Describe your background.
I graduated from the University of Florida in 2012 with a BS in Telecommunications, a minor in Leadership, and a specialization in News. I’ve held several short-term positions (internships and volunteer work) for everything from a large-scale corporation to a small start-up. In February of 2013 I packed up, moved to New York City and accepted my first full time role as a Digital Sales Assistant at Rodale, Inc.
What made you decide to enter into advertising/marketing?
My whole life it’s been apparent that my strengths include talking to people and building relationships. After exploring fields I felt would provide opportunities for me to utilize these characteristics, I found myself most attracted to the challenges that come with working in a constantly evolving industry, such as that of advertising.
How did your career begin?
Several experiences I’ve had and people I’ve met during the most transitional phases of my life contributed to beginning my career. However, I believe it was during my role as a marketing intern for a start-up company in London that I first developed a reverence for the field. My employer at the time formerly held a marketing position at a New York publishing company (Conde Nast), which inspired me to explore that as an option. Once I began applying and channeling every contact I could scrounge up, I began interviewing and landed my current role.
Did you have any initial struggles regarding your career? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?
The greatest challenge I faced when I first began at Rodale was adjusting to the intense and competitive work environment of New York City. I was occasionally tormented with feelings of inadequacy. However, after the first couple of months, I found myself more assimilated to the environment, and aware of how to approach the vastly differing personalities. I think I was able to find my rhythm by finally taking a lot of the pressure off of myself… Oh, and picking up yoga.
Tell me a little bit about Rodale.
Rodale is the authoritative source for health, fitness, and wellness content. Our magazines reach more than 70 million people around the world through category-leading media properties, trade books, subscription online properties and integrated marketing solutions. The company is also a leader in direct response marketing and has more than 27 million active customers in its database. Rodale publishes some of the best-known health and wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men’s Health, Prevention, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Running Times, and Organic Gardening. (Our Roots Grow Deep; Daniel Gross)
What is your current position at Rodale and what are the responsibilities associated with it?
Currently, and excitingly, I am merging from the Digital Sales Assistant role to that of an Online Sales Planner. As a sales assistant, my responsibilities varied from housekeeping tasks to planning our annual Corporate Digital Sales meeting. My new role has been much more focused on client-relationships. On a daily basis I am creating media plans, submitting RFPs, entering IO’s into our database, keeping up to date with online inventory, and troubleshooting for live campaigns.
Who do you feel is your biggest competitor in today’s market?
Conde Nast and Hearst.
Describe your thoughts for the future of social media advertising.
As our industry continues to pour into the digital world, I think that communication between advertiser and audience will become much more interactive. We saw with Twitter that the formal lines between (for example) celebrities and their fans were blurred with speaking to their audience directly and often involving themselves in conversational exchanges. Similarly, I can see advertisers finding more responses in turning their campaigns into conversations. Perhaps it will never be as candid as the celebrity-fan relationship, but I think advertisers are realizing that making their brands a part of “the conversation” is more effective than a single impression they may or may not make by running a banner on a website. I hope that makes sense.
What social media advertising advice could you give to an entrepreneur regarding a start-up business?
Social media has allowed the world to share. To share their thoughts, their feelings, their pictures, their favorite articles … their lives. I think that to be revolutionary in the social media world, you have to find a way to channel that into your approach. Give people the opportunity to tell you about themselves or to brag about themselves.
Instagram was born in 2010 and not even 3 years later, it has consistently proven to be the most effective when it comes to audience interaction. This is because participation enables an audience member to brag about themselves; show where they’re vacationing, show off their adorable pet, show off their new purse, hairstyle, skateboard, etc. There’s a reason Time Magazine called the upcoming generation the “Me Me Me Generation” (where they dubbed gen y “narcissists”). This is no longer a world where the advertiser is telling an audience about a product in a one-way line of communication. Today, the most successful campaigns are 2 way streets. Offer the chance to win a prize, simply by bragging about themselves and hash tagging your brand…successful campaign hands down.
