Mele’s Musings

About

I’m Joe, SVP, US Media at Razorfish, formerly Avenue A| Razorfish, formerly aQuantive, formerly Avenue A. One question you might be asking yourself right now is “what qualifications does this guy have to be doing what he does?” Well, first of all, I can sing pretty good. And play the drums. Second, I taught English in a Catholic college prep high school in Seattle for several years. None of those may sound like they qualify me, but I assure you, they prepared me better for this nutty world of digital advertising than most other experiences I can think of. Being a singer and a drummer is all about rhythm, creativity, and leadership. In any band, the singer drives the action, while the drummer lends the steady beat behind the music - important qualities when trying to lead teams to do exciting, groundbreaking work. And while you may be the most creative cat in the bunch, what you do doesn’t create music unless it is in sync and in rhythm with the rest of the band. Being an English teacher is all about preparation, interpretation, translation, and presentation. How do you make advertising auction models, custom attribution algorithms, or 2 hour long creative presentations interesting to CMOs who Twitter during your meetings? Well, start out by trying to make Shakespeare and Charles Dickens interesting to 15 year olds. Now, that’s a real challenge! As a teacher, I taught 125 students each day, had to make 400 year old dead guys interesting to kids who abhor poetry, and had to do 5 presentations daily (one for each of my 5 class sections) that held the attention span of hormonally imbalanced teenagers. If that ain’t marketing, I don’t know what is. Of course, I also have an MBA and have been a digital marketing professional at Razorfish since 1999, too, but that’s just icing on the cake. I also have a Masters Degree in Teaching, have sung for the Pope, been the opening act for the Beach Boys, been on the same elevator with Bill Gates, have recordings I am on for which I receive no royalties and that can be bought online (here LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Coats-Collection/dp/B00004YL95/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1244817900&sr=1-2 ), and married a former Miss Italian Community. I think those seal the deal. When I’m not working, updating blogs, catching up with all of my BFFs on Facebook, or sleeping, I like to jam in the basement with my kids, prepare alfresco dinner parties with my wife, and figure out how I’m going to finance my dream car – a Dodge Challenger SRT8.

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