This CEO has been experimenting with new media, and has had success with a recent word-of-mouth campaign.
Andreas Roell co-founded Geary Interactive in 2000 and has since built it into a successful enterprise with more than 50 employees specializing in website development, online media planning and buying, search engine marketing, data analytics and email marketing. The company is based in San Diego, California and has offices in New York City and Las Vegas, Nevada. As president and CEO, Roell actively participates on all client accounts, leads the development of interactive strategies and manages the daily operations and long-term corporate planning.
iMedia: It's near the end of the year. What would you say was your personal and/or your agency's biggest triumph this year?
Andreas Roell: One of our biggest triumphs was a successful integration of a word-of-mouth marketing campaign for a hotel and casino client. We measured success based on return on investments, cost of coverage and with respect of signups.
iMedia: What are you still struggling with or frustrated with that you thought would be history by 2006?
Roell: Still having to emphasize interactive as part of executive level decisions. With that, there's a misplacement of staff; with that there's a lack of knowledge; resulting in a continuous education process of the basics, still.
iMedia: How has the role of your agency changed to meet the needs of clients in a world of fracturing media habits?
Roell: We have become more generalists. At the end of day, we're more strategy focused than implementation focused. It's leading to a stronger network of partners.
iMedia: What are some of the latest ways your agency is integrating different media to achieve client objectives?
Roell: The utilization and integration of VOD, interactive TV, cell phones, user-generated promotions/content -- those are the hottest buttons.
From a process standpoint, I refer back to a previous question: We're constantly scanning the media landscape to get a better understanding on consumer behavior -- where they spend time, what they do, how they're multi tasking with media -- and then using that data to formulate optimal strategy, looking for best implementation execution internally or with partners.
iMedia: You mentioned several emerging media you've worked with … is that something you plan to continue?
Roell: Right now, we're testing and identifying a multitude of the latest media options. Part of that is understanding that not all of them work for every client.
iMedia: Which emerging platforms are you finding success with?
Roell: Bluetooth-enabled posters or billboard campaigns integrated with cell phone promotions -- that's a cool one. User-created promotional material based on sweepstakes incentives. Letting the audience self promote through their own network.
iMedia: What are clients most afraid of (either device, like cell phone or technique, like blogging)? Why?
Roell: Blogging, based on the lack of control, and on the threat of negative expression or brand advocacy. It's similar to the early days of advertising networks. So when we come across a client with these fears, we limit the exposure based on targeted blog placement --we make placements that we have access to the content and more control over it.
iMedia: How is marketing/working with a small company different from working with a large company -- in terms of openness to innovation/experimentation/use of emerging platforms?
Roell: Small companies tend to have less experimental budgets, which larger tend to have. However, with smaller companies, the allocation or emphasis to online is in many cases larger as a percentage of overall budget. There tends to be an increased dependency on online media in smaller organizations, and that goes to the barrier to entry in other mediums.
iMedia: Do you work with a few particular industries or across the board?
Roell: Across the board with industries -- we have a lot of clients from entertainment, hospitality, finance, education, real estate.
iMedia: If you develop an innovative campaign that is successful for one company, can you use that success story for companies in other verticals? How can you pitch it to convince other verticals that these results might apply to them too?
Roell: From a business development standpoint, we don't say, "who else can do a cell phone campaign?" We've got a melting pot of campaigns that we can apply to our existing client base. When you have a relationship in place, you have in-depth understanding of your clients and can take campaign A and customize to customer B. We talk in terms of capabilities -- we don't productize a success, we integrate with offerings.
iMedia: What's the interactive campaign over the last 12 months that you wished had come from your agency? Why?
Roell: The Mud family campaign by Land Rover. It was successful for:
a) The connection to the brand
b) The strong awareness factor
c) The integrated use of media
d) A strong call to ultimate return on investment
iMedia: What's the biggest communications problem that you have in your work -- either internal within your company or external with clients -- and what strategies work best for you in tackling this sort of problem?
Roell: Internally it's the elimination of silos and departments and becoming a balanced agency out of that. That's our biggest challenge. The solution is to apply a greater team approach, from seating arrangements to process flow.
Externally our biggest challenge is integrating our campaign data with other mediums. Online used to be cheered for our ability to hold ourselves accountable; now people are questioning that because we're comparing apples to oranges.
iMedia: What are your goals for the coming year?
Roell: Conquer the world!
iMedia: Good luck with that!
Roell: Ok, more realistically -- to continue the large expansionary process we have which includes geographical expansion, as well as providing increased complex solutions to clients. I'd also like to add capabilities on the analytics side of the business.