This document provides profiles of 40 marketing professionals under the age of 40 who have been recognized for their accomplishments and leadership in the field of direct marketing. Each profile is 1-2 paragraphs and provides information about the individual's career experiences and achievements, as well as a defining moment, recommended reading, and words of advice. The profiles showcase a diverse group of talented marketing leaders who are helping to advance the industry through innovative initiatives and a strong focus on metrics, technology, and customer relationships.
Bluetext Partner Jason Siegel Named to 40 Under 40
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GOT GAME?
Here are 40 winning marketers who do.
Photo by: Inku
2013
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40 UNDER 40
By Elyse Dupré, Ryan Joe, Allison Schiff, and Al Urbanski
M
arketing today takes savvy, perseverance, and deft juggling skills. Winners of the
2013 Direct Marketing News 40 Under 40 Awards have them all, in spades.
These 40 leaders represent the most accomplished young talent in marketing.
They’ve launched initiatives that have helped to significantly grow their companies, or spur
their customers’ successes, and influenced the industry in numerous ways—from enhancing
the core elements of direct marketing, to advancing measurement, to guiding their company
and clients on mastering new technologies.
Their work is helping to guide others in marketing to master such areas as integrating
digital and traditional marketing, using cross-channel data to inform marketing decisions,
and building loyalty at a time when customers churn at the click of a mouse. Their stories are
ones of determination, creativity, and adaptability.
—Ginger Conlon
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40 UNDER 40
Greg Alvo, Founder & CEO,
OrderGroove
Winning ways: A nationally ranked
WORDS
TO LIVE BY:
Greg Alvo
“When given the
choice between
an A team with
a B idea or a B
team with an A
idea, always go for
the former. The A
team will figure
out how to turn
the B idea into an
A-plus.”
Amy Avery
“Anything is
possible.”
Aaron Bell
“Grace under fire.”
Jeremy Bloom
“Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Live as if
you were to die
tomorrow. Learn
as if you were to
live forever.’”
tennis player in his youth, the bane of
Alvo’s existence was replacing the strings
he habitually popped on his racquets.
“It’s the catalyst behind this business,” he says. The business is OrderGroove, which takes brand advocates and
super-monetizes them by transforming them into brand
subscribers. Only five years old, OrderGroove serves 75
brands including CVS, L’Oreal, and Johnson & Johnson.
Zabar’s, the legendary New York City gourmet retailer,
multiplied customer purchase frequency by five times
and nearly doubled their annual spend with the Z-Peat
subscription program OrderGroove designed.
Defining moment: “Hands down, launching and
growing OrderGroove to capture the massive subscription commerce opportunity in front of us. The desire to
create value out of nothing has driven my career from
day one.”
Good read: The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. “It
was an amazing reference when I was first launching
OrderGroove. It laid out how to get started in a practical
and refreshing way. I encourage all aspiring entrepreneurs to read it.”
Good advice: “Test and measure everything, then
learn and innovate accordingly.”
Amy Avery, SVP, Head of
Data and Analytics,
Proximity North America
Winning ways: Avery helped the Ma-
rine Corps march to the rhythm of data
while at JWT, created a digital analytics department from the ground up at BBDO, and now
melds social with customer relationship management
(CRM) as head of data and analytics at Proximity NA.
She is the elusive right brain–left brain hybrid that is the
quarry of marketing departments everywhere. “Amy
has the uncommon combination of account and analytics background,” says Proximity Chairman Andrew
Bailey. “She has a unique ability to apply advanced solutions to client problems and explain them in a simple
manner.” And apply them she does. After testing the best
placement for the call to action in a recent campaign,
Avery’s team delivered the client a tenfold increase in
response and incremental revenue of $1.3 million.
Defining moment: “Working on FEMA as an account director, my role was to convince people to purchase insurance. I spent a lot of time working with a
database and analytics team to collect and analyze data
on what made people buy. As a result of the targeting
and contact strategy we put together, the National Flood
Insurance Program had unprecedented policy sales. I
took that experience into a newly created role of business intelligence director, where I served as the ‘translator’ between clients and the analytics resources, finding
creative solutions to solve business challenges.”
Good read: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hos-
seini. “It has reminded me that compassion and loyalty
are often the most valuable things you can offer.”
Good advice: “Look for opportunities rather than wait
for them to come to you, and don’t be afraid of failure.”
Aaron Bell, CEO, AdRoll
Winning ways: There was a time, not
long ago, when tracking people’s serpentine Web journeys and targeting them
with relevant ads along the way was a
strategy for big budget players. Now retargeting is a weapon in every direct marketer’s arsenal,
thanks largely to ex-programmer Bell. One of Microsoft’s youngest software engineers, he busted out AdRoll
in 2007 to bring retargeting to the marketing masses.
AdRoll hit pay-dirt last year, tripling its revenue from
2011 and showing its first profit. Not bad, but fate could
have taken Bell in another direction. In 1999 he and two
Stanford classmates launched Steamtunnels, an online
version of the school’s “facebook.” The university shut
down the project due to privacy concerns.
Defining moment: “I took to computers early in life
and started professionally coding in my early teens. At
age 15 I had the opportunity to interview at Microsoft
and was hired as a software development engineer in the
Microsoft Exchange group. I can't overstate how much
I learned about team and software best practices in my
five years there. The leader of the group was Brian Valentine, who also came to management through a programming background, and inspired his team with his
gumption and humor.”
Good read: “I like the notes from PayPal cofounder
Peter Thiel’s recent Stanford lecture series.”
Good advice: “Start from your customer and
work backwards.”
Jeremy Bloom,
Cofounder, Integrate
Winning ways: The business world
loves sports metaphors—but Jeremy
Bloom doesn’t need metaphors. An allstar athlete turned entrepreneur, Bloom
skied for the U.S. Olympic team and played professional
football for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia
Eagles before tackling the world of direct marketing.
After winning 11 World Cup Gold medals in freestyle
skiing and retiring from the gridiron, Bloom went on
to cofound ad-tech company Integrate, where he and
his team developed AdHQ , an omnichannel workflow
management platform for marketers. Under Bloom’s
leadership, Integrate nearly doubled its revenue in 2012.
But Bloom also sets aside time to give back—since launching nonprofit organization Wish of a Lifetime in 2008,
he’s helped grant more than 650 wishes to elderly people
across the country.
