My Beer Blog is Getting More Views...

I fear my [just updated] beer blog is getting more views than my work story. So goes, for a busy professional, I fear.

While I may not like the absence in between my posts, it's not for lack of events.

Since the last time I wrote a blog post, nearly two years ago, I have continued to work on exciting projects.

My favorite is the Microsoft Imagine Cup. Not to neglect Exsilio Corporate Marketing - we've done a lot; we're going to our first ever tradeshow in July, we're doing bus advertising, we've got an ad on Alaska Airlines, and we've hired Jeff Brown, to head our marketing team in Redmond.

So - back to Imagine Cup. This project is fun because it's different, not typical Microsoft.

Imagine Cup is a worldwide technology competition for students - from Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelist (DPE) Group.

Imagine Cup doesn't make money for Microsoft - it does build relationships with tech students, winning them over to be long-term Microsoft product evangelists. Over 300 students, from 85 countries have participated in this past year's Imagine Cup. I was part of this project to lead the advertising and marketing plans.

I had a year of experience with the student audience under my belt, after working with the same group in 2009.

My advertising planning started with research in to student-frequented sites that were also reputable and wouldn't cause conflict with the Microsoft brand. I steered clear of any sites that served questionable content. Unfortunately - that accounted for many perfectly-targeted sites.

After clearing the list past the client, we set up a large media buy, in two parts. The first part included sites like Pandora, Grooveshark, Cliffsnotes, Sparknotes and Skype. We utilized testing for this first round to help inform the second round of buys.

After evaluating performance of this first round, we set ahead with the second half of the spend. The second half was without the lower performing sites, and included additional sites not on the first half.

In all, the media buy helped to drive the client's registration goals by 20%  Very happy with this.

Exsilio Marketing, Going Strong

Whoo! It's been a busy few months. I've been working with the owner, creative director and development team on some cool stuff for Exsilio. 

We've launched our own blog. 

(See my posts here.)

I've written eight comprehensive case studies, which include client interviews.

We've also developed five core offerings, which are bundles of our services that we can sell to clients. 

I'm really excited to see everything printed, we're putting together a complete stack of materials from a folder all the way through a portfolio.

I've also started doing project management for our marketing projects; this is helping to add value to each project as I can look from the outside in and suggest ideas to the marketing managers assigned to each project. 

All of this, AND the sun is starting to come out. 

It's going to be an eventful summer.

Corporate Marketing From the Ground Up

After just over a year on the Student Audience Marketing team at Microsoft, I came to the conclusion that I had gained a great deal of knowledge about the inner-workings of Microsoft, but had no real desire to stay there long-term.

This lead to my decision to pitch the executive team at Exsilio Solutions on the idea of me running corporate marketing and PR. This position did not exist, but I knew exactly what needed to get done, and how to do it.

I started by putting together a deck on all of the elements that needed to be in place for Exsilio to successfully build their brand and market themselves as a full-service technology solutions provider. I presented my plan, which included high level strategy as well as a tactics, and I was awarded the job.

This is really an amazing opportunity, as Exsilio has needed this for over a year now, to the point of it being a thorn in our sides. I have the chance to build Exsilio's brand and help win new business, by implementing a basic marketing and PR plan, and doing so completely from the ground up, with no existing framework or guidelines.

We're about a month into it now, and I've led the executive team through marketing and brand planning exercises, where we've determined mission statement, pillars and goals, target audiences, value propositions, tactical elements, and more. I'm having a great time and I can't wait for what's next.

Microsoft Student Audience Marketing

Over the past 9 months, I've had the pleasure of working under Amy Strande, director of the Student Audience Marketing group at Microsoft.

In this role, I manage four of our main digital properties and two associated campaigns. Our goals are to create awareness around our digital properties (drive traffic) as a resource for students to learn, work and play. In this role, I manage content additions (project management) by working with various development vendors, as well as strategy for how each channel should operate, and the connections between each channel. I also manage the content and sending for the monthly student newsletter (80,000 subscribers ww). Through leading the newsletter, I've also been fully trained to use ExactTarget.

