A Saturday night at Opera Colorado’s performance of The Barber of Seville was helped along by an ingenious iPhone app.  Almost any event held at Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House both benefits and suffers from the features of its seats, to wit, the incredibly uncomfortable seats (which could only have been selected because the folding chair manufacturer was out of stock)  along with the clever electronic seatback titling system called, appropriately, Figaro. Since few of Denver’s opera fans are either fluent in Italian (or French and German) or have an intimate knowledge of the sung libretto, the English translation provided by the pale blue OLED displays makes the performances much easier to follow. Such translation titling in America’s opera houses was once viewed as hayseed – a reflection of the lack of sophistication of US audiences – but has grown to be adopted by other country bumpkin facilities in Milan, Barcelona, London and Vienna.

Figaro Titling at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House

Suffice it to say that none of row D’s occupants had working Figaro’s to accompany Figaro, creating a less than optimal experience and quite a bit of griping to the helpless ushers during intermission. Having seen Barber staged, albeit close to 20 years earlier, I recalled that Act II has a large amount of sung character narrative that propels the action; in other words, it’s pretty hard to follow what’s going on without some type of libretto. So what to do? In the age of the iPhone could there be an app to bail the casual opera fan out? Indeed there is. A quick search of the App Store revealed that the good folks at Intermundia had an app that contained not only an English/Italian libretto, but an adjustable slider that would allow the text to move at a speed consistent with the performance – brilliant. So while the rest of my row scratched their heads through to the conclusion, I was more able to enjoy the chaos of Rossini’s comedy.

Opera App Saves the Evening

As to the performance? Opera Colorado’s production of one of music’s most beloved comedies turned out to be great fun. Director David Gately has staged this warhorse 30 times before utilizing a broadly comic reading that includes plenty of sight gags, cartoonish versions of the Bartolo and Basilio characters and a silly slow-motion brawl that ends Act I that would make fans of The Matrix proud. Rosina was beautifully sung by Isabel Leonard (remember that name as she may the next great young mezzo-soprano), her debut performance in the role. The opening night “talk back” session held by General Director Greg Carpenter and Director of Artistic Planning Brad Trexell was a welcome chance to gain insight into the production planning and thought process of the company.

A hearty Bravo to the cast – and to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the iPhone app.

As marketers have begun to embrace the potential of utilizing what falls under the big umbrella of “social networks” and budget and staff activities for this new channel, it is becoming evident that the web is evolving toward becoming a more fragmented and challenging place to manage than ever. Fast.

One of the most important aspects of Facebook and Twitter (as well as hundreds of other applications like  is the practical actualization of the real time Web. Until very recently, the Web operated on what amounted to a traditional publisher model, albeit on a vastly accelerated origination and distribution schedule. The act of posting to a Facebook wall or tweeting now creates content on the fly – designed for consumption in the moment. Erick Schonfeld wrote of The Stream and how the Web is quickly becoming organized around not just the subject but rather how current that content is.

The social media channel is not a wide pipe but a bundle of very specific channels acting as conduits for content exchange and user interactivity aligned around communities of common interest, subject matter, context and media type. Josh Bernoff, co-author of “Groundswell” calls it the Splinternet. His recent blog post paints a dire picture of a future where dozens of different devices interact (or don’t) with dozens of different content walled-gardens, i.e., the end of Internet ubiquity where pretty much everyone can see the same thing, regardless of hardware or connection type. Bernoff posits that tools like Facebook keep most of their content behind user logins and passwords, have their own unique formats, ad platforms, standards and applications that serve to keep search engines and users that don’t reside inside of their social ecosystem out. In other words, a sort of Balkanization of the Web where publishers establish their own delivery platforms and can restrict access based upon the type of device or payment scheme. The NY Times plans to introduce a metered access model next year that will restrict access – presumably specific hardware platforms will work with this model in a variety of ways. Perhaps an Android mobile device or the new iPad will grant access through separate subscription deals or as a part of a bundled wireless phone plan. Marketers will no longer be able to develop for and manage for a standardized internet but for specific distribution paths – browser, mobile, iPad, Facebook, etc. Perhaps the notion of a standard and open Internet has always been something of a myth – it’s too simple and ethereal to be real. At any rate, that unicorn is an endangered species.