Defining moment: “Raising Integrate’s Series A
funding was my true initiation into the world of busi-
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40 UNDER 40
ness. It was confirmation that we were indeed on the
right course, creating something special, and it provided
Integrate with tremendous momentum.”
Good read: “Good to Great by Jim Collins prepared me
for many of the obstacles Integrate has encountered during its maturation process and given me a realistic grip
on what it takes to create a great company.”
Good advice: “Get focused from the very beginning
on measuring the ROI of every dollar spent—whether
those dollars are yours or your clients’.”
Sam Brubaker
“By this time
next year, you’ll
wish you’d
started today.”
Jennifer Bunner
“Amazing things
rarely happen
in your
comfort zone.”
Jon Butts
“I have a custom
graphic with the
letters FTWSIC
(‘For those who
said I couldn’t’)
framed in my office to motivate
me to prove the
doubters wrong
every day.”
Gurbaksh Chahal
“When you want
to succeed as bad
as you want to
breathe, then
you’ll be
successful.”
Sam Brubaker,
Marketing Director,
Champion Factory Direct
Winning ways: Brubaker has helped
Champion Factory Direct generate in excess of $200 million in annual revenues.
Because of his work, Champion has achieved over 35%
marketing productivity improvement in direct marketing investments, an 8% increase in average contract sales
due to geo-targeting, and a 20% improved profitability
due to product mix targeting efforts.
Defining moment: Although Champion is a national brand and online activity was handled at the
national level, media buying used to occur at a local
level. Brubaker found himself in the position of having
to educate the brass by proving the value of programs
that had occurred online. “Much of it was changing the
methodology of what we buy, how we buy, and how we
drive the inquiries,” he says. “It’s changed the way we
do business.”
Good read: Seth Godin’s Tribes.
Good advice: “Always be a good listener, whether it’s
being coached or whether it’s listening to people in the
field, and always ask a lot of questions.”
Jennifer Bunner, Director
of Insight, Outsell LLC
Winning ways: For Bunner, data and
analytics are true passions. In the past
two years alone she’s grown the insights
team at Outsell by 200%. With Bunner at
the insights helm, Outsell has created innovative digital
experiences for some of the biggest brands in the auto
industry—helping those clients see results like increasing
dealership new vehicle sales by 13% and sparking a 22%
uptick in customer retention.
Defining moment: “Early in my career I was given
the opportunity, along with a great deal of responsibility
and freedom, to build a CRM program for a key client
from the ground up. I had a great mentor who allowed
me to take ownership of the project, take risks, make
mistakes, and learn from those experiences—while being
extremely supportive along the way. Through this I was
made visible to leaders within and outside the company,
but most important it helped me build my confidence as
a businesswoman and believe in myself.”
Good read: “Don’t Kiss With Your Mouth Full by Henry
P. Mahone presents complex situations in single parenting, inter-generational relationships, and family matters
with a gentle, humorous touch. The main character
shows how imperfection is OK as long as we know what
is good and keep striving.”
Good advice: “Have a vision for your career early
on and then find a strong mentor to support, advise, and
advocate for you as you work toward it.”
Jon Butts, President,
Muscle Up Marketing
Winning ways: Jon Butts left a sta-
ble, well-paying job to found Muscle Up
Marketing less than three years ago with
$1,000 in cash. Today, the gym and health
club marketing agency is a multimillion-dollar company.
Not only are the agency’s campaigns effective—a recent
direct mail effort brought in an impressive 5% response
rate—its attention to detail is nonpareil. Muscle Up Marketing has a 100% quality track record. In its entire history, the agency has never had to reprint a single piece
of work.
Defining moment: “I was at my last job over four
years when the company introduced a new non-compete
that I thought was over restrictive. I was given the ultimatum: Sign it or else they’d be forced to terminate me.
I was making good money, but I was unhappy. I opted
to walk away and start my own company. Everyone
thought I was crazy.”
Good read: “The Art of Client Service by Robert Solomon. I believe in sweating the small stuff—because the
small things really add up and go a long way.”
Good advice: “Take the chance when it’s there, so
you don’t have to wonder ‘what if’ later in life.”
Gurbaksh Chahal,
Founder and CEO, RadiumOne
Winning Ways: At only 30, Chahal is
on his third company. He dropped out of
high school to start the first, ClickAgents,
which he sold to ValueClick for $40 million. Next came BlueLithium, which Yahoo! acquired
for $300 million. Now he helps marketers target consumers with hashtag ads at his new company, RadiumOne.
Hyundai used the company’s services to launch its first
hashtag campaign during Super Bowl XLVII and exceeded its mobile click-through rate benchmark by 41
times. “I firmly believe that Darwin was right, that those
who are able to adapt and change will survive,” Chahal
says. “We’re now at an inflection point where science
and society are bound together and we must to remain
nimble to evolve with the changing media landscape.”
Defining moment: “Starting my first company at
the age of 16. The company was hailed as a market-maker in the ad network space and within 18 months I sold
it…. Innovation is moving at the speed of light. Within
the next five years technology will advance so quickly
that life as we know it will challenge us to rethink the
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40 UNDER 40
way we approach business, relationships, and play.”
Good advice: “A successful business is not run by
algorithms but by relationships.”
Carrie Chitsey, CEO, BLK24
Winning Ways: Chitsey founded and
Carrie Chitsey
“Marketing is all
about making
calculated
gambles. You
can’t be scared to
place bets.”
Louis Cohen
“Challenge accepted best practices
and develop your
own—develop better best practices.”
Kristy Croft
“Honesty is a
cornerstone of all
success, without
which confidence
and ability to
perform shall
cease to exist.”
–Mary Kay Ash
Viji Davis
“Don’t worry
about what
everybody else
is doing.”
sold her first company before she was
30, so she took that money and used it
to roll out 3Seventy, a company with a
revolutionary SMS text program that was
embraced by companies large and small. Not yet 35, the
poker-playing Chitsey has dealt herself another winning
hand with BLK24, a marketing consultancy that helps
brands meld mobile initiatives with their overarching
strategies. “Poker has taught me how to read people, and
how to make the right decisions in business,” she says,
adding that successful entrepreneurs must have a little
riverboat gambler in them. “If you’re going to go your
own way, you have to go in strong or go home.”