I've written a whitepaper on how best our team could leverage social media (it was also meant to be an informational/educational resource for Amy). I've written a plan on how to utilize our Student Lounge--the only social networking site from Microsoft just for students, and grown Twitter to over 1,000 followers in 7 months. Here's how I introduced my plan for Twitter.

We're hitting our traffic goals on all digital channels, and we're excited to see what next year holds.

Our channels:
Microsoft Student Experience site
Microsoft Student Lounge
ms_student on Twitter
Student Experience on Facebook
Student Experience on mobile

Timely Article from Fast Company

My favorite industry news source: Fast Company. What is Twitter? Apparently No One Knows

A timely article about Twitter--I'm writing a whitepaper for our team's social marketing ventures and Twitter is on the list...I've been struggling with including it in our portfolio because I'm not sure it's safe to add yet another channel to the list of ways for people to connect with us...will it cannibalize our Facebook account and the social networking site we're launching today? Will it be a total flop? Hmm...

Beginning at Microsoft

What else would I be doing?

Digital marketing. I'm contracting through Exsilio Consulting to work at Microsoft.

My first assignment with Exsilio is working with a rock star group of very intelligent women at Microsoft, on the microsoft.com/students team. Harkening back to my Seahawks days, I'm in charge of content for a monthly newsletter that reaches 80,000+ subscribers all over the world. I'm also going to be coordinating work with various agencies working on our sites and creative, including a phase 2 launch of our new site. I have many more internal facing tasks and I'm excited to continue my work here...I'm currently in day five.

Right now, I'm sitting in usability testing session number 7, where we're running students through our new sites--pretty interesting stuff! While I've been an observer at many focus groups, usability testing is something I've only done a handful of times.

I'll keep my blog updated on all of the truely exciting work I'm doing at Microsoft. Stay tuned! (I'm not talking to anyone, no one subscribes to my blog).

E

Interactive

PG&E

My first day at our San Francisco office was spent getting a handle on what was happening with the SmartRate program microsite...and what needed to get done. I ended up taking over the producer duties on this about two weeks after I joined the team.

I was in charge of reporting on the program enrollments daily, as well as data analysis and reporting and working with a third party vendor to coordinate additional work flows.

See it here

I had the opportunity to work with Chris Black, who we ended up hiring full time. Amazing developer, great guy, I learned a ton from him, and had a great time doing it.

I also worked on the microsite for the SmartAC program, starting with estimating, schedule creation and modification, resource allocations (managed 3 freelancers simultaneously), as well as setting up a data feed with a third party vendor.


Kaiser Permanente

For the last half of 2008, I was the producer on http://www.buykp.org/. (In order to access the site, enter zip 90210.)

Ther are a total of eight versions of buykp.org, one for each of these states: CA, CO, OH, HI, GA, WA, OR and MAS (mid atlantic states of Maryland, D.C. and Virginia).

Content on each of the regions is different and revisions take approximately one month for each portal.

We are also responsible for the creative on buykp.org.

I also worked on content and form updates, as well as A/B testing for the zip entry to try and reduce the current 85% bounce rate on the current zip entry. We recommended a zip-overlay using a modal window (lightbox).

Washington State Tourism

My first experience with interactive was with the Washington State Tourism banner and paid search campaign in early 08.

Being the first year that Tourism had the budget for online, we recommended a comprehensive media plan with inventory on the top 50 travel sites.

We used the assets from the print campaign to build rich media, expandable banners.

I'm going to learn how to host the banners so they are always available--coming soon!

In addition to banners, we continued the paid search campaign that had been started the year before. This was tied in to an overall effort to increase online presence of Washington State Tourism, as they were also working on dramatically revising their site.

Washington Forest Protection Association

Just after Tourism's creative was finished, it was on to WFPA's banner for 08.

WFPA needed to continue using the existing banner, but had a small budget to revise and add new information. WFPA's goal was/is to educate "good voters" (those who voted in 2 of the last 4 elections) and legislators on the practices of sustainable forestry in Washington state.

