I’m extremely excited to announce the news of my acquisition of ARPR and what it can mean, not only for me, but also, for founder Anna Ruth and for the incredible team – many of whom have been at the agency for 5+ years. ARPR is built on two tenets: 1) thinking about its people first and... Continue Reading →
COVID-19 – Impact on Corporate/Office Culture
My wonderful mother-in-law recently shared an article with me from The Atlantic called "Never Go Back to the Office:- The coronavirus killed corporate culture. Get used to working from home". The article talks about significant changes to corporate culture as a result of COVID-19 and focuses on the reality that most businesses that don't "have to" won't want to re-open offices anytime soon and probably shouldn't. I agree with the article in general, but it got me thinking about the actual impact an office has in developing cultures, habits, and tools/mechanisms for ideation and collaboration and how that influences how work is done. Office culture and the way we collaborate is often the reason why a company operates in specific ways and are often the tools/process and unsaid rules of how work is produced and how talent is nurtured. So when this environment is stripped away quickly, can the people, culture, and work output adapt quickly enough and compensate? Every company is different and some will adapt better than others. But beyond the company is always the people and how they interact, communicate, generate solutions and ideas. We are largely a social society and we often best convey ideas and stories best face to face. This is how we are taught by our parents, how we interact with our friends, training by our schools and universities, and how most companies (not all) conduct work pre-covid-19. Are we recognizing how different this is for some, but more importantly, as companies are we helping folks adapt quickly enough so we can get the same level of thinking and output from our people before the environment moved from the office to work from home (WFH)?
Three Year Journey
It's been a while since I last posted a blog, and for good reason; I've had my head down helping build an agency that's sought after! On 4/2/2019, we announced the acquisition of BrightWave to Ansira. I joined the BrightWave family 3 years ago (4/18/2016), and it's been a surprisingly thrilling ride with an unbelievable... Continue Reading →
Podcast on How Technology Enables the Art of Marketing
I was honored to contribute to a new podcast series by Emarsys. Lindsay Tjepkema (Head of Content @ Emarsys) and I talked about the fundamentals of marketing and how technology can enable but not replace the skills and knowledge of marketers. We also talked about where I think email is going in the future and... Continue Reading →
Office Buildout – It never gets old for me
I just completed the buildout of BrightWave's new office in the heart of Buckhead (Tower Place 100, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA). It's a phenomenal space that I'm extremely proud of, and I hope the team, our clients, vendors, and BW friends & family will enjoy using for many years to come. This is technically my... Continue Reading →
BrightWave @ 48in48
What brought 17 rockstar BrightWave employees to donate their weekend (48 hours) in-order to build over 57 email templates for 48 local Atlanta non-profits? Several weeks ago I rebooted a program at BrightWave called "Day of Awesomeness", which was originally created by Simms Jenkins (Founder of BrightWave) to encourage employees to spend time on non-billable projects that would... Continue Reading →
BrightWave, A New Journey Begins
Last week I started a new and exciting chapter in my career by joining BrightWave as President. I've known Simms Jenkins (Founder) for many years and have watched his agency grow over the years. BrightWave has one of the best reputations in the industry, specifically known for ground breaking work within Email and CRM marketing, which... Continue Reading →
Goodbye Promenade Building
Yesterday was my last day as CEO of BLiNQ as we moved forward with the merger of PointRoll, Shoplocal, and BLiNQ Media. I fully support this move as I believe it will make all three companies much stronger in the market place as a combined company and properly leveraging the strong content and data assets owned by... Continue Reading →
Bittersweet goodbye – Spunlogic – Engauge – Moxie
Today (May 9th 2014) was my last day at the agency I co-founded nearly 16 years ago (November 1998); it was bittersweet and difficult to leave my work-home. After 15 years and 6 months with the "same" agency (Spunlogic, Engauge, Moxie), it's time for me to explore a new chapter in my life/career. I've loved... Continue Reading →
CES 2014 – Raj’s picks from the show
I just spent last week at CES in Las Vegas and had an absolutely amazing time. This years trip to CES was a little different as I had access to Publicis Groupe events and private parties. Needless to say, I'm just now recovering from the parties! Here are some of the highlights from CES for... Continue Reading →
My Second Agency Exit – Engauge is part of the Publicis family
Five years and four months after selling my first agency, Spunlogic, to Halyard Capital, Jeff Hilimire, Raghu Kakarala, and I just helped sell Engauge to Publicis Groupe (Press Release). The past five years have been a learning journey for me and I'm a better entrepreneur and executive because of my experience with Engauge. It's an... Continue Reading →
“Snooze Alarm” Email Tactic
Amy Griswold and I just attended the sixth annual SilverPOP conference at Stone Mountain last week (05/13/2008). Like most vendor-customer conferences, I’m often somewhat skeptical about what I’m going to learn about email marketing in general. Most of the time, I attend these conferences to better understand new features that are being released, and to... Continue Reading →