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Jason Hirschhorn, President, Sling Media Entertainment GroupMr. Hirschhorn joined Sling Media in December, 2006 to preside over the newly created Sling Media Entertainment Group. The Sling Media Entertainment Group was formed to define and create even richer and more engaging experiences for Slingbox customers as well as their family and friends. Mr. Hirschhorn is tasked with delivering entirely new applications and services enabled by the Slingbox’s marriage of familiar TV programming and richly interactive Web-connected devices. Before joining Sling Media, Hirschhorn was a Founding Partner at TripleH Media Advisors, a digital media consultancy. Before TripleH, Jason was Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks. At MTV Networks, Jason was responsible for the company's digital media businesses and interactive strategy. Peter Storck, President - ThinkVine Simulations[Former President of Jupiter Research - which he helped build into a $65 million syndicated research business - and one of the world's first experts in online advertising.] Peter Storck manages ThinkVine's agent-based modeling simulations business. Prior to ThinkVine he was president of Points North Group, a research firm focused on digital media strategy, which he started after having been president of Jupiter Research, the $65 million Internet strategy consultancy. Earlier in his seven years at Jupiter, he was senior vice president of research, and before that, founder, senior analyst, and director of the firm's online advertising practice, the first of its kind in the world. Prior to Jupiter, Mr. Storck served in state and national political campaigns dating back to 1984 and as an advisor in Congress, and he taught writing at Columbia University. Mr. Storck is a member of the advisory board of leading online ad industry conference, ad:tech. He has appeared frequently as an interactive expert at ad:tech and other industry conferences and in media such as CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Advertising Age. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University. Paul McEnany, New Media and Marketing Strategist
Paul McEnany is a populist marketer who creates strategies and marketing programs which build lasting relationships with consumers. He is a specialist in participatory media, with a background in both traditional marketing and account planning. As a New Media Marketing Strategist at Dallas-based full-service agency Levenson and Hill , he has worked with companies including Aaron Brothers Art & Framing, Gordon’s Jewelers, Greatwide Logistics Services, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks, Warner Bros. Pictures, Church’s Chicken, and Glazer’s Distributors. Paul has been instrumental in launching Ambush Interactive at Levenson & Hill. For the new division, he is developing talent, growing resources, and integrating new-media values with those of the traditional agency. Paul writes one of the Top 25 marketing blogs globally, Hee-Haw Marketing, in which he advocates responsible marketing in ways that make companies and their brands more relevant in the lives of their customers. Besides the MadAve Journal, he is also a regular contributor to Top 25 Blog, Beyond Madison Avenue, which examines the changing advertising landscape. He also publishes his own blog, titled, Hee Haw Marketing. A budding activist, he can be reached at paul.mcenany@gmail.com.
Wendy McHale, Editor & PublisherBefore launching Madison Avenue Consultants and the Mad Ave Journal, Wendy McHale was a senior consultant with Vogue Magazine, the flagship Conde Nast publication, providing insight and sales support for their print and integrated marketing sales propositions. She brings a 15-year background in sales and management with major publishers, including Time Inc. and Conde Nast, both of which have twice employed her in senior sales positions. Wendy has significant experience working with start-ups, most recently as Executive Beauty Director for the Conde Nast Bridal Group. In 2002, Wendy won "Salesperson of the Year" at the Conde Nast Bridal Group for her sales growth using cross-platform solutions. Over the course of her two stints at Time Inc. Wendy was hired as Fashion Director with InStyle Magazine at the launch of that extremely successful publication. She began her career in Time's College publishing division with Student Life Magazine, in circulation. At Conde Nast, besides the Conde Nast Bridal Group, she has worked with Mademoiselle, Glamour and Architectural Digest and Bon Appetit. Before Time Inc. and Conde Nast, Wendy had stints with Murdoch and Reed Elsevier. Besides Fashion, her collective sales background has given her category knowledge of Beauty, Travel & Hospitality and Home Furnishings. At Reed Elsevier, Wendy helped launch "The Official Cruise Guide" as Global Advertising Director. She was 28 and at the time, the youngest person ever to hold the Global Ad Director position at the company. Tim McHale, Managing Editor
