By Scott Neslund, CEO

We are now just two months into 2010 and there are positive signs that the worst of the economic slow down is behind us. Looking ahead we are taking the lead on a few initiatives to take advantage of the possible upturn in business.

We have started a search for new office space in NY. The commercial real estate market is very soft at the moment and we hope to secure new space sometime this summer. Savitt & Partners will be conducting our search.

The managers group has been busy working on a new positioning for the agency that will make us more competitive in the marketplace. We hope to share the new positioning with everyone by the end of March.

Several of our clients are launching new products or initiatives this year. Some of these are very innovative and I am thrilled Red Bricks is part of these  launch plans. I believe this reflects the positive trend we are seeing in business and the marketplace.

2010 promises to be a year of opportunity for Red Bricks, our clients and the digital landscape in general. I’m looking forward to sharing more good news as the year continues.

Scott  

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By Scott Neslund, CEO

I am in the middle of week 4 for my start at Red Bricks Media and the time is going by quickly. I have had over 20 review sessions with managers learning about client businesses and the different departments that make up the agency. I have also spent some time in the NY office getting to know our people there and our clients. Overall I am impressed on several fronts and think the agency has tremendous opportunity to grow. I want to share with you some of my early thinking and impressions about the agency:

· Great people: Agencies are powered by good people who work hard on client businesses to achieve success. I can tell we have people like this at Red Bricks and it has been a pleasure to get to know people across the agency. My goal is that we create an atmosphere and culture where people can do their best work and be rewarded for their performance.

· Growth opportunities: As I work with different agency teams and participate in meetings I can tell we have opportunities to grow the business with current clients as well as with new business. In order to achieve this we will need to perfect our positioning as an agency and be clear on what we stand for and what we do. I am working with the managers on our new positioning and we will build on the work we started at the agency offsite. I also believe that new technologies will play a key role in how we grow the company.

· Potential with clients: I have met with or spoken to almost all of our key clients and there is significant potential for us to become strategic and creative thought leaders on their businesses. Clients today need significant help to navigate the digital landscape and RBM is positioned with the right people, tools and services to offer that leadership.

I came to Red Bricks because I believed there was opportunity to grow the agency and take it to the next level. During the past few weeks I have seen this is true on several fronts and I am looking forward to working with the managers to move the agency forward.

I know I am still the new guy in town and I hope to change that soon so people look at me as a natural “Brickster.” I am in the process of locking down my apartment in San Francisco which will allow me to spend more time here. I like to ski so I am hoping to take advantage of the season before the winter comes to an end. I am also looking for place where I can pick up playing tennis again. My partner Todd is coming out to San Francisco every now and then so we can take advantage of everything the area has to offer.

I like to go out for drinks with people from the agency and socialize outside the office so please don’t hesitate to let me know when you are going out and wouldn’t mind me tagging along. I want to get to know everyone at Red Bricks.

I also forgot to mention the number one thing I have learned since joining Red Bricks.

I suck at Go-Kart racing!

Scott

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Be Human. Get Personal with your Customers

Take time to get close to your customer base, because in 2010 customers will continue to dictate your marketing efforts. Take care to polish up your company’s blog and social media channels, like facebook and twitter, and keep them healthy by posting regularly. If your communications are sparse, users won’t respect you as an authority. It is necessary to participate in conversation and contribute valuable content to be respected in your marketplace. Providing direct and timely responses to customer feedback is a powerful and effective marketing tool.

Follow the Search Funnel

In-depth conversion tracking and analysis can shed light onto the profitability of search campaigns. Just as some keywords or ads may provide a great number of clicks but low conversion levels, high-converting keywords and ads provide different levels of customer engagement and revenue over longer periods of time. These sorts of ‘deep dives’ into conversion tracking will provide more customization, optimization, and ROI in the long term.

Analyze and Synthesize

Research and invest in new tracking technologies and tools in the marketplace which will benefit your marketing campaigns. Social media tracking, for example, gives concrete insights into what your customers are saying about your brand. This newfound ability to listen to and adapt to customer trends in real-time is a valuable resource. Likewise, a comprehensive and properly configured analytics platform is probably the most important tool that a marketing team can have. If your marketing data isn’t interpretable and actionable, it isn’t useful.

Diversify and Integrate

Your many marketing channels should be working as one. Integrated campaigns consistently perform better than campaigns running separately. When insights are shared among functional marketing teams, a comprehensive strategy may then be developed which incorporates findings and best practices from each marketing channel.