After tossing around many ideas internally, I was given the opportunity to present my idea of adding a new "hot spot" in each frame of the banner. This met all of the client's goals and was something we could execute internally given a tight time crunch.

The banner is going to be posted here.

Updated Resume

Click here!

Triiiibes

I was recently invited to join Seth Godin's social networking site, which I love. Apparently he only puts an invite out to a few hundred people a year, so I am happy to have been one of the chosen few.

So I'm posting to talk about how much I like being a part of it, an active member, a contributor, a critic, and an observer.

This post also serves as a broadcast point for Seth Godin's work and to encourage the reader to partake in one of his many books or subscribe to his blog here.

WSJ--Super Bowl Advertisers--Added value on Twitter

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123361722870741333.html

A new chapter in the work story

Well, two weeks ago I started this blog in order to add another, unexpected dimension to my resume--little did I know I would be adding an unexpected dimension to this blog as well.

I have accepted an offer from my agency's San Francisco office to move there and work on an account (to be named at a later date--I do know what it is but not sure I should share it) in the utilities category.

I'm very excited! I will be learning something new (not a surprise)--DM--so I'm studying up and studying hard.

More to come as the journey continues.

Broadcast (TV)

Washington Forest Protection Association

While WFPA's TV spot was already complete (they run one spot for two years), we were able to secure a partnership with Comcast to produce a video on demand segment about sustainable forestry.

This ten minute segment featured three of the most well known and respected leaders in Washington's forest industry, discussing the past, present and future of forests and importance of sustainable forestry.

I had the honor of writing the script, and working with the client to tailor it closer to what they wanted to say--but overall, I felt very proud to have been such a large part of this piece.

We spent many hours scouting, filming and walking around in the beautiful forests just outside of Shelton, Washington. Scott Bell, the producer at Comcast was a pleasure to work with--extremely professional and on top of everything. After many hours of Comcast's editing and client review we produced the Sustainable Forestry Dialogue.

Print work I've been a part of

WFPA: 2008 in Review
This document was called the "leave behind" as it was given out at the end of WFPA's annual meeting to all attendees, summarizing accomplishments for the year.

Washington State Tourism-2008 Print Campaign:
Wine Ad
Flight Ad
Mt. St. Helens Ad
Museum of Glass Ad

16 different publications, 56 inserts, four month campaign.

Washington State Tourism-2008 Co-Op Print Campaign:
Example

For about six months, I worked with publisher representatives to sell 1/6 page co-op spaces to Washington Tourism partners around Washington state. Just under $500,000 was sold, the most ever in the four year history of the co-op program.

This was one of the more demanding projects, as I had to be very diligent in my organization in order to accurately track who each co-op space was sold to, for how much, and receive/edit all materials from those purchasing the spaces in order to create co-op pages.

The 90 degree angle learning "curve" called DraftFCB

My first few months as an account executive definitely weren't easy--but I learned more during that short period of time than I learned in the few years leading up to it. My boss and I worked together, just the two of us, on two small-ish accounts--he's a hardened NY'er and doesn't hold anything back. He taught me a great deal--how vital it is to know all the information and all the details all the time (especially before opening your mouth on the subject); how important it is to phrase things appropriately and what a huge difference it can make if you say things the right/wrong way; ask question after question after question and don't be afraid to look stupid if you don't know the answer--go out and find it. Not to mention, I was taught what are not my most favorite things, but certainly necessary, like meeting minutes, billing, managing large budgets with multiple job numbers, working with vendors...all challenging but rewarding when they are done correctly!

You see...I was a bit of a know-it-all before I met Greg--I had always excelled in everything I had ever attempted to do--sports, other jobs, more sports, making friends, school...but now that I was in a profession where clients can hang on your every word and take it as concrete fact--whoa--a whole other story. I realized I knew absolutely nothing.

I had a little bit of experience with clients but only as an observer before DraftFCB, but had always been noted as a "people person" so I thought that would help--and it did, but after about 6 months in the Greg Faherty School of Account Service I was nearly a pro...not to mention much less sensitive.