Patty Griffin's Downtown Church

Patty Griffin has built a fascinating body of work over the past 15 years. Her music has held the torch for traditional folk, brushed up against punk, and been recorded by some of Country’s biggest stars (The Dixie Chicks and Reba McEntire) although she is almost never played on popular mainstream radio. She may be this country’s finest singer-songwriter, consistently recording thoughtful and original music infused with a wide variety of American musical influences. Among the strongest recent influences in her last several albums has been the gospel and soul music of the American church.

Last year’s gospel collection “Oh Happy Day!” featured Griffin’s duet with the legendary Mavis Staples on “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” and proved to be a harbinger of the musical things to come. Griffin lists The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers as the primary musical influences of her childhood in a recent NY Times review of the new album. Although she has dipped her toe into gospel music recently, the new release is a full-out cannonball into the deep end of the gospel musical pool. The album is a mix of traditional favorites (“Wade In The Water”, “Move Up”, and the utterly breath-taking “All Creatures of Our God and King”) and originals performed by Griffin and an ensemble of folk and gospel artists that include Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Regina McCrary. Produced by Buddy Miller (best known for his association with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Grammy winner “Raising Sand”) the music stays true to its roots. Alternately meditative and foot-stomping, Downtown Church is Griffin’s vehicle to exposing the pop and folk audiences to what she believes is an under-represented and misunderstood piece of our musical heritage. Through it all, Griffin’s magnificent voice soothes, shouts, growls, trembles and inspires.

Whether you are in the Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins camp or a regular attendee on Sundays, the music here is pretty transcendental of your philosophical grounding. Art may be inspired by faith or grow from its rejection – either way Griffin delivers a vibrant tribute to this part of America’s musical family tree.

His buddy is becoming a Bar Mitzvah this weekend and Sam will be wearing, wait for it, my old suit and pants. He’ll need to cinch-up his belt (a lot) and the jacket could stand to be taken in (also a lot) but the fact is, they come close to fitting. It should be noted that my shoes don’t fit him well as his feet are bigger than my own.

This is both comical and a little bittersweet as my youngest is growing into a young man.

Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful...

While the debacle that is NBC’s programming department trying to pick up the pieces of the Conan/Leno train wreck for months will have some entertainment value, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t much worth watching on that new flat panel. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions: Chuck, 30 Rock, Mad Men… I’m told that Dexter and House are worth watching but I haven’t invested the time to find out. So on the occasional evening when free time and curiosity collide – what to do?

When the last cheap DVD player died I picked up a Blu-ray player that also connected to Netflix. I hadn’t had a subscription with the mail-in DVD giant for years – while the model is great (and really, isn’t anything that stomps Blockbuster into the ground?) I just didn’t plan ahead well enough to have the right movie in hand at the right time. Somehow the $14.99/month unlimited movie subscription turned into a $5/movie ongoing expense. Fast forward 8 years and Netflix is rapidly evolving the mail-in model to a content streaming model, i.e., now there is a growing library of content that can be accessed on an “instant” basis – through a variety of devices made by Blu-ray manufacturers like Samsung and Sony as well as stand-alone Netflix devices. Suffice it to say that I have bought into this hybrid rental/streaming model enough to have given a Roku device and a Netflix subscription as a Christmas gift to my inlaws. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’m only a Netflix subscriber and have no affiliate interest)

The majority of the content is back catalog, but there is a growing number of newer titles, particularly TV series. What this means is that one can sample a few episodes of Dexter, Friday Night Lights, etc., without having to cough-up the freight for a 22 episode season on DVD. It also means that some nuggets from the past can be easily unearthed – Ken Burns’ series on Jazz, Saturday Night Live from the beginning to Tina Fey’s deconstruction of Sarah Palin, the Addams Family, Bogart & Bacall, the original Star Trek, Bergman, Kurosawa; from the ridiculous to the classic the list goes on.