Defining moment: “I had personal motivations that
made me leave a Big 5 consulting company and start
my first company in 2006. I was driven to work for myself, make my clients proud, and start charting my own
course. I've had a path I've been working toward ever
since and driving toward that every day.”
Good read: “I’ve been reading the Steve Jobs [biography by Walter Isaacson] and it shows me more than ever
that you have to chart your own course and, in doing so,
you don’t always make friends. You have to stick to your
own instincts and ethics, first and foremost.”
Good advice: “The only person who defines your
success is you. There is never a good excuse for obstacles; there is always a solution if you are determined
to succeed.”
Louis Cohen, SVP, Head of
Search, Affiliate Marketing
and Lead Generation,
Citibank, NA
Winning Ways: Cohen is a digital
marketing superhero. He led the expansion of Citibank’s digital customer acquisition efforts
across all U.S. consumer businesses and grew the core
program by more than 400% in two years. He shares his
marketing knowledge by working as a digital marketing
professor for Baruch College and NYU.
Defining Moment: “After my freshman year of college, thanks to guidance from my older brother, I landed
an internship at Marvel Comics in marketing. During
that summer—when I thought I was headed toward a career in advertising and marketing, working with what
we now consider “traditional” media—I had a brilliant
idea for a website, called Collectors’ Exchange, which
I launched with a friend. The experience of trying to
survive in the .com boom, failing to hit it big, but learning a ton, is what propelled me toward a career in digital
marketing and gave me life lessons that still serve me
well to this day.
Good read: First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s
Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham
and Curt Coffman. “It makes perfect sense: Manage
people to their strengths, and they will be happier, more
productive, and more engaged.”
Good advice: “Stay on top of the latest industry news
so you can always hold an intelligent conversation with
even the most seasoned professional.”
Kristy Croft, Partner, Rosetta
Winning Ways: Croft knows the
value of marketing/IT collaboration. She
started in computer programming, but
switched to marketing after determining
that she was way too social for IT. But she
continues to apply her IT knowledge to digital marketing at Rosetta. Croft is also a born leader. She restructured Rosetta’s paid, owned, and earned media team,
resulting in a 30% boost in aggregate revenue with only
a 5% headcount increase.
Defining Moment: “My first week on the job I was
asked to go on site with a client and build out their digital marketing program from the ground up. I was brand
new to the agency world and relatively new to marketing. I threw everything I had into making sure that the
engagement was a success. I learned a lot about myself
and my ability during that time…I learned that I had
what it took to play with the big boys.”
Good read: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. “I’m the
executive sponsor of the Lean In program at Rosetta.
I have three small children, my oldest is three years old,
and I’m a mentor to a lot of young female professionals
at Rosetta. The book just resonated with me because I
feel like, at times, women unnecessarily put limits on
themselves that they shouldn’t.”
Good advice: “Be firm but fair.”
Viji Davis, VP, Marketing,
Resolution Media, Omnicom
Winning ways: When Viji Davis
joined the Resolution Media executive
team she was 28. She became VP only a
year later. From 2011 to 2012 she helped
Resolution Media generate 32% total revenue growth
and 30% new client growth.
Defining moment: Davis’s family moved from India to Africa when she was two. When she was in elementary school, her parents moved to the U.S. It was
a tremendous culture shock and, at a very young age,
Davis was forced to learn how to make connections with
people. “When I moved here, I had a British accent and
when you’re a little kid, nobody understands what you’re
saying,” she recalls.
Good read: 365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice From the
Heart. Davis keeps a copy of the book in her office and
reads random sections whenever work is especially
stressful. “It sounds cheesy but it really does help,” she
says. “Even when things seem stressful, you realize stress
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40 UNDER 40
is just a perceived emotion and it’s just a matter of how
much you can control it.”
Good advice: “Do more than what’s required of you
and, above all, just be nice.”
Jason DeLuca, Managing
Director, Digital Media,
Allscope Media
Winning ways: DeLuca knows digi-
tal. On top of growing the digital business at Allscope by 400% in just three
years, the agency’s holiday campaign for MasterCard
yielded such high sales conversions that it’s considered
to be the most successful digital media execution the
brand has ever run.
Defining moment: “Getting out of college at the
same exact time that digital media was just starting to
take off and riding that wave as one of the first employees
in the digital media department at BBDO, which handed
over access to some of the biggest brands in the world.
That invaluable experience and opportunity opened the
door for many others down the road and gave me the
knowledge and confidence I needed to excel.”
Good read: “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard
Business School by Mark McCormack, founder of IMG
Management, left a big impression on me since I first
read it back in high school. So much of business is all
about people and managing personalities rather than
just dollars and cents. It taught me that having the ability to invoke laughter in the right moments is an extremely useful tool that can make a big difference in
getting deals done.”
Good advice: “Surround yourself with the smartest,
most successful people you can find in the field and study
the way they work, think, communicate, and get things
done. Then try to improve upon it in your own unique
way and you will be on the right path toward success."
Amanda Dempsey,
Managing Director, Sports and
Experiential, hawkeye
Winning ways: Dempsey helped ener-
gize client North Face’s running business
(up 208%) with The North Face Endurance 50 and helped put Anheuser-Busch on the menu of
active, health-minded drinkers during the launch of Michelob ULTRA. As a result, she made hawkeye’s sports
and experiential practice soar, doubling its growth since
taking the helm. A former varsity soccer player at SMU,
Dempsey is grateful to remain active in the sports world
as she prepares for her next big challenge: directing the
soccer career of two-year-old daughter Payton.
Defining moment: “As an intern, I was able to
sit in the same office as the CEO. I took advantage of
each and every second I could by listening in on every phone call, every meeting, and every question and
answer that came through that office door. Over time
I began asking questions and preparing answers and
ideas for clients. I tried to approach each day with the
mind-set of a CEO and I was lucky enough to receive
encouragement to do so.”
Good read: “I’m currently reading The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. Ironically, I’m
having to seek advice on the best ways to communicate
and ‘market’ to my daughter. Now that I know to assume she is more like a Neanderthal than a mini-adult,
my strategy and approach have changed drastically.”
Good advice: “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. This
was the best piece of advice I ever received and I continue to pay it forward by sharing it with every new hire
and intern that I come across.”