With a 19-year background in traditional media and 7 years in Interactive marketing to date, McHale is best known for his proactive leadership with integrated marketing. A self-described "Media Activist," as co-founder/managing partner of Madison Avenue Consultants and the MadAve Journal Publisher, he is responsible for the day to day operations of the two LLC's. Tim has planned media and serviced over 150 B2C and B2B Brands, such as Procter and Gamble, McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch, Intel, MCI, Nike, Starbucks, British Airways, General Motors, Isuzu, American Airlines, Warner Bros., General Foods, Philip Morris, JC Penney, Exxon-Mobil and AOL among others. McHale was co-founder and Chief Media Officer of Tribal DDB Worldwide, a separate division of DDB Worldwide (Omnicom). According to The New York Times, he was the first Interactive professional on Madison Avenue to be appointed to this title, representing the increased importance of media in the agency equation. While at Tribal, he managed a 50+ person staff across 7 offices. He launched Tribal Connections, Tribal's global interactive CRM and strategy group. Before joining DDB, he was EVP, Director of Strategic Planning and Development at i-Traffic, a division of Agency.com (also Omnicom), also leading their business development efforts. Before forming Madison Avenue Consultants, McHale was co-founder and CEO of Underscore Marketing. Tim began his career as an intern at Ogilvy & Mather. Kurt Brokaw, Culture EditorKurt has been collaborating with Wendy and Tim McHale on numerous creative projects for over 20 years. He is the cultural conscience of the MadAve Journal. He spent 30 years on Madison Avenue as a writer and creative supervisor at Grey Advertising, Cunningham & Walsh, Benton & Bowles, and McCann-Erickson. His accounts included P&G, General Foods, Drackett, Texaco, American Home Products, The U.S. Navy, Heublein, Gordon's Gin, Van Heusen, Buick, MGM, and RCA Records. He also organized and staffed RCA's first in-house agency as creative director of advertising/sales promotion for all of the label's artists, working with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Elvis Presley, Jefferson Airplane, The Guess Who, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Townes Van Zandt and Chet Atkins. On the agency side he wrote the Texaco campaign with Jack Benny in all media for four years, and created ads for other show business legends including George Burns and Harry Blackstone, Jr. Since 1986 Kurt has taught "All About Advertising" to undergrads, grad students and working professionals at New School University in New York City. His classes welcome guest specialists like media entrepreneurs Wendy McHale and Tim McHale as well as Stephanie Blackwood, co-founder of the leading gay/lesbian agency, Double Platinum. Kurt also teaches "The Big Idea," a new three-credit copy design course that partners New School and Lang students who want to try writing advertising with Parsons' students who want to try designing ads. Non-credit working professionals can also take the course and partner each other. "The Big Idea" meets 15 Monday evenings from 8:00 to 10:00 starting September 10. Additionally at The New School, Kurt taught in the Humanities Division for 10 years, alternating "Pulp Fiction" (a history of pulp magazines and their major authors from 1890 to 1950) and "Killer Writers" (a study of crime noir writers and novels from Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson, to Chester Himes, Patricia Highsmith and Donald E. Westlake). Kurt also teaches a continuing film series at the 92nd Street Y, "Killer Movies: Lost Films Noirs" (the fifth annual installment begins February 5, 2008), focusing on the best and most obscure crime dramas of the 1940s. Kurt is also launching a new film series, "Lost Weekends: Alcoholism At The Movies," focusing on classic drinking films of the 20th century. This ten week series begins October 2 and runs for ten Tuesday evenings (7:00 to 9:30 p.m.) at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 64th Street and Central Park West. Info at nysec.org, hit Table of Contents, hit Other Events. Kurt holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Journalism, both with advertising majors, from the University of Wisconsin, writing the first thesis there on television commercials. He also taught advertising at the University of Illinois, sharing a faculty office with the legendary direct mail specialist James Webb Young. He is married with four children. Kurt's son, Chris, is a rock musician with three solo CDs in international distribution, plus 20 years' experience as lead guitarist recording and touring with Come, Consonant, Steve Wynn, and Evan Dando; Chris also played drums in the seminal slo-core band Codeine, and plays drums currently with The New Year. Kurt can be reached at brokawk@newschool.edu. Ritesh Patel
Ritesh Patel, Co-Founder, Avivocom LLC You can never get Ritesh to talk much about himself, which is why we are delighted to do so here. His contributions and influence within the media technology industry have been felt across many of the most respected Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Patel has over 15 years of operations and information technology experience. His professional profile includes senior positions with Euro RSCG, Dimension Data, Agency.com, Conduit Communications, Perot Systems, Forte PLC, Hospitality Perspectives, Inc, Citicorp/Citibank, Holiday Inn International, American Express TRS and BPF Travel, Inc.