There's a story behind advertising too--when I was 10, I drew pictures of me as the CMO of BMW North America (I know this because my mom pulled it out and showed it to me when I got my job at DraftFCB). We moved to Washington when I was 10, from Wyoming and I saw my first BMW and was instantly in love. And I loved marketing, so therefore I was going to be the CMO. Back then I don't think "CMO" was invented yet, so I called it the Executive Director of Marketing (My dad's title is "Executive Director" so if you were any high-up, that's what you were equated as).

Well...now I'm in advertising and it's everything I hoped it would be. Analytics, media, photo shoots with clients, creatives being nutty, high-pressure pitches, print, online, TV...all of which I've already had a big hand in.

Let the crazyness continue!

Seahawks

During my last quarter of school, I interned with the Seattle Seahawks. I remained an intern for a full year, and it turned into a full-time job a year later.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Seahawks front office when we went to the Super Bowl in '06. Paul Allen was gracious enough to pay for all of us to go--on his private planes, stay at a four star hotel, have all of our meals and transportation paid for--and a ticket to the game, with an amazing party afterward.

After the party was over, around 3am, I went back to my room, grabbed my suitcase and hopped on a bus to head to the airport--a 4:30am flight so we were back in Seattle by 7:30 am for a 12:00pm welcome back rally at Qwest Field. My department (three of us...Kevin, Ryan and myself) was in charge of this rally...we had all had a combination of about 6 hours of sleep (on a plane) and were barely functioning.

But, we pulled it out and welcomed about 12,000 of Seattle's biggest football fans to Qwest field--each recieved a gift at the entrance and were seated in the stadium to wait for the players to return and thank their fans.

I was also with the Seahawks when the 12th Man was born. While we were in some hot water later on with Texas A&M for "stealing" the idea, we kept it and it lives on as one of the most recognized symbols in the NW.

While some may think that professional sports only employs staff during the season, it's quite the contrary. The offseason is really when most of the work is done, the season is when it is executed.

My job, planning, organizing, procuring, detailing, and wrangling people, props, giveaways, schedules, equipment and sitting through countless hours of meetings was most heavy in the off-season. During the season is when the magic happened, and all of the hard work during the other 8 months of the year came to fruition.

Links to some of the work I had a large hand in:
Seahawks Kids Club: I was given the HUGE responsibility of leading the charge on the development of the first ever Seahawks Kids Club. I researched other kids clubs around the NFL and outside, and was part of the corporate partner department effort to find a title sponsor for the kids club--Lowe's Home Improvement stepped up to the plate.

I designed a kids club memebership program including a membership kit, emails, quarterly gifts, special events, all tied in online to the kids zone.

In the first 8 months, we grew to over 2,000 members--no other kids club in the NFL was as successful in their first year.

Seahawks.com Kids Zone: This section of Seahawks.com was the first time I worked on an interactive. Being in charge of the Kids Club, I was also responsible for maintaing content on the Kids Zone.

NFL Alumni Rumble at the Ridge: Each year, I helped sell hole sponsorships for this elite tournament. Foursomes were sold and each foursome was given the priveledge of playing a round of golf at a TPC course with an NFL alumni.

Seahawks Youth Football Programs: I was very proud to be a part of getting youth around Washington state involved in football--we traveled for over two weeks every summer to small communities around the state and hosted over 400 players, and 15 communities at our youth football camps.

Touchdown City: My baby--this is where I lived during the season, and the off-season was spent getting everything ready for game day.

Want to know more?? It's pretty exciting--email me :)

Let's Play Ball!

My internship with the Seattle Mariners was no less than awesome.

I worked under Garrett Cook in the events and entertainment department and learned how to put on game-day entertainment and non-game day events at Safeco Field. Because "The Safe" has so many large public areas, many companies hold staff events, trainings, and parties there. Weddings are also held at Safeco.

I was quickly submersed in learning how to organize an enormous number of details in several different buckets simultaneously. I even got in "trouble" for showing up my boss on a couple of occasions (what do you do when your intern out-smarts you?). I was also the only intern that had the guts to talk to the President of the Mariners, Chuck Armstrong at an intern luncheon. Chuck held a lunch to meet all of us, and while we were at lunch gave us all the opportunity to ask him some questions.