Jeremiah Desmarais,
VP, Marketing and Strategy,
Health Partners America
Winning ways: From graphic design-
er to top-level marketer—Desmarais’ career trajectory is evidence of the breadth
of his skills. Through his efforts as VP of marketing at
Applied Systems, the company was able to cut its budget
by hundreds of thousands of dollars while still increasing leads to sales by 300%. Clearly, when it comes to
lead gen, Desmarais just gets it. He developed a whitepaper engagement strategy that led to a 251% increase
in response without a single dollar spent and created a
direct response digital presentation format for the sales
team at Health Partners America that resulted in a 660%
increase in new leads per week.
Defining moment: “Starting my career at a startup
with no staff, no budget, and no formal marketing education. This helped me become incredibly resourceful
and creative in the ways I would market. Despite it all,
only one thing mattered: results.”
Good read: “The Book of Proverbs. Conducting good
business is really being able to conduct good human relations. Many business books leave this out and focus
on people as pawns in a strategic game of supremacy.
However, I've found that finding lasting fulfillment in
business comes from contributing value, serving others,
and being a force for good.”
Good advice: “Give first.”
Theo Fanning, Executive
Creative Director, Traction
Winning ways: As cofounder of Trac-
tion, Fanning’s leadership has contributed to the agency being selected to the Inc.
5000 list of fastest growing companies
in the U.S. twice in the past five years. His work has
also paid dividends for clients. Juice brand Nomsi saw
a 550% year-over-year sales increase due to Fanning’s
integrated work, and in the six months since the launch
of a campaign for Accountemps, the brand’s stock price
jumped from $26 to $36.
Defining moment: Fanning went to university to
be a film major. Before he arrived on campus, the school
Jason DeLuca
“Knowing is half
the battle.”
—GI Joe
Amanda Dempsey
“‘Function in
disaster.’ This was
something said to
me in high school,
but it didn’t have
much of an impact
on me until I began my career in
marketing. There’s
not a week that
goes by that I
don’t repeat this
motto in my head.”
Jeremiah
Desmarais
“Do you see a man
skilled in his work?
He will stand in the
presence of kings.”
Theo Fanning
“Fake it ’til you
make it; f**k it ’til
you break it.”
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shuttered the film school, which resulted in Fanning
spending the next four years going through nine majors
resulting in two degrees he swore he’d never get: fine
arts and English literature. “I basically spent four years
exploring a variety of topics that have shaped my career,” he says.
Good read: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. “It’s about
the concept of creation and having to deal with the consequences thereof,” he says. “It’s an example of every
action having an equal and opposite reaction.”
Good advice: “Take every opportunity; be humble.”
Judah Fontz
“Work hard and
surround yourself
with smart
and hardworking people.”
Justin Gray
“‘We’ll get it done.’
I mean, what’s the
alternative?
For me, there
isn’t one. The true
legacy of your
business is what
you’re willing to do
for your clients.”
Geoff Gross
“The best way to
wow your customers is to take care
of the people
who take care of
your customers.”
Ashley Johnston
“Deliver value
every day.”
Judah Fontz, VP,
Search Fundraising, VeraData
Winning ways: Fontz is so good at his
job that Google actually called him to ask
how he does it. When he first joined VeraData, Fontz decided to take a risk: Rather
than focus on known sources of search revenue, he set
his sights on developing a mastery of search marketing
for fundraisers—and it’s a gamble that’s paid dividends
for all involved. Not only has he personally generated
more than $2 million in search marketing grants in the
past three years, he’s also helped capture tens of thousands of donors for the charities he’s worked with. In
just one example, Fontz increased monthly impressions
for a national animal rights charity by 1,391%, while
boosting its monthly click-through traffic by 9,516%,
and pumping up monthly newsletter subscriptions by
7,985%. Monthly online donations to the charity soared
8,500% as a result.
Defining moment: “Overcoming traditional direct
marketing mind-sets and ways of doing things. Now
our clients are coordinating their multichannel efforts
and are continuing to open up to a more holistic way
of allocating budgets and analyzing omnichannel campaign results.”
Good read: “The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five
Skills of Disruptive Innovators. I’m interested in learning
about the behaviors of the best innovators and how to
apply them.”
Good advice: “Don’t be afraid to question common practices when you have ideas and solutions outside the norm.”
Justin Gray, CEO, LeadMD
Winning ways: Gray doesn’t do any-
thing half way. He founded his first company, RootOne Marketing, to help him
pay for college. Later, as VP of sales and
marketing at BillingTree, he helped the
start-up grow to a multimillion-dollar company.
Today, as CEO of LeadMD, he’s overseen a 36% average increase in lead volume for clients—6% higher than
the industry average.
Defining moment: “I’ve been fired from every job
I’ve ever held…. I’m basically unemployable. I don’t
like the status quo and I don’t like the dead weight…
that was something people couldn’t always handle.
When I walk into a company, I see ways to improve
it. So I found the only way to achieve that was to build
something organic.”
Good read: “The Art of War is a stereotypical answer,
but it’s still my answer. There isn’t a day that goes by
where I don’t mentally reference it. I’m currently reading James Altucher’s Choose Yourself! because he always
makes me question why I’m doing something. That’s a
healthy question in any situation.”
Good advice: “Don’t settle. Plenty of good people
become bad at their professions by accepting complacency—once you start, it’s hard to stop.”
Geoff Gross, President,
Medical Guardian
Winning Ways: Innovativeness is an
attribute common among the 40 Under
40 winners, and it is certainly a common
thread in Gross’s success story. He was
the first in the medical alert industry to deploy geotargeted paid search, remarketing, and a mobile site.
The former high school point guard leads a team of six
in-house marketing professionals and 10 agencies in a
quest to keep on top of not only the latest methods in
marketing, but also the mainstream thoughts of his customers. Among thousands of keywords relevant to his
company’s business, his goal is to focus his customers’
website experience on the ones most uniquely relevant
to each of them.
Defining moment: “The self-inflicting challenge of
trying to do everything myself for too long slowed the
growth of my company. Once I was able to figure out
that surrounding myself with smart people was the key to
success, we grew very quickly. I have an amazing team.”
Good read: “I’ve read many books about John F. Kennedy. What I have taken out of them is the idea that
every situation has many angles. It’s important to understand things from different perspectives and make decisions accordingly.”
Good advice: “I’d give the same advice my dad gave
me a long time ago: ‘Stick to simple ideas.’”
