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With my family and Jane Fonda
I have not blogged in awhile, it has been a really long summer and since I decided to leave Ketchum and build my new social media venture EVERYWHERE, I must admit my time has been limited. I took my wife to see “Julie & Julia” and though I’m known to fall asleep at a movie pretty fast her story of being a blogger who cultivates a community alongside of the amazing acting job by Meryl Streep kept me awake. The film also reminded me that though I work in social media and advise individuals and companies daily; and I’m a pretty dedicated twitter user I hardly pay much attention to my blogging. Maybe it’s because I’m so entrenched in the world and helping my clients like Jane Fonda, Sanaa Lathan, Jermaine Dupri and other brands manage their own social media strategies an I will admit that sometimes the thought of looking at the WordPress backend is so unappealing. Despite the obvious social media overload I experience daily I have decided to have a change of heart and really dedicate myself to both this blog and the blog I committed to contribute to …
Posted on Aug 22.09 to Uncategorized Comments
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Posted on Feb 17.09 to Fresh New Business, Uncategorized Comments
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My Aunt Micki who raised me during my high school days in Palo Alto used to always talk about her student organizing days in the early 70’s on the campus of San Jose State, working for Senatorial candidate Tom Hayden. She remarked about one particular day where she had the opportunity to pick up Tom and his wife Jane Fonda up at the airport and drive them around San Francisco. She was absolutely smitten by Jane and she was a role model and catalyst for my Aunt’s work in student organizing and community activism. My Aunt lost her battle to cancer last April but her admiration for Jane Fonda has always stuck with me.
Flash forward to today and what  an amazing last few weeks I have had working with my friend Jane Fonda helping to launch her new blog; JaneFonda.com. Her new blog, which launches later this evening, will give an honest, authentic and transparent look into the life of a 71 year old woman who has accomplished so much and whose life continues to influence so many through too many interests to type. As she is preparing to star in “33 Variations” her first Broadway play in more than 45 years, Jane will also find the time to give online …
Posted on Feb 01.09 to Uncategorized Comments
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r913uFawMyI[/youtube]
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It’s really, really late in the evening and as one friend called it today, it feels like Christmas Eve. I’m sure Obama is still awake; I’m told thru mutual friends that he too can be a “night-owl.” I’m finally getting an opportunity to soak in the magnitude of what will take place tomorrow. A guy that’s just like me will take the oval office. What does “just like me” really mean and why do I feel really connected to my new President? In true confession, I was not wearing an Obama tatoo like so many others when he decided to throw his name in the hat to run for office. I continue to vote values and pledged to do that in this campaign. But it was this speech on March 18, 2008 that really sealed things for me. It was Obama’s “American Story” that made me realize how closely connected we were. Sure I realized that because of his Harvard past and Chicago ties that there are several mutual friends we had in common (i.e. Steve Mckeever, Hill Harper, Kenny Johnson, Michael Strautmanis, and several others) and the opportunity to be 1-2 degrees separated to the future President of the United States was real. But it …
Posted on Jan 20.09 to Uncategorized Comments
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On Monday, July 21st at 12pm EST on carolsdaughter.tv, I will have an opportunity to host a live web chat with Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price live from Florida where she is taping HSN. This is my second time hosting a conversation with her, the first was a few weeks ago while she was in New Orleans during Essence. We will talk to fans of the brand, bloggers and maybe even a few suprise “guests” may join us (who knows!) Feel free to call in and ask questions about the brand, the mission and how Lisa maintains her calm demeanor while running a multi-million dollar business.
Her story is an amazing story of a strong grassroots almost “cult-like” following that finally was noticed by the likes of a Steve Stoute led investment group that includes Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Will’s partner James Lassiter, Tommy Mottola and a few others. The success of the business has secured them distribution in Sephora, Macy’s as well as their own Carol’s Daughter flagship stores in the U.S. This week they embark on their second opportunity to sell products in a partnership with HSN.
Posted on Jul 21.08 to News, Uncategorized Comments
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Over the past 10 years I have enjoyed some interesting days in the interactive space but I must say in a short amount of time my experience with Ketchum Interactive has been the best. Before recently joining Ketchum, I worked at Isobar Global for a little over a year as the Global Account Director and quarterback on “The Sprite Yard”, the highly publicized mobile marketing effort that Coca Cola-Sprite launched. While the Atlanta to London “thing” was an awesome way to pick up much needed global experience (and air miles) Isobar’s highly innovative interactive network strategy was often too confusing for some of our clients to grasp. At a time when the old world models of traditional advertising agencies simply don’t fit the way we “interactives” work, many brand marketers have struggled to try to understand how to exist day to day with interactive agencies. Well that was “so 2006-2007″ and according to new reports, in 2008 agencies like Isobar, Ketchum Interactive and Avenue A/Razorfish and many others stand to be the most profitable sector in advertising during a recession baked economy. (Avenue A’s 2007 numbers were up 36% according to recent reports) Not only that, via our efforts we stand to make a ton of marketing execs “rock stars” (if …
Posted on Feb 25.08 to Uncategorized Comments
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I love it when I have some “good ol’ substance and fodder” for my pitches. Sitting here in South Beach Miami preparing for a big presentation today and stumbled across this piece in the New York Times that discusses Twitter and “Micro-blogging” and its effect on the election coverage and journalism. This is very timely as I’m about to transform a slightly disengaged client this afternoon into a converted soul who will begin to look at interactive media and pr in an entirely new light. I have been a champion (and user) of Twitter for some time now and like my Fast Company colleague and fellow “micro-journalist” Peter Fasano says, “20 posts in Twitter in a day translates into a typical blog posting.” Fasano, like all my other “Twit-izen” Friends have made me feel like my contributions to Twitter count in the eyes of the “social media gods” who tally up whether or not I’m contributing. What is true is that the rules are changing and are your clients up to speed or are they waiting on you to catch up?
Posted on Jan 22.08 to Uncategorized Comments
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Part of our “hiatus” has been the redesign and move of this blog to wordpress, launch of Influential.tv programming and the announcement that I am now VP/Director, of Ketchum Interactive and will continue to be based in Atlanta, Ga. I’m very excited to be a part of the Ketchum family and a significant part of the senior leadership team at Ketchum Interactive. We are a full service interactive offering that will not only provide best in class interactive development/new media strategy for existing Ketchum clients (Nokia, Fed Ex, Mattel, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Geek Squad, etc) but also work with new clients outside of the network. My role will be to lead a highly capable development team and bring thought leadership, strategy and the development of amazing and integrated new media programs for clients. I will continue to blog at Fast Company as well as bring you “news you can use” here at Thekeyinfluencer.com. Stay tuned for news on the exciting redesign and offerings for The Keyinfluencer.
Thanks to those who have offered well wishes, including but not limited to the following:
Shannon McGauley (Yastique), Dominica Johnson (Immortal), Marissa Nance (OMD), Daphne Wayans, Shelli Alexander, Sheryl White, Brad Fox (Friend of Foe), Colin Gayle, Kristian Vallas, Josh Levine (Rebel Marketing), Donnie Bo (Avatar …
Posted on Jan 17.08 to Uncategorized Comments
