Director at Lime Advertising Inc.)
Subaru Canada : Online Ad Builder
Schizophrenia Society of Ontario
MemberWorks Canada
Lime Advertising Inc.
(Projects from 2009 completed
while Director at Lime Advertising Inc.)
CGC Group Website
CGC Group Flash Presentation
LG Innovators's Ball
(Projects from 2009)
Berry Management Consulting Group
Berry Management : In-context Editor
Bill is married to Monika (aka. Moiky).
Monika and Bill met on-line through
a mutual friend's bulletinBoard
(Bill was in Calgary, Monika in Toronto).
After many months of long
distance calls, they eventually met, moved in, and married.
Bill has one daughter, Jade.
Most of his free time is spent catering to the whims of this beautiful little girl.
I didn't know I wanted!"
Most recently as Director Interactive at Lime Advertising Inc., an integrated advertising and marketing agency based out of Toronto, Canada, Bill was working on the Subaru, Coverdell Canada and Universal DVD Canada accounts among others.
Bill's primary focus has been in developing and managing digital and interactive solutions to meet clients' needs and exceed their expectations. His most valued skill lies in the ability to bridge the gap between clients' business requirements and the use of innovative technology solutions that deliver results. Imagery, written word, audio, and video - all wrapped up in interactive glue and tied directly into the bottom line. An analytical nature, strategic thinking and extensive experience in the online space combine in executing successful win-win opportunities for team members, clients, and customers.
As a designer with development experience (or a developer with design experience), Bill has over 14 years in web-design and related technologies and 10 years of programming. Bill has acquired a unique skill set as an accomplished designer and developer, which have led to progressively senior strategic and management roles in the web sphere.
Specialties
Strategic planning, problem solving, information and online systems development, new business / product development, process landscaping, innovation, marketing, web design / development, rich media, digital video, and web systems.
How do I protect my mental reserves from marketing noise,
yet be informed when I need to be?
When I receive the Best Buy flyer in the mail I keep it. It will linger for a day or two and I will flip through it a half a dozen times before it is junked. To me it is not “junk”. When I receive the Shoppers’ Drug mart dm piece I throw it on the counter. I would throw it in the trash bin; however I value my marriage and my life. I know my wife has been eagerly awaiting its arrival. To her it is not “junk”.
When we were in the market for a new car, for months I window shopped on-line. I filled in the “get a brochure” application anytime I came across it. Days or weeks (and in some cases months) would go by before they arrived in the mail. When they did I was genuinely gleeful (in fact I can honestly say the first brochure I received was the moment I made the distinction of “glee”, it was not a part of my vocabulary before then).
The point I am making is that when we come across marketing messages which we want, are looking for, and are in the market for we are grateful for the message. When we are not in the market, but in the realm of interest we are at best blasé. If not interested at all we are annoyed.
It is not so much the time you have taken away from my TV show, or the visual noise of your billboard blocking my view. It is the mental inertia, the momentum of my life that you have interrupted; abruptly like a speed bump, if I may say. This is what is annoying. The gray matter lost, the semi-conscious effort exerted to filter out yet another meaningless, irrelevant message; the fatigue of which numbs us to near catatonia. This is what I dislike about telephone solicition, the break of continuity which is my life.
A man once told me “you can call me names, spit at me, beat me; just don’t bore me.”
No matter how clever your message, if it is irrelevant to me, to my life, I might be amused the first time but most likely I will be bored and annoyed. No matter how dull and uninventive, if you are speaking to my immediate interests and needs you will have my attention and most likely my gratitude.
Marketing serves our lives in more ways than
just conditioning the compulsive consumer inside us all.
A few years ago my Toshiba Satellite died. I mentally compiled a list of qualities (not features) I wish my decaying laptop had had. A larger screen, a numbers pad, a keyboard that detached, a mouse that attached (as at the time I use a wireless keyboard and mouse at my desk) these were all on the wish list. I needed a laptop to take to presentations and to move around the apartment with at will, but that was the limit of my mobile needs. I bought a 17” inch Toshiba. It was a heavy powerful “desktop replacement” it was perfect –almost. No numbers pad, detachable keyboard or mouse, but I was really happy with it.
A while later I came across the Dell XPS-20. Large 20” screen, detachable keyboard and mouse, powerful and beautiful. It was truly a perfect fit – as though the designers had tenderly plucked it directly out of my sub-conscious mess. My first sinking thought was “If I had only known about this then…”.
How many times in our lives do we sacrifice perfection for good enough or even great, simply because we were not aware that perfection existed? What is scarier is how often this sacrifice occurs without us even knowing it.
To me the XPS would have been better money spent. That money represents my hard work and should be reserved for the best, for perfection.
It is a dilemma. How do I protect my mental reserves from marketing noise, yet be informed when I need to be. The only means for me to express my interest in a market is to get up and engage it myself – go on-line – go out the store etc. The problem is I can only go to places I already know about. What about the ones I don’t know about? Perfection might be across the street at the place I’ve never noticed (no don’t put up a bigger sign – that is annoying).
Marketing is about connecting sources of value with domains of need. How can I connect with you when I don’t know you are there? Note: emphasis on “I”.
The only means for me, as a consumer, to express interest to marketers is through behaviour; behaviour on a website, walking into a store, picking up the phone and calling. My behaviour implies interest, but how accurately – was that really me visiting that website or was it my visiting relative, using my computer. Currently the means for marketers to connect with consumers is to blanket blast messages & offers based on my behaviour’s implications. At best you can hope to hit a grateful few – but the rest are dodging the fodder and getting really annoyed (the fodder fluttering around, by the way, is your marketing dollar).The exception to this is permission marketing – but again how do I give you my permission when I don’t know you exist (no don’t phone me to tell me you exist – that is really annoying).
The Ideal
The ideal is for me, the consumer, is to be able to, as we coders say, "Set & forget". For me to be able to setup an array of criteria, do this once, then forget about it-unless there is a need to change it. It would be wonderful to be able to set-up what I am in the market for, do this precisely, and have all the myriad of marketing messages which bombard me daily fall in-line with those criteria. If my mind changes – I change my criteria and BAMB – the myriad changes. Imagine the gratitude!
It seems unrealistic, farfetched; something we have all heard before, it’s not a new story; yet no one has been able to deliver on it– not really. It’s the promise of free energy at home– or hot water showers in Kathmandu; at best it’s something of the future, years or decades away.
What if I told you it can be done … that the technology exists and is simpler then it seems …that it can be done - right now?
Good - Gratitude is on its way,
with a chaser of glee.
Check back for more.
* I am happy to say I am currently writing this document on an HP HDX Dragon and I still - even just now - experience rushes of glee while I work on it. This is the perfection all of our hard work should result in; not even a close second will suffice. It is the moral duty of marketers to make these perfect connections between value and need.