Ashley Johnston, SVP,
Global Marketing,
Experian Marketing Services
Winning ways: Johnston’s launch of a
cross-channel marketing platform transformed the go-to market strategy of Experian’s marketing services unit. The Dana Campaign,
an international effort she helped create and implement,
demonstrated to prospects using EMS’s intelligence and
tools how a real person interacts with brands across
various channels. Johnston’s thought leadership efforts
led to 11,000-plus downloads of the company’s Digital
Marketer report and helped secure 17 new clients and
$4 million in incremental revenue.
Defining moment: “My tenure with Experian
began almost 11 years ago with a startup called CheetahMail. The passion that ran through our small office
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40 UNDER 40
was palpable and made going to work exciting and challenging. The culture of empowerment and innovation
inspired us to take risks and to color outside the lines.”
Good advice: “Control the controllable. There are
very few things in life you can control, so when you have
the opportunity; take advantage of it.”
Katie Klumper, Group Account
Director, Kirshenbaum Bond
Senecal + Partners
Winning Ways: Klumper never set-
Katie Klumper
“Don’t be
afraid to fail.”
Ingrid Lindberg
“My motto: Have
the patience of
a saint, the heart
of a lion, and the
tenacity of a
street fighter.”
Mike Lund
“‘Quietly kick ass,’
which goes back
to high school
years, as a freshman shooting
guard trying out
for the varsity
basketball team.”
Kira Marchenese
“It’s just us.”
chael Treacy and Fred Wiersema is the ‘what’ part of
my equation, and All In: How the Best Managers Create a
Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results by Adrian Gostick
and Chester Elton is the how.”
Good advice: “Never, ever be afraid to ask why and
suggest alternatives.”
Mike Lund, VP of Sales,
Epsilon Online
Solutions, Epsilon
Winning Ways: After Lund joined
tles for less than the best, which was evident when she led BMW’s social-centric
ActivE campaign. BMW sold 700 vehicles within two
months of the campaign’s launch, and kbs+ was named
BMW’s agency of record soon afterwards.
Defining Moment: “When I was five years into my
advertising career, I knew I wanted more and moved
from Vancouver to New York against the advice from almost everyone. At the time I was bright-eyed and bushytailed, not knowing what I was walking into. But it was
exactly what I needed—a real life lesson in business….
Brand strategies, testing, marketing plans, multi-tiered
advertising, and really big brands.”
Good read: Mad Women by Jane Maas. “It details
many of the day-to-day challenges women across the
globe take on in advertising—from being cut out of meetings and being taken seriously in the workplace, to managing families at home. I’m fortunate to have a female
mentor and CEO who has really taken a stand to help
females develop into leadership roles in advertising and
addressing these challenges real time.”
Good advice: “Don’t underestimate how important it
is to really listen to people and understand what people
want and need.”
Ingrid Lindberg,
Chief Customer Experience
Office, Prime Therapeutics
Winning ways: Lindberg is a pioneer.
Before becoming the healthcare industry’s only chief customer experience officer, she helped designed Wystar, a retirement services
platform that has since been adopted by Ameriprise and
Wachovia. In the past year alone, her rewrite of Prime
Therapeutics’ mail service member materials garnered a
34% increase in the annual response rate.
Defining moment: “I took a ‘break job,’ a small role
that would afford me some work/life balance for a year
or so before I would take on the next big role. It was in
an industry I knew nothing about, having worked in finance, packaged goods, and retail up to that point. Little
did I know that joining Definity Health would change the
course of my career. I was lucky enough to be brought
into Definity to design and implement the first Health
Savings Account. I had no idea what the impact of my
design would be on the industry—but creating that little
product opened doors that I could never have imagined.”
Good read: “The Discipline of Market Leaders by Mi-
Epsilon Online Solutions at the ground
level, he helped grow the team over 700%
in staffing and 334% in sales. He also helped build the
team responsible for tripling sales of Epsilon’s TargetDisplay solution year-over-year.
Defining moment: In 2007 Lund left Epsilon to start
up the e-commerce division of surfwear company Quiksilver. At the time the company had no CRM team and
its website only allowed users to download wallpaper and
watch videos. Lund’s task required him to take direct
marketing concepts to “an organization that largely had
a wholesale mind,” he says. But the job also required him
to move his family from Denver to Huntington Beach,
CA. “That helped define me, because now I’m willing to
take risks and live outside my comfort zone,” Lund says.
“That’s the biggest piece, especially in this digital age; you
have to do things outside your comfort zone.”
Good read: Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. “I went to high school and
middle school in Aspen, so I’ve been skiing my whole
life,” Lund says.
Good advice: “Attitude will get you farther than anything else.”
Kira Marchenese, Senior
Director, Digital Platforms
and Strategy, Environmental
Defense Fund
Winning Ways: To say that Marchen-
ese is digitally savvy would be an understatement. Many of the digital initiatives she introduced
to EDF were creations she built from the ground up,
including a strong testing and analytics practice and a
winning social media and content marketing team.
Defining Moment: “When I was at AOL, my boss
realized that I was in need of a change. He engineered
a swap for me to go into another department and work
on search…. But when I got there I realized that the opportunity was completely different from what either of
us had realized. This was in 1999 or 2000 and search
marketing hadn’t really started yet. We were sitting on
piles of data that nobody had figured out what to do
with or how to manage just because there was so much
of it. What I was able to do was develop different ways of
making that data usable. It was an amazing opportunity
to be part of an entire field starting to recognize what it
could be and the power that good, strong data analysis
could [bring].”
9. www.dmnews.com | November 2013 | 27
40 UNDER 40
Good read: Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. “It’s
a completely honest but positive look at how little people
care about what you do.”
Good advice: “Respect and understand the people
that you’re trying to connect with. That outlasts any
technology or channel expertise you might develop.”
analytical capability not only for marketing, but for an
entire organization in general.”
Good advice: “Reach out to understand the data
world, how data can improve your decision making, and
how you can use data to better identify the targeted customers that you want to market to.”
Marisa Nelson, Email Channel
Manager, U.S. Bank
Winning Ways: Nelson is an email
William Peterson, Email
Marketing Manager, U.S. Bank
Winning Ways: Peterson knows how
marketing expert. She sourced nearly one
million email names from within U.S.
Bank’s systems to fill the bank’s database,
and increased the number of emails sent by U.S. Bank
Retail Payment Solutions from 1 million to 6 million in
2012. By launching a trigger-based, automated approach
to delivering relevant, timely emails, her efforts increased
click-throughs, open rates, and cross-selling results.