Can you believe that no one besides me had any questions for him? It turned in to Chuck and I talking in front of a bunch of my peers...all of whom came up to me afterwords and thanked me for making them look bad.

To this day Chuck and I still talk, on almost a weekly basis. Not really about business, mostly about my life and what's going on with me--we actually talked today a few times via email about our holiday break. Once in a while, when I have big news or just want a cup of tea I call Chuck's admin and schedule an appointment to sit down with him.

What did I do in college?

While at Central Washington University (http://www.cwu.edu), besides having the time of my life, I had the opportunity to work in the athletic department organizing half time entertainment, game day promotions, and recruiting new corporate partners.

With an absentee athletic director, and no budget for promotional goods, I had to devise creative ways to lure in more attendees to games. I worked with our title corporate partner, Coca-Cola to obtain items to hand out to fans before games and put on non-game day promotions and giveaways.

I also worked with a full-time staff member to create and execute half time entertainment during games, which ranged from musical/dance group performances to fan competitions (sponsored) and informational presentations.

Some of my favorite memories from college come from coaching 5th and 6th grade boys and girls intramural basketball. I coached the girls team in the spring and boys in the fall-- I love coaching more than I love basketball, but it provided a way for me to get involved with the community and earn a little money at the same time.

I originally entered college to become an English teacher, because that's what my Dad did and how he got in to his profession now--so I assumed it was the right path for me to take too. Well, times have changed, and so did my mind after a few English classes--but I stuck with it, and was determined not to let countless hours of writing papers and analyzing poetry go to waste, so I took English as a minor (a 40-credit minor--most minors are 25-30 credits).

I decided to enter the school of business--but of course I had to do it the hard way. Having been accepted into the Seattle Mariners internship programing for the next summer, and knowing that I wanted to work in sports, I decided to ask the board of directors of the university if I could design my own major--sports management and marketing.

I wrote a 6 page paper on why I should be awarded this opportunity, obtained letters of reccommendation from some higher-ups and put my class list together along with professor signatures. I was rewarded for my hard work by being allowed to pursue this degree. And so it was.

I loathe entertainment television

An interesting fact many do not know about me is that I absolutely abhor most of what is published in the media--"interesting" because of the profession I've chosen...

I watch a little bit of TV, a lot more during Football season. I capitalized "Football" because it's that important to me. I also love the Discovery Channel--specifically the shows "How stuff works" and "How it's made"...I have quite a fascination with what goes in to everything that's around me. I have ever since I saw my first video of how crayons are made on Mr. Rogers when I was little.

Other than that, any shows about nature, science or chemistry will do. I bought every DVD of "Planet Earth" after watching the first five minutes of the first show--incredible.

And as hard as it is to hear/see/learn, I inundate myself with information on global warming and climate change--I've always been very interested in rain forests and deforestation--I liken it to my strange desire to learn more about the holocaust-- absolutely horrid pieces of history/the future but necessary to know about.

Where do I get my tech fix?

I have a routine every morning when I get on the bus--get settled in the second seat in from the front, grab my Dash and get the latest from the Wall Street Journal.

When I get to work, after getting my toast and coffee I open up my email and my iGoogle (my home page). In between answering emails, I ease in to the morning with a little information from Fast Company--either their "Big Idea" or just general happenings in the tech/business world.

I also get a fair amount of info from those I follow on Twitter--Robert Scoble, a video journalist for Fast Company(@scobleizer); MC Hammer, if you can believe it--always discussing the music/entertainment scene and emerging artists (@mchammer); Hugh McLeod, the eccentric cartoonist (@gapingvoid); Sockington, a very expressive house cat (very handsome as well) who always makes me smile (@sockington). I also follow some work pals, and some TV shows such as The Soup, The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report.

My office is a bit anti-establishment and we like to break off from the rest of the company to express ourselves--we do so on our blog--cre8ivefuel. This is a good source of info for me, relating specifically to our little world at DraftFCB Seattle.