Audit and Update

Everything has a ‘Best By’ date, and your website and marketing collateral are no exception. Consumer tastes change as quickly as the seasons, and the images and copy which will generate positive responses need to be refreshed frequently as well. Update your paid search ad copy – revamp your homepage! Optimization of imagery and messaging are often overlooked, but the results are valuable marketing assets.

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 By Peter Vaughan, Copywriter

On the eve of December 9^th VEVO took over New York City with a launch party that included celebrity musicians like Bono, Lady Gaga and John Mayer. At the same time, millions of internet users waited eagerly for the return of music videos, an art form that television networks like MTV and VH1 slowly started moving away from years ago. As the clock struck midnight and the site went live, VEVO’s traffic servers struggled to handle the flood of eyeballs that flocked to the music video revolution.

But make no mistake about it, this wasn’t some kind of happy accident. Red Bricks Media worked closely with VEVO to architect an effective social media strategy that included tactics on channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and even eBay. At the heart of our campaign were viral videos featuring popular musicians in an act of defiance against obsolete media, a sentiment that would come to embody VEVO’s brand message.

To help seed these videos online, Red Bricks Media contacted influential bloggers in the music world offering exclusive video access and b-roll footage. The result was over 300,000 combined views in just three days. Additionally, these viewers were prompted to check out VEVO’s blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts to engage in pre-launch discussions, trivia contests and charity events like an eBay auction of 3 signed copies of Adam Lambert’s latest CD.

In the end, the best indicator of our success came from the mouths of consumers themselves. On the night of launch we became a trending topic on Twitter, sharing the conversation spotlight with keywords like “Christmas” and “Tiger Woods” (one week after he dropped his now famous ball). Using Techrigy’s buzz tracking capabilities we could also react to real-time conversation trends like usability feedback and brand shout-outs in order to keep engagement levels high throughout the night.

So what’s our best piece of advice for brands wishing to achieve the same success? Harnessing the power of social media isn’t just about creative thinking and intensive strategic planning – it’s about a willingness to have an engaging, transparent and collaborative conversation. Until marketers understand the fact that they can’t control everything that’s said about their brand, they will never be able to truly reap the rewards of platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Listening to what consumers are saying and encouraging them to become partners in shaping products and services will create the best possible result.

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Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Joe Van Remortel, and I am the Vice President of Business Development, which really means sales.

I’m still not exactly clear on what it is you do. Can you break it down for me?

My job is to find innovative marketers who have digital marketing needs and to then determine if our services and capabilities can be beneficial to them. If so, I reach out to them and strike up a relationship.

Got it. So how was Red Bricks in 2009 for you and your department?

 2009 was a very good year. We had some big wins, we have done a lot of great work in terms of repositioning who we, Red Bricks, are as a brand, and we’re doing a better job at explaining what we can do and how we can do it. ’09 has also been an exceptional year in terms of development for some of our practices. For example, we are making great strides in Social Media and have done some great work with our clients in that arena. And that type of exposure makes my job a lot easier.

Perfect Saturday for Joe Van Remortel. Go.

Wake up and make a big breakfast with my four daughters and my wife. Then off to coach two basketball games for my grade school daughters. We win both of those games and then we go watch my youngest daughter in a ballet performance and then we go and watch my older daughter in a mock-trial event where she is acting as the prosecutor. Then we all hit the park for an hour long dog walk. After that, we get together with friends. Four families for a BBQ. There is wine and Shanghai rummy played until one in the morning. Then it’s home, exhausted, and right to bed.

Let’s pause right here and reflect on something you just mentioned, and that is ‘coaching’. There are several people at the office that have nicknamed you ‘coach’ and call you that. Does the whole ‘coach’ thing go back to you leading the American Co-Ed Badminton team to a win in the ’74 Summer Olympics in Nairobi?

Yes, that is definitely the origin of the nickname. Most of the team had never been out of the States and I had a lot of experience in Africa. I’d already been to Kenya, Tanzania, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. So by having those experiences under my belt, not only was able to coach the sport, but I could also help the team acclimate and get comfortable pretty quickly. The Gold Medal that year really created my lifelong desire to be a coach in all aspects of my life. Badminton was just the beginning.

Inspiring stuff, to say the least. While we’re reminiscing about the past, are you at liberty to discuss your involvement with the CIA in the early 80’s?

I can only tell you that I was in the CIA and my primary assignment in Papua New Guinea, where I was stationed, was related to the rare tree-climbing kangaroo found only in those parts. There were some uses from that animal regarding reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, but that’s really as much as I can say.

That is such a fascinating fact about you. I really wish you could discuss your involvement at length but I understand the sensitive nature of the topic, so lets move on. Any predictions regarding 2010 trends to watch for, regarding RBM and the industry we work in?

RBM will continue to grow and expand its service line so we will have more to offer to new clients and bring added value to our existing ones. As far as the industry goes, I feel very confident declaring that 2010 will be The Year of Content Control. Consumers will fight to gain more control of their digital content; book publishers will control the distribution of e-book content; news outlets will make more money on the content they create; and more websites will grab back ad inventory from networks, just as CBS has done.

Well put. And finally, Lionel Ritchie or Phil Collins?

Wow, that’s a tough one. To tell you the truth, I’m not really a fan of either. However, I do consider ‘All Night Long ‘ to be a classic.

As told to Russell Bongard, RBM Creative Director

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Former Mindshare CEO Take Reins of One of the Fastest-Growing Agencies In Country as Major Advertisers Turn to Independent Digital Shops For Thought Leadership; Marks Enhanced Significance of New York Office

SAN FRANCISCO (January 11, 2010)

Scott Neslund, who has been CEO of WPP Group’s Mindshare and President of Publicis Groupe/Starcom MediaVest Group’s StarLink, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Red Bricks Media, one of the fastest-growing independent agencies in the country, with over 600% revenue growth from 2005 through 2009 based largely on its highly successful search marketing operations.

Mr. Neslund will split time between the company’s San Francisco headquarters and its fast-growing New York office. He comes aboard the agency as both a significant equity holder and a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Neslund replaces Red Bricks Media’s cofounder Elliott Easterling, who becomes Chairman of the Board.

“Scott is an experienced media and marketing leader with a substantial background in agency management having led media agencies in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia,” says Mr. Easterling. “He has a proven track record in leading digital communications and growing revenue. We are very pleased to tap into Scott’s media innovation and ability to successfully communicate a vision and manage people. He is exactly who I need to hand the baton off to in order to lead Red Bricks Media into its next great phase of success.”

“As a next career step I was looking for opportunities purely in the digital space and an entrepreneurial environment that could capitalize on the change occurring in the industry right now. Red Bricks Media provides me with that opportunity and it will allow me to merge my media agency background with the cutting edge advances in today’s digital marketing world,” says Mr. Neslund. “There is an industry trend of major advertisers starting to turn to independent digital shops for thought leadership on their business.  Red Bricks Media represents the kind of digital leadership advertisers are looking for in this constantly changing media environment where consumers are searching for what they want versus accepting the traditional ads that are being placed in front of them.” 

“Red Bricks Media is a great example of a digital agency that is taking its business to the next level by hiring a known leader who has helped build a Madison Avenue media agency. It is clear they intend to direct strategy beyond the digital marketing realm. says Sarah Fay, the former CEO of Carat NA. “I think this is a great move for both Scott and for Red Bricks.”

From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Neslund was with WPP Group’s Mindshare North America mostly recently as CEO (New York) since 2007, and before that, Managing Director Mindshare (Chicago). As CEO, he led all agency activities in the U.S. and Canada including five regional offices, 800 employees and approximately $10 billion in media billings. Mr. Neslund launched a reinvention program to transform the agency from a basic media buying and planning operation to a full service marketing partner for advertisers by establishing business planning, content development and consolidated implementation services. During this time Mr. Neslund integrated the agency’s digital capabilities with its traditional media services and expanded Mindshare’s search business. He restructured regional office leadership and WPP agency partnerships which led to $500 million in new business account wins and an increase in organic growth from current clients within 12 months.

When Mr. Neslund was Managing Director of Mindshare (Chicago) from 2005 to 2007, he turned around a business decline within 12 months by restructuring the office to better compete for new business, delivering  diversified  media services to clients and introducing  a proprietary planning model to create more innovative and effective media plans .

As President of Publicis Groupe Starcom MediaVest Group’s StarLink, (Chicago) from (2003 to 2005), Mr. Neslund re-launched the agency positioning and capabilities to better capitalize on the growing mid-size media marketplace which resulted in a doubling of agency revenues in two years. Earlier he served extensively overseas including as Senior Vice President, Managing Director for Starcom (Toronto) and before that Vice President, International Media Director for Leo Burnett (Tokyo) from 1997 to 1999. Prior to that, he was AOR Media Director for Leo Burnett (Milan). Mr. Neslund began his career in the media department of Leo Burnett U.S.A., (Chicago) first as a Media Buyer/Planner and later as a Media Supervisor.

Mr. Neslund has been recognized as an industry leader in media innovation being named as a 2008 AdAge Media Maven; to 2008 Min Magazine’s Most Intriguing People; and to the 2008 AdAge Agency A-List. He served on the 2009 Effie Grand Jury, the 2007 Cannes Media Jury, the 2008 Young Media Lions Juries and on the 4A’s Media Policy Committee from 2007 through 2009. He holds an MBA with a double major Marketing and International Business from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and an undergraduate BA in Telecommunications and Marketing from Indiana University.