For the past several evenings I’ve indulged my geekness for Shakespeare by watching the four part series “In Search of Shakespeare”, a PBS series that originally aired in 2004. I had never seen it – frankly, I hadn’t heard of it. This series, presented by the delightful Michael Wood, explores the religious turmoil of Elizabethan England, the evolution of the theater and how the country boy born in the same year that Michelangelo died would grow to become the greatest writer in the English language. The ability to browse the online instant catalog, find something like this, sample it and then watch it at the time of my choosing is really compelling. No trip to the store or even the mailbox, no incremental pay-per-view or on-demand fees.

These are exciting times for consumers – the choices of content and media platforms have never been greater. The service described starts at about $125 for a basic Netflix device and $9/month. Now the challenge is to find the time to enjoy the treasure trove of entertainment. Will Ferrell or Rashomon?

Email: bkumagai@gmail.com

SUMMARY

A seasoned executive and proven leader for strategic marketing and online advertising activities that excels in fast-paced, innovative environments, developing profitable products and effective digital marketing initiatives. A strong team-builder with expertise in driving revenue, lead generation and profitable channel development.

Skill Sets:

SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Developed product roadmaps and multi-year strategic marketing plans for digital e-commerce platform driving over $450 million annual sales.
• Built a comprehensive marketing team driving double-digit growth in the digital products vertical.
• Manage major website redesign and information architecture processes to support $28 million EBITDA.
• Implemented marketing automation processes integrating enterprise email systems and CRM system.
• Initiated a tradeshow and event marketing program generating over $35 million in new account sales.
• Developed and managed global marketing programs generating more than $46 million in incremental sales.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ClickBank                                                                                                                                                                         2010 – Present

Global e-commerce platform for digital products

Vice President of Marketing

Responsible for all operational and strategic marketing activities, including product development, marketing communications, pricing, social media, content development, website design, media and public relations, tradeshows and events, lead generation, training and knowledge transfer, brand and creative development and awareness, and promotional initiatives that establish ClickBank as the most trusted and profitable platform for online entrepreneurs to promote and sell digital products around the world. Lead a team of marketing and product development professionals and establish the go-to-market strategy for a $450 million e-commerce platform, payment processing and affiliate/performance marketing network. Also has responsibility for the global initiatives of supporting e-commerce transaction growth in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Manage and lead strategy for the language translation processes that support the business worldwide. Drive incremental net revenue through advertising sales programs and strategic partnerships that directly impact $2 million EBITDA. Act as the primary sponsoring executive for all product development and maintenance projects to the IT teams. A key member of the executive team reporting to the CEO and COO.

onTargetjobs                                                                                                                                                                        2006 – 2009

The web’s largest portfolio of niche job boards

Vice President of Strategic Marketing

Lead the product development and strategic planning for the Niche Job Board group. Responsible for new product development, product lifecycle, and annual marketing plans for the healthcare, biomedical/pharma, medical device, and restaurant/hospitality job board properties. Manage and develop a team of product directors and managers, P&L accountability for site technology, content and functionality. Lead collaborative product feedback and development teams with sales and account management leadership. Develop and execute on presentation and data layer transitions for legacy business units into enterprise web services products supporting over $68 million in revenue. Act as the primary sponsoring executive for all IT product development and maintenance projects for industry job board sites. Institute website analytics and metrics management tools and processes to monitor traffic levels and website performance. Additional responsibilities included the strategic planning and tactical delivery of all traditional and online marketing programs for the Healthcare division of onTargetjobs. Responsible for online products, marketing services, social media, print media campaign management, direct marketing execution and list acquisition, email acquisition and retention marketing programs, PR, traffic generation, online and offline advertising, association and channel partner management and event/exhibit support.

Avis/Budget Group (Budget Truck Rental) 2006

Nation’s second largest truck rental company, a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group

Head of Internet Marketing & E-Commerce

Direct the online marketing plan and strategy for transitioning the enterprise reservation process off of national call center and local dealer channels toward Internet. Manage in-house and agency teams of marketing associates, analysts, consultants, implementation agencies, IT and project managers to support revenue channel of over $80 million. Plan, develop and support marketing efforts to the consumer, commercial and resale sites. Source and select all third-party agency partners. Manage paid Search Engine Marketing, organic Search Engine Optimization, Paid Inclusion, Customer Support functions and direct all online advertising buys. Support and drive the information architecture and design of new consumer site with a development budget of over $1 million.

Digitally Unique 2005-2006

Online retailer focused on consumer electronics and IT products

Director of E-Commerce

Responsible for developing and managing all third party programs to drive qualified traffic to the site and for acquiring new content to drive conversions to sales. Managed paid search, natural search engine optimization, comparison shopping engines, affiliate sales channel, portal placements, and media planning and buying. Implemented best-of-breed site search functionality to increase sales by 60% over previous solution.

Avenue A | Razorfish Search 2004-2005

Search Engine Management arm of the Internet’s largest independent interactive agency

Director of Account Management & Affiliate Strategy

Responsible for strategic planning and execution of paid search campaigns, training and supervision of a team of senior strategic account managers and analysts. Managed and implemented methodologies for maximizing profitability of advertising campaigns deployed through Google, Yahoo!, MSN and syndication partners. Supported and provided business development for the implementation and program management of clients’ affiliate partner programs. Provided strategy, recommendations and implementation plans for search engine optimization, performance-based display advertising, and site conversion improvement. Deployed client-facing documents, reporting and account manager review processes. Managed key client relationships generating over $2 million in direct agency revenues.

LinkShare Corporation 2000-2004

Largest pay for performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet

Senior Program Manager

General manager of key clients’ online performance marketing and sales agency programs. Strategic management for company clients including Chase, Ford Direct, Disney, Columbia House, Dell, and Carlson Hotels Worldwide. Planned, launched and managed over 30 online marketing programs, generating more than $56 million in direct revenue and lead generation value for clients. Responsible for design, budget, implementation and execution of marketing plans. Coordinated account teams of developers, technical support, copywriting, data analysts and traffic managers to drive client results. Skilled in affiliate performance marketing operations, deploying permission-based e-mail campaigns, and management of paid search placements, paid inclusion, and sponsored display advertising.

Pediatric Web                                                                                                                                                                               1999-2000

Healthcare content portal for physicians

Director of Marketing

Developed and implemented strategic marketing and sales plan for start-up healthcare information portal and website design and hosting platform. Implemented online affiliate network and strategic content partnerships with pediatric offices nationwide.

Teknologie Asset Konsultieren 1998-1999

IT and asset management group, Züg Switzerland

Strategic Management Consultant,

Developed and implemented IT-based asset management systems for LawLandee, Inc., a manufacturer/distributor/retailer of children’s apparel in China. Responsible for the specification, selection, and implementation of financial management and inventory control systems. Built the IT supply chain plan leading to securing $5 million of venture capital for operational expansion.

Disky Business, Inc. 1988-1996

Retail music and video store

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Designed and implemented business, marketing, and capital formation plans. Managed site selection and lease negotiations. Supervised all aspects of advertising, financial planning, budgeting, information systems, merchandising design, publishing, joint venture activities, human resource, tax and legal compliance issues. Took start-up from its inception to a market leader position within three years, becoming one of the highest grossing independent music retailers in a five-state area. Introduced electronic IT solutions for both customer and internal activities, including inventory control, point-of-sale, music sampling, in-house publications and special ordering.

EDUCATION

Masters of Business Administration, Daniels School of Business, University of Denver

Bachelor of Science, Marketing, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder

Robot Last Click

To say that there have been seismic changes over the past 10 years in the ways that we market online is to belabor the obvious. That said, let’s belabor anew as the “00’s” come to a merciful end and we head into 2010. Among the most significant have been the erosion of the walls that existed between the online or digital activities of marketers and those of the traditional or offline variety. In 2000 it wasn’t uncommon at all for a company or brand to have a distinctly separate dotcom marketing team (and even business unit) from the majority of its marketing activities. The notion of silo’d digital marketing has become one that businesses adhere to at their peril as the wisdom of integration and alignment of all marketing channels has grown to become the prevailing wind. In other words, your website had better be telling the same story as your retail locations, you catalogs, your customer service teams, sales teams, as well as PR and brand support. Customers have come to expect your brand’s narrative around value, service or pricing to be consistent across each and every touchpoint they encounter. This is no longer about being a visionary, this about basic blocking and tackling.

Another important change has been the increasing emphasis upon more accurately measuring the ROI of those marketing channels. If businesses have learned anything from their online initiatives, it is that a great many of them can be measured in a way that their offline activities cannot. Of course, the fact that an activity can be measured does not necessarily mean that it should be, at least in the way that we have done so to date. What flows out of this reality is that marketers must apply some manner of metric to everything that they do – online and offline. There is certainly nothing revolutionary about the idea of measuring and applying critical analysis of how resources are spent, but it begs the question of whether businesses are measuring the right things and if those metrics are valid. The beauty of the Google paid search machine is that you get a pretty clear picture of what happens when you put money in the slot, i.e., a click costs a dime, it takes 100 clicks to get an action so voila! the cost to acquire is ten bucks. This leads to ROI calculation that is clean, relatively accurate, and aligns neatly with the silo’d activities of ten years ago. Unless you are a pure-play (online or offline) and market in only one channel, this model can lead to inaccurate metrics at best, and poor decision making around resource allocation.

If only it was so simple to measure the investment in marketing collateral, tradeshow displays, online and offline display advertising, direct marketing efforts, customer retention and lifetime values, search marketing, broadcast, social media, and so on. Truly integrated and multi-disciplinary marketing requires more thoughtful measurement models. Relying upon “last click” attribution today makes no more sense than using a print publication’s circulation and pass-along rates did when the magazine and newspaper business was still healthy. The challenge remains to blend the various aspects of a comprehensive marketing mix and emerge with a more holistic view of what is spent and what that resulted in.

Steve Kerho of Organic reported some interesting findings in a recent post on developing an “analytics ecosystem” model for multi-modal campaigns across the web. Paid search, display (banner) ads and branded website activities showed some inter-relationships that confirm what many marketers have “known” but have had difficulty demonstrating. To wit, paid search performs better when a user sees display ads prior to clicking through a search ad; branded sites converted at much higher rates when display ads were viewed in prior sessions, but after too many display impressions performance fell off. Clearly, utilizing a last-click attribution model around your paid search campaigns risks undervaluing concurrent campaigns in different vehicles. The temptation to discard every activity but paid search requires the development of proxy metrics and blended or weighted analytics to more fully capture ROI. The long story short is that being able to model and manage the data will be a minimal requirement for marketing in the coming years. Marketers that can develop or partner with those that can aggregate and segment data will have the best chance of success going forward. Sound familiar?

December - What Not To Wear

The recent arrival of bitter cold temperatures in Denver has many of us discarding concerns around global warming in favor of nudging the thermostat up and dramatically increasing our carbon footprint. Rising sea levels may be bad for California but freezing in your own home is far more of an immediate climate crisis. Most people tend to dress appropriately for these frigid conditions – indeed those heinous fur-lined Crocs take on an entirely different fashion value in these desperate times. It is not uncommon to see people dressed as though they are competing in the Iditarod, this in spite of the fact that they are sitting on the freeway in the Suburban with the heat cranked-up to 80. This alignment between cold temperatures and climate-appropriate clothing does not appear to apply to the average American teenage boy. Especially mine.

Tom Whittaker wrote yesterday in his witty blog of witnessing some heartless parent in a luxury car practically kicking his son out at the bus stop. The kid was wearing a t-shirt. Temperature in the single digits. This, understandably, struck Tom as an example of lousy parenting. It seemed to me to be par for the course. His post set off a string of comments (I’m guilty too) that reveals that there are two groups of people in the world – 1) those that value and cherish the safety, health and well-being of children and; 2) the parents of teenagers.