As co-founder, Ritesh has been instrumental in the success of the company's offering. Currently, Avivocom's technology uses a combination of video, VoIP and text chat to let its enterprise clients converse with online prospects. The company offers two products, LiveGuide and LiveBanner. It is widely used by IBM to support their Express Advantage product suite aimed at mid-sized businesses. According to Click Z, IBM believes the ad unit helps it be accessible to the SMB community, which tends to think of the company as monolithic and aloof. Prior to joining Euro RSCG, Ritesh worked for Dimension Data, a South African Systems Integration services business where he was responsible for the Architecture of solutions for global 1000 customers. The focus was mainly on Service Oriented Architectures for clients in the financial services, retail and health care industries. Ritesh joined Dimesion Data after 4 and a half years as the Vice President of Technology for AGENCY.COM in New York, where he was responsible for managing a team of nearly 40 professionals to create the technical infrastructures for web based applications. In 1998, Ritesh was the Managing Director for the New York Office of Conduit Communications, an Interactive Strategy Consulting and Development company headquartered in the UK. During his tenure, Ritesh was responsible for building the NYC office and working with clients in the financial services, travel, health care and insurance industries. Ritesh joined Conduit after having worked in the Information Technology Strategy & Planning department for U.K. based Forte Hotels, Europe's second largest global hotel company. Earlier in his career, Ritesh spent five years as the co-managing partner/founder of an information management consultancy that advised clients in the travel, financial services and catalog industries. He also spent four years with Citicorp Information Management services where, in the role of vice president of product development, he shared responsibility for the development and evaluation of information-based business opportunities in the corporate and consumer travel markets for Citicorp. Eric Frenchman
Eric Frenchman, Chief Internet Strategist, Connell Donatelli Inc. Eric is an online advertising and marketing consultant from "the great state of New Jersey" and Chief Internet Strategist for the D.C-based online advertising agency, Connell Donatelli Inc. He is currently working on the online advertising team for John McCain for President, 2008. In 2006, Eric planned and purchased online political advertising for a number of high-visibility candidates. Since 1998, Eric has managed multi-million dollar online advertising and CRM campaigns for AT&T, DLJdirect, Harrisdirect, and BMO Investorline. In 2003, Harrisdirect was recognized as Best Financial Advertiser. By 2005, it was ranked 17th largest online advertiser in the US. Eric is a frequent columnist for MarketingProfs.com, one of the most respective and influential blogs in the business, subscribed to by 250,000 professionals. An avid gamer, Eric shares his expertise and insights about online political advertising, WoW, and life in the digital age on his PardonMyFrench blog at www.ericfrenchman.com.
Eric holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Rutgers University and a master’s in business administration from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. Margie Johnson Ignites MindsEditors Intro Wendy: How's it going? Marjie: It's going very well! Wendy: Excellent! Before we get into talking about Ignited and the industry, would you tell me a little about your background and how you got into the business? Margie: Well it's kind of funny, my Dad had a company that he took public in the 1980's. He manufactured portable hard disc drives. It was interesting for me as a kid to watch all this going on around me and I was surrounding by the explosion of new technology. Wendy: That's interesting. Marjie: By the time I got to college to figure out what I wanted to do, it was a choice between becoming a doctor and doing something in the tech field. I ended up majoring in Managing Information Systems and when I graduated I started off as a programmer. It was a good time to be a programmer because it was the Internet boom. I began with job at Warner Brothers where I programmed their DVD's. Wendy: Wow, what a cool job just coming out of college. Margie: It was great, because it was really new. Not that many people were doing it. Looking back, the entry into was relatively easy because there weren't that many people with experience Wendy: Was that in the late 1990's? Margie: It was around 1997. Wendy Okay. Margie: It's funny because if you try to get a job like that today, it's almost impossible. You must have experience because everyone is trying to get into the field. While I was programming I quickly figured out that I liked the social interaction that comes with beign a project manager. I really enjoyed it and became good at it because in part, I knew the pet peeves of my programmers! Wendy: That makes sense. Margie: Other managers didn't understand these things and what it took for a programmer to get their job done. One thing we would do that was different back then was to have brainstorming sessions. I thought that was really useful. It's how we operate here at Ignited. Wendy:Great. Where did you go to school? Margie: Long Beach State. Wendy: Have you always lived in California! Margie: Yes, I'm so local it hurts! (LOL) But seriously, I come from a tight knit family. Everyone is here so California is home to me. Wendy: Do you see yourself today more on the technical side or the marketing side? Margie: It's kind of an even split. That said, I lean more to the technical side, based on my experience. I think having a technical understanding can be an excellent background to develop good marketing and strategic skills in our business. For one, it definitely increases the chance your tech recommendations will line up