Red Bricks Media (www.redbricksmedia.com) is a full-service global performance marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, award-winning creative services and emerging forms of media including buzz and social marketing.  One of the fastest-growing agencies in the country, Red Bricks Media has worked with over 100 major brands including Academy of Art University, Scottrade, Hearst Corporation, Microsoft, THQ, Sunset Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, and Hong Kong, the independent agency with more than seventy employees, was founded in 2004 by Elliott Easterling and Craig Hordlow.  In 2009 Red Bricks Media earned the ranking of #354 on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 500 listing by achieving 698% revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. The agency also ranked #33 in the advertising and marketing category.

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Your name, sir?

Kelly Olson.

And what is it that you do here, at Red Bricks Media?

I am the COO and CFO at Red Bricks. The CFO side is pretty self-explanatory. I deal with all the company finances and make sure we have money in the bank. On the COO side, I work with all of our service lines and functional managers in a supporting role as well as working closely with The West Coast Client Services group to help manage client relationships as best as possible.

It’s not common that you run into someone with the dual roles of CFO and COO. Some might call you a Superman as you seem to be tasked with a Herculean degree of responsibility. Do you see yourself as Super?

Well, if I had to choose a superpower, it would be the ability to not have to sleep, because you could always be spending more time on the business to improve things. But no, I don’t view myself as a Superman and I couldn’t do what I do without having a solid management team in place, which I’m glad to say we do.

If you weren’t doing this job, at this company, at this time in history, what different career path could you see yourself in?

The things that would most interest me would be teaching and coaching, which I think would be pretty attainable. [At this point in the interview, Kelly launches in to his world famous football metaphors. I never know what he is talking about when he does this, so I have stricken it from the record.] And the other path that has always interested me has been film directing.

Interesting indeed. I was not aware you had a bit of the old creative yearning. Nice one. Desert island, three films, go!

‘The 3^rd Man’. I’m a big Orson Welles fan. ‘Rear Window’ or pretty much any Hitchcock film for that matter. And ‘Fargo’, a Coen Brothers masterpiece.

Wow. Who knew? Okay one last work-related question: How would you describe the aesthetic style of your office?

Pretty poor.

I completely agree. I might even go so far as to call it awful. Moving on, can you describe an ideal Saturday for Kelly Olson?

Hit a local college football game. Do some tailgating before hand. Head home for a nap afterwards. Meet up with friends for a good meal in the evening and then if I’m up for it, maybe hit a club or two and do a little dancing.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you describe yourself as a dancer?

A 5 or a 6.

How modest of you. Will we be seeing you and your stylistic moves at this year’s holiday party?

There is a definite possibility of that happening. However, I can tell you with complete certainty that you won’t be witnessing any pole dancing.

Will you save a dance for me?

Only if it’s a slow one.

As told to Russell Bongard, RBM Creative Director - 2009

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By Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Search Strategist & Resident Analytics Guru

What would we do without Web Analytics? They provide the data necessary to make performance marketing possible. This allows for more efficient campaign optimization and higher ROI for businesses large and small. For most marketers, however, getting to that point is not an easy process. Most marketers will jump through hoops in order to pull the data they need to analyze, and merely end up with results which are confusing or difficult to interpret.

Web Analytics has evolved from log server files and stat counters into software packages whch provide a wealth of valuable data about website usage.. As such, Web Analytics as a practice began mostly as an arm of web development and developed in importance to the point that most companies now require an additional division to understand online profitability. However, the fundamentals of Web Analytics software which were originally built for website audits have yet to fully escape their roots in web development.

When one launches one of the well-known Web Analytics software packages today, whether it be Omniture, Google Analytics, or Coremetrics, the question that drives the user is usually “How is my website doing?” rather than “How are my online marketing campaigns doing?” These Web Analytics packages are structured by the process one would use to audit specific pages or searches, and how they are performing concerning website usability.

This is not to downplay the importance of these kinds of views and metrics, but rather to point out that Web Analytics should play a larger role in online marketing, rather than merely providing information about a website’s usage. There are changes afoot within Web Analytics that are providing deeper, more insightful, and more useful information to online marketers.An example of this is Coremetrics’ user-interface tagging or Google Analytics’ new ‘Analytics Insight’ section.

Yet, Web Analytics packages truly need to go through a full restructuring in order to avoid feeling like an add-on of an add-on, charging by the number of users or by the number of reports one creates. When an online marketer logs in to a Web Analytics interface, the first thing available should provide an overall view of performance by marketing channel, allowing any online marketer to dive into their own data and gain insights into their specialty without having to navigate through multiple areas in order to get data that is relevant to them.