Defining Moment: “My first job out of college. It
was a startup marketing agency...I was actually their
first hire. I went to my first client on my second day of
business, and it was a rollercoaster and excitement from
there. I had so many opportunities and so much responsibility. I don’t think I ever would have gotten that had
I not had that small startup agency life. It allowed me to
touch so many different types of marketing.”
Good read: Strengths Finder by Tom Rath. “Not only
did it help me understand where I excel and what things
I should leverage in my personality, but it helps you understand other people and what their strengths are.”
Good advice: “Don’t underestimate the power of
data and or understanding the technical components of
your job.”
Matt Olson, Director,
Marketing & Customer
Analytics, Aviva
Winning Ways: Olson’s work has set
the bar high for the life insurance industry. He led Aviva’s analytics team in creating a suite of predictive models that drive fact-based
decisions on customer retention, customer experience,
customer valuation, and marketing campaigns. Under
his guidance, Aviva launched a data-driven, customerdriven approach to marketing that’s driving a competitive advantage. In fact, last year Aviva USA had one of
its best years ever.
Defining moment: “Transitioning from my initial
job out of college to my second job. It was moving from
a cush risk analytics position to an advertising agency,
which provided me exposure to a much broader set of
industries, a much more complex type of application of
marketing, and using analytics in marketing applications. It really broadened my horizons to understand,
outside of the financial industry, what kind of applications there are for analytics and for marketing.”
Good read: Competing on Analytics: The New Science of
Winning by Thomas Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris.
“It helped me understand the best way to develop an
to balance the art and sciences of email
marketing. His data-driven approach
helps U.S. Bank deliver triggered, tailored emails based on customers’ behavior to establish
customer loyalty, and to ensure that the relationships between the customers and the bank remain positive. He
also headed U.S. Bank’s transition to a new email execution platform and was able to seamlessly maintain harmony across about 20 business sub-lines. Peterson works
diligently to ensure that companywide and individual
unit goals are met.
Defining Moment: “You always need to start somewhere. For me, that was as a direct mail buyer. When an
opportunity to work as an email program manager was
offered to me, I accepted the challenge of learning the
email craft. Now, more than six years later, I'm helping
to lead the email team at U.S. Bank. I continue to focus
on streamlining our process, bringing new opportunities to our sales team, and partnering across channels to
optimize the email experience for our customers.”
Good read: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
“[Gladwell] focuses on mechanisms by which trends
take hold. Understanding the mechanisms has helped
me to focus on who we target and how we talk to them.”
Good advice: “Never waste an opportunity to build
a closer relationship with your key stakeholders.”
Tom Pettus, VP, Creative
Director, INNOCEAN USA
Winning Ways: At INNOCEAN
USA, Pettus has delivered award-winning
campaigns for clients as diverse as Hyundai, Nike, and Best Buy. At Hyundai, for
instance, Pettus’s integrated campaign, which enhanced
the site for the Elantra car with a virtual test drive animation, garnered more than 910,000 virtual test drives
in less than six months and helped the Hyundai Elantra
surpass Hyundai’s perennial sales leader, the Sonata.
Defining moment: When Pettus arrived at R/GA in
2003, most of his experience had been on the traditional
side of marketing. He’d done print and radio at agencies
like Deutsch and McCann Erickson. But at R/GA, Pettus
found himself dropped into a group working on new Nike
business. “I started getting a digital grad school education by virtue of where I was seated,” Pettus says. “That’s
where I transitioned into the work I’m doing now.”
Good read: Pettus reads mostly blogs, like ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, and Mashable.
Good advice: “Don’t think just within your medium.”
Marisa Nelson
“Nothing can stop
a person with the
right mental attitude from achieving his or her goal.
Nothing on earth
can help a person
with the wrong
mental attitude.”
–Thomas Jefferson
Matt Olson
“If you can prove
it, then you know
you’re doing the
right thing.”
William Peterson
“Live the
dream, one email
at a time.”
Tom Pettus
“If you’re not
curious and opening up new apps
and technologies
as they come
online, this isn’t
the place for you
to be.”
–Alex Bogusky
10. 28 | November 2013 | www.dmnews.com
40 UNDER 40
Slavi Samardzija, Chief
Analytics Officer, Wunderman
Winning ways: The data insight tools
Slavi Samardzija
“There’s always
a way to do
things better.”
Jodie Sangster
“My personal
motto is, ‘Anything
is possible.’”
Stephanie Scheele
“Right or wrong,
never in doubt.”
Jason Siegel
“Pigs get fat, hogs
get slaughtered.”
and best practices Samardzija created
at Wunderman are now used by global
brands like Nokia, Citigroup, KimberlyClark, Coca-Cola, and IBM. Within the company he has
led, mentored, and managed large teams of marketing
strategists, data analysts, and advanced level statisticians.
Defining moment: Samardzija grew up in the former Yugoslavia, where he attended a school specializing
in math. When he moved to the U.S. to further his education, he felt he should study business since he could
easily get an engineering degree in his home country.
One year into studying marketing, however, Samardzija
realized that there was a significant intersection between
numbers and business in market research. “I went into
business to get into other areas but quickly found that
market research was a perfect fit,” he says, “and that
grew into direct marketing, where I’ve been the last 15
or 16 years.”
Good read: Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt. “It’s just fascinating to
read about their system of government and interactions
among the senators and the politics and the interpersonal relationships that existed at that time.”
Good advice: “It’s critical to seek out mentors early on.”
Jodie Sangster, CEO,
Association for Data-Driven
Marketing & Advertising
Winning ways: Jodie Sangster is a
direct marketing powerhouse. Not only
does she sit at the helm of the ADMA,
Asia-Pacific’s largest marketing association—a role she
took on at just 35—she’s chair of the International Federation of DMAs, which spans more than 30 countries. She
recently developed Australia’s first CMO network and
helped to establish a DMA in Saudi Arabia. A trained
lawyer in three countries, Sangster has served as both
the chief privacy and compliance office at Acxiom Asia
Pacific and as SVP of education and global development
for the DMA in Washington, D.C.
Defining moment: “Going to work in the United
States. I went from being a lawyer in Europe and Australia into a much broader business role that included a
global remit and a wide marketing perspective. I loved
being a lawyer, but found myself more inspired by the
business world. Because of this opportunity, I felt ready
to take on my first CEO role.”
Good read: “I’m not a big fan of business books, although I have read a few in my time. Too many give
advice without context. But one of my staff loaned me
Douglas Rushkoff’s Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, which examines anxiety about living in a continuous ‘now’ world enabled by the pings of email, social
media, and technology. It’s fascinating and disturbing.”
Good advice: “Take every opportunity that presents
itself—no experiences are ever wasted.”
Stephanie Scheele, Senior
Director, Marketing Insights
and Services, Vera Bradley
Winning Ways: For Scheele, integrat-
ed marketing is always in style. During
her 11-year tenure at Vera Bradley, she
led the consolidation of the company’s customer database, which allowed the company to move from one-sizefits-all messaging to tailored communications. She also
played a major role in the launch of Vera Bradley Japan.
Defining Moment: “In the recent past our VP of
marketing left Vera Bradley to take a position with another company. His departure left me in a position to assume several roles. That situation, while initially viewed
as a problem, turned out to be a great opportunity for
me. I was given the opportunity to take on additional
responsibilities, manage more people, and make more
decisions for the marketing department at Vera Bradley.
The situation, while challenging, provided an opportunity for growth and gave me additional confidence in
my ability as a leader.”
Good read: “The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.
It revealed how happiness actually fuels success and performance, not the other way around.”
Good advice: “No job is too little, regardless of
your title.”
Jason Siegel, Partner and
Creative Director, Bluetext
Winning ways: In the grand tradition
of young, driven entrepreneurs, Siegel
founded his first digital agency, Internet
Gravity, in his dorm room. Soon after (in
1998) he took home Yahoo’s College Web Designer of
the Year award, and he hasn’t slowed down since. After
selling Internet Gravity—which under Siegel’s leadership
grew into a top 20 agency in the greater Washington,
D.C. area—to global PR agency Qorvis, Siegel stayed
busy, developing award-winning apps and still finding
the time to found marketing software company UFollowUp in 2002. Not one to let moss grow, Siegel started
integrated communications agency Bluetext in 2011 and
sold UFollowUp to Lasso CRM in 2012. Today Bluetext
is a multimillion-dollar company with top-tier clients, including Google and Cisco.
Defining moment: “I had the opportunity to design a mobile app for the 2008 inauguration of President
Obama, creating a groundbreaking experience that
provided information to more than a million attendees
and conducted nationwide interactive surveys. The app
resulted in both a Webby and widespread media recognition, including being interviewed on ABC News with
Charles Gibson.”
Good read: “Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I strongly
believe in learning from others’ mistakes and this book is
a great set of lessons on how to overcome those mistakes.”
Good advice: “The most important skill is to think.
Don’t simply push paper—be creative. That will take you
higher and farther than anything else.”
11. www.dmnews.com | November 2013 | 29
40 UNDER 40
Loni Stark, Director,
Product & Industry
Marketing, Adobe Systems
Winning Ways: Stark has never let
her job define or limit what she can do.
From engineering to product management to marketing at Adobe and to cofounding Stark
Insider—a technology, theater, wine, and food website—
there’s no stopping her. Stark’s “can do” attitude helped
her spearhead the launch of Adobe Experience Manager, which is number one in market share worldwide for
web content management.
Defining moment: “It was in a parking lot in San
Jose one morning when I just started at Adobe. I had
just had a setback and questioned my ability to achieve
what I wanted. I paced around because I always think
better when I’m moving. I had an epiphany. I realized
that what I thought didn’t actually matter. If I questioned
whether I was good enough, how could I ever convince
someone else to give me a chance at something more?
I vowed to never be the one to limit my own potential
from self-doubt. I would shoot for the moon and let the
world try to tell me otherwise.”
Good read: “Crossing the Chasm [by Geoffrey Moore]
is the book that has been most influential in how I
think about the adoption of technology in business
and creativity.”
Good advice: “Always strive to understand the
‘why’ behind what you’re trying to accomplish, then
constantly innovate and question how things ‘have always’ been done.”
Mason Thelen, Founding
Partner and Owner, Elicit
Winning Ways: Thelen is a master
of customer-centricity, loyalty marketing,
and analytics and segmentation—and he’s
got the clientele to prove it. He’s developed loyalty and relationship marketing programs for
the likes of Home Depot, NASCAR, and Pepsico.
Defining moment: “[A successful career] is the summation of the great colleagues, friends, mentors, competitors, and business partners [a person] has worked
with who have given opportunities to grow, share, and
build together.”
Good read: How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity
Works by Jonah Lehrer. “Lehrer, unintentionally, taught
an important lesson this past year when he effectively
killed his brilliant young career by making up a quote
supposedly attributed to Bob Dylan....We can be brilliant and do amazing work, but we are only as good as
our word, we have to respect facts, and personal integrity can never be sacrificed.”
Good advice: Thelen cites five key tenets to drive
your career:
• You are the sum of the five people you spend the
most time with.
• Honesty, loyalty, and respect should drive every
decision you make.
• Over-preparedness is the secret ingredient to
real success.
• Get the facts; marketers have lived too long in an era
of heuristics, self-created belief systems, and gut feel.
• Find a way to work, partner, and challenge your
universe of clients, partners, and competitors in a
constructive and mutually beneficial way.
Gene Turner, SVP, Managing
Partner, Horizon Media
Winning ways: Turner was under
30 when he arrived at Horizon Media
to build a direct business. Less than a
decade later the company’s direct marketing division, headed by Turner, has 40 clients and is
Horizon’s largest and most profitable unit, with billings
of $550 million. Turner put together a cross-functional
team conversant in digital marketing and brand development and built the unit on a “strategy first” platform
that has attracted such clients as DISH Network, Geico,
and Weight Watchers. In the past year alone Horizon’s
direct division scored a dozen new client wins adding up
to $300 million in billings.
Defining moment: “I left Wunderman to join Horizon, whose direct marketing discipline was in its infancy,
with only one other direct response employee and one client. I saw this as an incredible opportunity and it’s been
rewarding to build my division from the ground up.”
Good read: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. “It explains
when you should trust your instincts and when to be
wary of them, how first impressions matter, and that
decisions made quickly can be just as effective as those
made more deliberately and cautiously.”
Good advice: “Be persistent and tenacious, have a
sense of humor, and go above and beyond.”
Mike Volpe, CMO, HubSpot
Winning ways: Volpe has a knack for
getting customers to come to Hubspot.
His inbound marketing tactics have
grown HubSpot’s marketing reach to include 1.4 million blog views per month
and more than 290,000 Twitter followers. His marketing leadership has helped the company grow 82% yearover-year in annual revenue.
Defining moment: Volpe’s biggest risk was joining
HubSpot in 2007, when it only had five employees, no
money, and only a handful of customers. Before that,
he had a great job as director of marketing at a growing,
successful company called SolidWorks, which sold engineering software. But as SolidWorks grew Volpe wanted
to try something more entrepreneurial. “I believed in
[HubSpot] so much—I knew the market was there and
if the product was there, if we could solve the problem,
then people would buy it,” Volpe recalls. “There was a
lot of risk in the execution. But I felt the market would
be there.”
Good read: The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.
Loni Stark
“To deliver substance with style,
order matters.”
Mason Thelen
“Do what you said
you would do,
when you said you
would do it, for
what you said it
would cost.”
Gene Turner
“Horizon’s motto
is ‘Business is Personal’ and it really
does resonate with
the way I do business. I emphasize
to our team that
our clients’ successes should be
our successes and
their pain points
should be our
pain points.”
Mike Volpe
“Buyers don’t
wake up in the
morning and say,
‘I want to see
some ads.’ So why
do marketers wake
up and say, ‘Let’s
make some ads?’”
12. 30 | November 2013 | www.dmnews.com
40 UNDER 40
Good advice: “Get to know the buyer and become
what they want to consume, rather than interrupting the
things they want to consume.”
Andrea Wilson, Director of
Digital Strategy, Luxury
Practice Lead, iProspect
Winning ways: Wilson’s position is
Andrea Wilson
“Do what’s right.
Do your best.
Do unto others.”
Rudy Wilson
“Good, better,
best; never let it
rest ’til the good
gets better
and the better
gets best.”
Mike Woods
“Fail quickly.”
Wacarra Yeomans
“Be firm on things
that matter, fair
with your people,
and always the
first to smile.”
proof of her trailblazing ways. iProspect’s
Luxe Group didn’t exist until she invented it. Noting how small the marketing budgets were
with luxury clients and how little customer intelligence
they had at hand, Wilson launched a research project
and a whitepaper on affluent shoppers. A new practice
was born at the global digital agency. “There are luxespecific agencies in Europe, but we noticed there was a
unique challenge here,” she says. “As an agency, if you
don’t know how to speak to luxury consumers the right
way, luxury clients are not going to work with you.”
Defining moment: “Spearheading our affluent male
research has had a significant impact on my own career
and the agency. No one was really talking about the
male shopper, and our exposure skyrocketed. We got
coverage from CNBC and USA Today.”
Good read: Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business by Harley Manning and
Kerry Bodine.
Good advice: “Don’t be afraid to ask ‘Why?’ and
expose yourself to everything you possibly can beyond
your comfort zone, especially the difficult and the scary.
Pushing yourself will help shape your experiences and
perception, allowing you to gain confidence and perspective as you meet new challenges.
Rudy Wilson, VP,
Brand Management and
Advertising, AT&T
Winning ways: After 10 years over-
seeing digital and direct marketing at
Frito-Lay, Wilson took his talents to
AT&T where he oversaw the telco’s “It Can Wait”
anti-texting-while-driving campaign. What began as a
small effort one year ago has since garnered 1.5 million pledges to never text and drive, and more than
200 corporate collaborators, including Verizon, Sprint,
and T-Mobile.
Defining moment: When working on Doritos for
Frito-Lay, Wilson was tasked with turning the brand
around in a way that hadn’t been done before. “They
gave me enough rope to be risky, but it gave me the confidence to do new things,” he says. The result was Crash
the Superbowl, an online contest that began in 2006 in
which contestants shot their own Doritos commercials.
Good read: Wilson makes it a point to read and
watch the same materials as his target audience. “It’s
to understand their frame of reference,” he says. At
Doritos, he zeroed in on MTV and teen magazines. At
AT&T, he reads tech blogs. “Marketing is part art and
part science,” Wilson says. “That art is a little about gut
and if I didn’t have that frame of reference, it’d be hard
to get that gut built up.”
Good advice: “There are a lot of people out there
with great ideas, but not a lot of people out there who can
sell their great ideas.”
Mike Woods, Head of
Digital, Framestore
Winning ways: As a founder of
Framestore’s Digital Department over a
decade ago, Woods identified the impact
of the Internet and began creating a content platform. His success today is best seen through the
iconic characters on primetime commercials made possible by the work he pioneered—from GEICO’s Gecko to
Coca-Cola’s Polar Bears.
Defining moment: Woods’ defining moment came
from horsing around at work. In the mid-1990s Woods
worked in CGI and post-production on video. However,
he’d also use some of his work resources to experiment
on his own building websites and making video content
years before YouTube and viral videos, putting it online,
and trying to understand what people liked to watch.
“Silly mash-up things seemed to be the perfect material
for online consumption,” he says. “This was the time of
the Ally McBeal dancing baby.”
Good read: Woods has been reading the long-outof-print British author Patrick Hamilton, whose books
were steeped in working-class British life lurching in and
out of pubs.
Good advice: “Soak up as many influences in the
field as you can.”
Wacarra Yeomans, Director,
Creative Services, Responsys
Winning ways: At only 30 years of
age, Yeomans manages 70 Responsys
team members and nearly 150 clients.
She developed Responsys’ content strategy offering, and in mobile email convinced 40 customers to embrace responsive design. One leading outdoor
gear and apparel retailer saw a 40% increase in mobile
opens as a result.
Defining moment: A few years ago, when Yeomans worked at a small agency that was eventually
acquired by Responsys, she realized mid-presentation
that the client already knew most of what she was talking about. “Having a less awesome moment in your career makes you think about what you could have done
better,” she says. The experience pushed her to look at
ways to get in front of problems clients have, to anticipate their needs so she can preemptively start working
on a solution.
Good read: The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas,
Products, and Services Easier to Understand by Lee LeFever.
Good advice: “At its core, digital marketing is all
about what the customer wants and the best way to succeed is to make sure the marketing decisions you’re making will benefit your consumer.” n