
Chief Executive Officer at Hello Viking
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Chief Executive Officer at Hello Viking
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
I'm a writer and creative director. And a drummer. I'm keen on solving business problems with more than words and images.
I grew up in Minneapolis. Got a degree in Jazz. Stumbled into advertising in 1993. Lived on the east coast from 1995-2006. Learned a lot about how ad agencies work (and don't). Got heavily involved in interactive.
The highlight was nine years spent helping lead and evolve the Volkswagen "Drivers wanted." campaign at Arnold Worldwide, including helping launch the New Beetle Convertible, Touareg and Phaeton as well as numerous digital initiatives, including turbonium.com, RadioVW.com and four redesigns of vw.com.
Moved back to Minneapolis in 2006 to help lead Carmichael Lynch into a new era. Now I'm a part of creating a new advertising entity: Hello Viking. We vigorously seek to solve business and marketing problems with words, images and technology. Hello Viking provides strategic and creative consulting and production services to Marketers & Brands; Product Development, Investors & Start-ups; Ad Agencies; PR & Design Firms; Commercial/Video Production Houses and Media Companies & Publishers.
We believe a new kind of advertising has come online, even in traditional venues, based on mutually beneficial inter-action, relevant data and respect. We believe every aspect of a corporation communicates now—from billing to human resources, shipping to governance—and the world is talking about it all. The question isn’t if but when your brand will join the conversation. We seek to practice and implement marketing with innovative partners who agree the consumer is in control.
Let’s listen. Let’s talk. Let’s build and maintain conversation that improves awareness, motivates conversion and energizes loyalty.
Strategic brand consulting, marketing and media planning, advertising development (creative, production), social media consulting, stewardship and optimization, interactive design and production, intellectual property and application development
(Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Primary/Secondary Education industry)
2008 — Present (1 year )
I created and am teaching an Advertising studio course for the Spring 2008 term called "The Future of Advertising." You can learn more about this course at my blog: http://usefullunacy.typepad.com/useful_lunacy/mcad/index.html
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
May 2008 — Present (1 year 7 months)
Our motto: "There are no small ads, only small people." BannerPalooza makes online banner ads. That's it. All shapes. All sizes. All functionalities. We've got an outstanding team of producers and Flash designers/developers who love making banner ads. We can be white-label or a standard production resource. We've recently produced banners for Sony Vaio (via 180LA), 3M (via Kruskopf Coontz) and IKEA (via Valassis).
(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)
July 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)
I'm a founder and the Chief Executive Officer at Hello Viking. We vigorously seek to solve business and marketing problems with words, images and technology. We believe conversation is the new advertising.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
May 2006 — July 2007 (1 year 3 months)
Helped lead and manage integrated creative department in development of advertising and marketing solutions.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
April 2006 — April 2006 (1 month)
Freelance creative direction and writing on H&R Block new business pitch.
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
January 2006 — February 2006 (2 months)
Freelance writing and creative direction on Morgan Stanley, American Express and Dove.
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
November 1997 — December 2005 (8 years 2 months)
Worked on and helped lead the Volkswagen ("Drivers wanted.") creative team for almost a decade. Won a few awards for that. Helped win some news business (Dunlop Tires, Goodyear, EMC, Hush Puppies). Ran the Goodyear account for 13 months. Helped create and nurture the agency's interactive production system.
(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
Evolved existing Copywriting course to better meet the needs of graduate students in the Marketing MBA Program. Taught fundamentals of consumer research, marketing strategy, creative briefing, creative concepting, copywriting, art direction and production.
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1997 — 1997 (less than a year)
Freelance advertising concepting and copywriting for PARTNERS & Simons (PC Magazine, PC Week), McKinney & Silver (Sunkist Orange Juice) and Arnold Worldwide (Volkswagen).
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
June 1995 — April 1997 (1 year 11 months)
Wrote print, radio and TV for AnheuserBusch (American Originals, Bud Light). Helped A-B develop new products and non-traditional marketing opportunities. Wrote TV and radio for Scudder Mutual Funds, print for Winchester Hospital, Boston Bruins and Reebok. Designed, produced and coded HTML for the agencys first website.
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
January 1994 — June 1995 (1 year 6 months)
Worked on Boatmens Bancshares, US WEST Telecommunications Group (now Qwest), the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival, the Moolah Shrine Circus, Taco Bell (regional) and Tanana Suncare.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
1992 — 1992 (less than a year)
BA , Jazz Studies , 1988 — 1992