my genealogical research including my mother’s line that is so close to done. More travel including Antarctica, where I was supposed to go in 1977 to study glaciology, but as a female, I was not allowed at the National Scientific Base Station. And finally, be healthy enough to ski forever.
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