Eric Weaver

Current

• Vice President, Edelman Digital at Edelman

Past

• President at Brand Dialogue LLC
• Director of Strategic Marketing at GIRVIN
• Senior Director, Marketing Communications at WatchGuard Technologies

• Regional CEO at Kabel New Media AG
• Senior Vice President, Managing Director at Young & Rubicam
• Vice President at Magnet Interactive
• Director of Electronic Media at Bridge Worldwide
• Community Manager at America Online
• MIS Applications Development Project Manager/Systems Analyst at Various Firms

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6 more...

Education

• Xavier University
• Grand Rapids Community College
• Northview High School

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Recommended

12 people have recommended Eric

Connections

339 connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Websites

• Brand Dialogue
• Twitter
• Facebook (primary networking)

Eric Weaver’s Summary

For 16 years, I've had the pleasure of working at the intersection of culture, commerce & media as our society has become connected and digital. My career has been largely spent helping US and overseas companies understand this transformation, teaching them how to speak to and engage their audiences using digital tools.

I'm fortunate to have worn many hats: brand strategist, director of marcom, global account director, agency CEO, and creative – gravitating repeatedly to the strategic and creative aspects of market communications. I've provided counsel and often-groundbreaking programs for numerous clients, including Brita, BMW, Clorox, Ford, Kraft Foods, Lincoln, Mattel, the Mayo Clinic, Procter & Gamble, the Clinton Administration, and many others. Over the years, I've had fantastic opportunities: webcasting Ford CEO Jac Nasser, successfully pitching CEOs from Yahoo!, Mattel and Taco Bell, and having work reviewed by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Jack Welch.

Company & product launches have included Level 3 Communications, the BMW MINI, Ultra Cascade, the Lincoln LS, SumTotal Systems, the FlipStart PC, the Mercury Mountaineer and Sable, several pharma products and even FemStat3!

Many traditional outbound activities are struggling with reduced efficacy as consumers conserve time/attention, avoid marketing, and turn to search technologies and peer recommendation for company/product information and purchase guidance. Given this power shift, our efforts must be relevant, brief, sharable and trustworthy, or they become noise. My skill is in helping big brands understand and leverage this shift, and in establishing and presenting your value through digital and social tools. Recently I've presented on this subject to Seattle Ad Club, BizJam '08, the Kitchen CSR Conference, and the Amazon Independent Sellers Conference.

You'll find me easy to work with, along with other clients who have lauded me on my dedication, extra effort and honest counsel.

Eric Weaver’s Specialties:

Branding, naming, positioning, messaging, corporate identity, market launches, social marketing, social media, social networking, social good, social responsibility, corporate social responsibility, market engagement, content development, commercial podcasting, commercial blogging, competitive research, competitive marketing, market strategy, brand strategy

Eric Weaver’s Experience

• Vice President, Edelman Digital

  Edelman

  (Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  February 2008 — Present (9 months)

  A brand strategist/creative inside a PR firm doing social marketing, I manage the digital and social marketing practices in the Seattle and Portland offices for the world's largest independent PR firm. Specializing in digital branding, digital marketing, social media/networking and corporate communications. Larger clients: Microsoft, UPS, Starbucks.

• President

  Brand Dialogue LLC

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  2002 — 2008 (6 years)

  Brand Dialogue was a marcom consultancy that provided strategy, creative and production for clients around the US. We helped launch laptops, social networks, integration consultancies, luxury spas, Sonoma wineries and educational firms, and promoted sustainability plays, NASDAQ mergers, public software firms, and automotive products.
  
  Our work for SumTotal won three Gold Beacon awards (for Best Brand Identity, Best Print Advertising and Best Integrated Marketing Program) from the Business Marketing Association.

• Director of Strategic Marketing

  GIRVIN

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  2006 — 2007 (1 year)

  Provided brand strategy, naming, and messaging counsel for numerous clients, including Procter & Gamble, Lorenzo Jewelry International, and UnionBay Sportswear.

• Senior Director, Marketing Communications

  WatchGuard Technologies

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Computer & Network Security industry)

  2002 — 2002 (less than a year)

  Was responsible for marketing communications at WatchGuard, a Seattle-based internet security firm (hardware firewalls, security software, etc.). My team and I rebranded the entire company, launched several new products, overhauled and localized the 1000-page corporate site, reworked all collateral and packaging, and reduced printing costs by $800K.
  
  This was a difficult position for me. Much time was spent defending my team and fighting political battles. When that started to impact my health, I left to return to my consultancy.

• Regional CEO

  Kabel New Media AG

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; KNW (Neuermarkt); Marketing and Advertising industry)

  2000 — 2001 (1 year)

  Created a JV between my own intellectual capital firm, Forge Partnerships, and Europe's largest CRM agency. Oversaw company's American operations in New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. My team sold $3.5MM in services within 8 weeks of launch, assisting in the US launch of BMW's MINI as well as work for USA Networks, Showtime and Swiss Re Insurance.