Those in group #2 most likely were members of group #1 until their children hit the brick wall that is adolescence. As a card-carrying member of group #2, I have grown weary of the daily battles surrounding what my kids wear (or don’t), what they eat (or won’t), as well as what they say (or should). I am no longer aghast at my son’s choice of shorts, t-shirt and pool slides for arctic conditions that would have made Sir Ernest Shackleton run for the closest REI store. This morning, a balmy 6 degrees, I received a fittingly icy stare in response to my suggestion that some type of coat might be helpful. Like most group #2 members, each loving and well-intentioned kernal of parental guidance (aka control) is met with the rolled-eyes that signal how fatiguing it is to have been cursed with parents that are so annoying. (Someone once said that his daughter’s eye rolls were so dramatic that he could hear them roll. I can attest to the truth in this).

This is the karma payback that I get for taking my then recalcitrant 4 year old to preschool wearing only his pajama bottoms. The parenting class said, “children must be allowed to make their own choices and learn that those choices have consequences”. So when, for the umpteenth time, he refused to get dressed for preschool, it seemed perfectly fitting to march him out to the car, through the snow, for the ride to school. As we drove the mile to preschool I could barely hear my son screaming at me – what with the A/C blowing full-blast and the windows rolled down! I assured him that I understood that he was cold but to not worry because I had chosen to wear a coat and shoes, so was really warm. He looked like a hypothermia survivor of an Everest expedition gone bad, albeit one that was equipped with cowboy pajamas instead of Gore-Tex. The result was not a well-deserved visit from Child Protective Services but a kid that no longer required any encouragement to dress appropriately for winter weather. “Lesson learned!” I gloated and it worked for another few years. But slowly, the defiance grew over time until today I am resigned to being one of “those parents” that group #1 looks at as if my kids should be placed into foster care until I learn some parenting skills.

As you pass the bus stop this winter, know that the middle school kids that are dressed more for the beach than for the arctic cold, actually do have parents that have helped them survive to this point. They’ve just given up on this particular battle.

Grandma Wants to Friend You

Everyone has experienced it – the day that what was cool became decidedly not. I remember the day that my mom walked down the basement stairs into the superfund site that was my room and declared that she “really liked that new Pink Floyd guy’s music”. Needless to say, “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall” were not going to be played much until I moved out of the house. While it is possible that my mother was strategically out-maneuvering me, i.e., pretending to like something in order to guarantee that she would never have to hear it again, she was a trained musician and could recognize interesting new trends. After all, she listened to Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar as well as Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

This brings us to the current conundrum of today’s Gen Y and Gen Z Facebook users. In the brief few years of its existence,  Facebook has grown from being the exclusive province of college-age online users to the world-wide social network phenomenon of today. If the site’s self-reported numbers are to be believed, well over 300 million people use the tool and something close to half of them log into the site in any given month. The fastest growth over the past year has been among adults over age 35 with the biggest proportional increase among those over 55. This means that the nightmare scenario of having your grandmother or your mother-in-law (I know this to be true) friend you has come true. My own daughter is still perturbed that her parents want to use Facebook – no doubt to stalk her every movement…

Now comes some interesting data that indicates that younger users may be beginning to abandon Facebook. Mediaweek reports that some advertisers are evaluating how this may require changes in their social media advertising plans. According to comScore, the average number of minutes spent online at the site by people 18-24 fell for the third consecutive month in September compared to the same period a year ago. In July, Facebook usage fell 3 percent, in August 13 percent and September 16 percent. Could be that the drop reflects mobile device users that are not counted, could be that as the fall arrived younger users began to focus more on school (Ha!) or it may reflect the eternal struggle of the young to keep their elders at arm’s length.

When you start getting friended by your grandmother, I think that’s when it starts to lose its cool – Huw Griffiths, EVP, Interpublic Group’s Universal McCann.

@Sen_Schultheis: Don’t for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. Plane right into the ground at full speed. Let’s Roll

Mr. Schultheis has found himself in PR hot water before and appears to pride himself on his rather blunt communication style. As the notion of constructive and thoughtful engagement with those with whom you may disagree has become tiresome, the rejection of political decorum and the embrace of lobbing verbal bombs in order to garner attention (You Lie!) is now a badge of honor and has become a fundraising bonanza. It isn’t a surprise that Americans view most politicians as somewhere between used car salesmen and child molestors. Disappointing, but so what else is new?

How about politicians and commentators on both the right and the left quit this type of name-calling and get on with the serious business of leading to solutions.