With mobile phones and social media, there’s a change happening in advertising, says Charlie MacLeod, CEO of SMM Advertising in Smithtown. Content for cellphones and tablets must convey information seamlessly and instantly, with more images than text for the small screen.

Ad companies are becoming responsible for creating content that “humanizes,” because “brands are really defined by the relationships they have with their consumers,” said MacLeod. To do this, SMM creates content through social media, videos, white papers, and sometimes even comic books.

MacLeod, 58, started out as an engineer but headed into advertising 28 years ago to “get out of the cubicle and work collaboratively with more creative kinds of assignments.” Today, his firm works with brands such as Traveler’s Insurance, Mill-Max and Albrecht and won several national awards this year, including the ECHO Award from the Direct Marketing Association for campaign effectiveness and the Telly Award for best online commercial.