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By Elliott Easterling, CEO

Many marketers are missing the point with Facebook and social networks. The complexity of managing company profiles, the risks of user-generated content, and the lack of control keep many marketers away from creating a robust social network presence.

Social media represents a sea change in the way that brands project and broadcast themselves. Traditional models of web advertising start from a website that is broadcast out to the public. Historically, advertising was placed to bring people back to this channel.

With the advent of social networks, blogs, and micro-blogging (Twitter), brands have had a whole new spectrum to broadcast their brands through, and in most cases, these are not contained within the safe and controlled confines of their site. These new advancements have required that marketers reinvent their digital marketing efforts to consider the nuances of these new media. Creating and managing a presence on Facebook involves a unique set of considerations that are not native to traditional web publishing.

One of the most interesting considerations is that marketers must not just “project” their brand through their website, but rather must make their brands “converse” through these new forms of media. The way that brands are now fragmented through these new channels and must now become animated and have a voice is completely changing the ground rules for digital marketing. Silent films now have sound, and the brands that do not have a voice in this new media will not reap its vast rewards.

I wrote last month on the opportunities that exist for acquisition marketing in Facebook. Now I’ll address retention marketing on Facebook, which warrants its own discussion (and a lot more beyond this).

The benefits to building a fan base in Facebook are akin to developing an electronic direct mail (EDM) list. Unlike EDM lists, on Facebook you can not only market to your customers but they can interact among themselves and do the marketing for you.

Marketers need to start to treat their social network fan bases as marketing assets and need to measure their effect on their sales. So when a promotion is dropped to an EDM list, a similar message should be dropped to Facebook fans. Ultimately the revenue generated from a Facebook fan base should be uniquely tracked within web analytics systems and reported back to senior marketing management just like every other key marketing channel.

What is amazing about Facebook is that it is an incredible value for the associated costs. Marketers spend significant amounts managing their EDM campaigns, and get much of the similar messaging capabilities and the benefits of an integrated social network “free” from Facebook. Facebook is in essence a Hosted Social Network for corporations, with very low marginal cost to touch consumers. Eventually Facebook may find new ways to charge corporations, and the risk of having your fan base hijacked with high marketing fees are very valid and need to be considered as you make your investments.

Let’s take a quick look at Starbucks. At last check they have over 5MM fans on Facebook. That base of evangelists can be activated through promotion and coupons to drive retail sales, which is likely having a very healthy effect on Starbucks’ bottom line.  Starbucks has a concerted and active paid Facebook fan recruiting program. It has yielded a base of fans that has nearly doubled in the last 4 months.

So when our clients ask us whether they should be advertising on Facebook to build up a fan base or to drive traffic to their site, my answer is usually “try both.” To successfully manage a Facebook fan base and a social media profile, you do need to have a concerted investment of resources within your organization — so that is a prerequisite to a fan building program. Facebook is not for all brands, but it is for more than have given it a real chance to play an integrated role in their digital communications.

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New service offers complex, comprehensive performance assessment and monitoring solutions.

San Francisco, CA – November 3, 2009 – Red Bricks Media, a full-service digital marketing agency, announced its new Analytics & Insights practice. Offerings will help clients better utilize marketing and website data to make more intelligent business decisions.

In order to meet the increasing and varied demands of digital marketers, Analytics & Insights will provide solutions that are both highly customized and platform independent. From defining analytics requirements to ad-hoc report development to generating robust data visualizations, the new service focuses on providing the data needed to make informed marketing decisions on budget and resource allocations.

“While a lot of agencies offer one-size-fits-all reports, our solutions focus on determining exactly what drives the success and failures of our clients’ digital marketing campaigns,” said CEO Elliott Easterling. “Whether we are analyzing the performance of a single channel or pulling together complex information from multiple campaigns, our goal is to provide custom, data-driven recommendations that will improve performance.”

The first offerings within the new practice will address the core elements digital marketers need to get analytics configured and intelligence uncovered:

• Analytics Platform Implementation Consulting
• Customized Reporting Solutions
• Deep Dive Analyses
• Cross-Platform Analysis Tools

For more complete information please visit www.redbricksmedia.com.

About Red Bricks Media:

Red Bricks Media is a full-service global marketing agency headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Since 2003, they have offered services in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, creative, web design, and social media marketing. Their client list includes top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ and the Los Angeles Times. To learn more about Red Bricks Media’s Web Analytics practice, please contact sales@redbricksmedia.com.

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