with the overall creative direction. Wendy: Who are some of Ignited Minds' clients? Margie: We work with Sony VAIO Latin America, LA Weekly and NBC Universal, among others. We also do work for several gaming companies. That's how our company originated. Ignited's founders came from Activision. We're pleased with the diversity of our client list outside of the gaming world. Some people just think of us as a gaming advertising agency but we do much more than that. Wendy: Tell me what technology is coming down the road that you like. Margie: There are a couple of things that come to mind. Wendy: Like what? Marjie: Well, I like to push my vision out beyond the immediate future. While this doesn't sound revolutionary, I get very excited about the convergence of various mediums. Wendy: So do I. Marjie: The next area is the integration between Television and the Web. The reason clients like the web so much is because it's measurable. I have a vision of walking into my house one day and have one server that does it all. Wendy: We're definitely on our way there. Marjie: The excitement for me is to offer consumers the kind of things which will give them more control. Which is another reason why people like the web. Consumers are multi-tasking. Consumers are watching TV and playing games at the same time. They actually can measure where they are with the live game on television. I think it's cool. It excites me to find out what people are doing and what they like. It helps me do my job better. Wendy: We interviewed the founder of LiveHive, a company that does just that kind of thing. You can be watching an NFL game on TV which is in sync with the game, only it's on the computer. It allows you to play with your friends through a network so you can make predictions about what is going to happen in the next play. It's a whole different type of stat. Margie: I agree. But many marketers think, "Well, what's the likelihood that someone is going to be watching and playing along at the same time?" I think it's just like doing your homework while watching TV or listening to the radio. It's the same with games. Wendy: What about mobile TV, watching video on your cell phone or personal communication device? Margie: I'm struggling with finding the right balance that PDA's should have in your life. I work quite a bit. I make it a point to stay at the office later so I can get the work done. When I go home I can shut it off. I can't always do that but it's nice to have time to yourself once in awhile. This is a nitpick but I find it rude to be checking email when you're supposed to be giving someone your full attention in a meeting. I like other little gadgets. For instance I have a PSP so I can actually watch movies when I'm at the gym, which is very cool. Wendy: I get where you're coming from. As we were talking about convergence one of the things that is being talked about is how to reach consumers on their mobile devises in a way that will be non-intrusive, using for example, behavioral targeting. What do you think of the idea of a marketer delivering a text message while you're walking by a Banana Republic? Margie. It's a great concept, but we have to be careful not to be intrusive because that will turn consumers off. One of the beautiful things about the Web is that it's user initiated, and consumers can choose to engage or not. If it's advertising on a mobile device I think the message has to be relevant. I think advertisers have to be careful not to make the same mistakes that are done on TV everyday, bombarding consumers with things that have no relevance in their lives. That's one of the reasons DVR's are so popular. Wendy: It seems marketers are cautious about jumping into the mobile space in part because they don't want to alienate consumers. I saw a survey recently that suggests a large majority people are opposed to the idea of mobile advertising because they see it as intrusive. The value prop to consumers is still not clear. Margie: Many marketers don't give consumers the credit they deserve. If you serve a consumer an ad at a time when they're not open to seeing it, it could have an adverse effect on the brand. Wendy: What do you think of UGC and the effect it's having on how a brand markets itself today? Margie: I have a different take on UGC. It's a balance between freedom and censorship. The whole point of having UGC on your site is so people will come back and visit. The only way they're going to do that though is if they feel it's a free forum. Of course you don't want them on your site saying terrible things about your brand. But if you censor heavily, people will question how authentic is it? There's still a level of respect you must give to your consumers and to have faith that they're not going to talk too trashy or use inappropriate language. Wendy: It's a delicate balance. Brands need to be transparent and consumers need to be respectful of their sites. Margie: I think it's a good idea to have several employees on the site monitoring what's going on and what's being said, but you should also allow consumers to police themselves. We built LA Weekly.com and its UCS. The way we built the logic into the system is that we are not policing it and they are not policing it, they're allowing their consumers to have a free voice. Wendy: Give me an example. Marjie: The model is sort of like Flickr, you can upload an image and assign meta tags to them and say what you want, but if something is inappropriate and someone flags it, a warning is sent to the user. If the image is flagged a second time it's pulled down. That user gets put into a warning bin. If that happens they have to sign up again or a member of LA Weekly contacts them and tells them they've going to have to watch what they post or they'll be removed from the system. Wendy: Interesting model. Margie: The self-policing works very well. A lot of people like that site. We just won an award for the LA Weekly campaign. Wendy: Congratulations! I'm curiou | ||