• Senior Vice President, Managing Director

  Young & Rubicam

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; WPP; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  1998 — 2000 (2 years)

  Designed, built and managed an $11MM, 30-person digital marketing practice for Y&R in the West.
  
  Acted as client lead and interactive strategist for companies such as Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Taco Bell, Brita and Clorox. I led top Ford execs through their first webcasts. Persuaded Ford management and dealers to completely change their approach to the Internet. Helped launch the Lincoln LS and new Mercury Sable. We also created the first web-enabled database systems, online test drive scheduling, and DB-generated dynamic messaging systems for Ford.

• Vice President

  Magnet Interactive

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  1997 — 1998 (1 year)

  Managed production, then went on to business development. Built relationships and managed large interactive marketing engagements for De Beers, Fedex, Global One, Level 3, Mattel, the Mayo Clinic, MCI, and the US Department of Commerce.

• Director of Electronic Media

  Bridge Worldwide

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  1994 — 1997 (3 years)

  This Cincinnati company, once specializing in marcom and events and now an online marketer owned by WPP, typically keeps their stellar client list under the radar. During the early days of the commercial Internet, we were creating multimedia training and sales CD-ROMs, and our clients (RCA, GE, Lenscrafters, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, et al) started asking for websites.
  
  We were at the absolute cutting edge of interactive development, creating artificially intelligent sales tools, HR intranets, co-marketing partnerships and immersive environments.
  
  I helped many of these firms take their first tentative steps into the online world. Every day we broke new ground...a very exciting time.

• Community Manager

  America Online

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Internet industry)

  1991 — 1994 (3 years)

  Founded and hosted online communities for AOL. AFC in the Mac Music & Sound community. Host of the AOL Composers' Coffeehouse, one of the first online venues for composers, songwriters and lyricists. Hosted the AOL MIDI Jam Project, the first collaborative online composition project.

• MIS Applications Development Project Manager/Systems Analyst

  Various Firms

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1980 — 1992 (12 years)

  Worked my way up from Computer Operator to Programmer, Sr. Systems Analyst and Project Manager for companies like General Motors, Ford, Allnet Communication Services and Compuware. The old-skool platforms: CICS, IMS, DB2, COBOL II.
  
  Besides learning how to navigate the very challenging political waters of large corporations, these positions provided classical training in project management, data flow analyses, business process improvement and needs definition...training that would help me in the marketing career that began in 1994.

Eric Weaver’s Education

• Xavier University

  BA, Communication Arts/Electronic Media, 1992 — 1993

  Graduated summa cum laude.

• Grand Rapids Community College

  AA, Data Processing, 1981 — 1983

  Activities and Societies:

  Student Government, School Newspaper

• Northview High School

  1976 — 1979

Additional Information

Eric Weaver’s Websites:

• Brand Dialogue
• Twitter
• Facebook (primary networking)

Eric Weaver’s Interests:

sustainability, renewable energy, clean-tech, podcasting, blogging, microblogging, Flickr, photography, travel, music composition

Eric Weaver’s Groups:

Ad Club of Seattle,
American Institute for Graphic Arts,
American Marketing Association (chapter VP),
MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest,
Seattle Podcasting Network (http://podcasting.meetup.com/22),
Seattle Flickrites (http://flickrfan.meetup.com/11)

•    CPG Branding and Marketing Forum
•    Sustainable Consumer Packaged Goods
•    LinkedSeattle
•    Green Marketing
•    Speakers and Panelists
•    Revedia Group - Sr. Level Interactive Digital Media Professionals Only.
•    CleanTech
•    Social Media Today
•    Marketing 2.0
•    Renewables and environment
•    Public Relations and Communications Professionals
•    Young & Rubicam Alumni in the world
•    Forrester
•    Connected Marketing Networking Group
•    Past & Present Edelman Employees
•    GreenBiz.com -- Green Business Professionals

Eric Weaver’s Honors:

Awarded three Gold Beacon Awards by the Business Marketing Association,

Appointed to Digital Divide Commission by US Rep Diane Watson, D-CA,

Bronze for Best Brand Website by the Automotive Advertising & Marketing Association for lincolnvehicles.com,

“Cool Corporate Web Site Award” for mercuryvehicles.com,

Automotive Advertising and Marketing Association award for mercuryvehicles.com,

Web Marketing Association “Best of Health Care Industry” award, for mayohealth.org,

Webby Award, “Best Health Care Site” for mayohealth.org,

Yahoo! Internet Life, “One of the 50 Most Useful Websites,” for mayohealth.org,

Yahoo!, “Best Overall Health Site” award, for mayohealth.org,

American Corporate Video Award

Eric Weaver’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch