August 24, 2011 By BJ Cook,

Have you heard? Digital Operative just hired a new Director of Digital Marketing! Welcome to the team Adam! We asked Adam a few questions to get to know him a little better:
Give us a little background info. Where are you from and how did you end up in San Diego at Digital Operative?
I’m from Andover, Massachusetts (where Jay Leno is from).  I joined the National Guard straight out of high school and spent three years in the Army National Guard. When I was discharged I moved to Santa Barbara and began attending UCSB. While  attending college I was hired to be the marketing director/on air at KJEE FM. In 2008 I received my BA in Communication and in 2009 I accepted a job as Digital Director/Marketing director for the central coast for Cumulus Radio.  During this time I began to feel as though my interests were dramatically shifting from traditional media to digital media and I really wanted to learn as much about digital media as I could. As such, I left Cumulus and began attending Harvard Extension School in pursuit of my Masters Degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Digital Media Arts and Instructional Design (4.0 average thanks for asking!). Once I had completed my on campus requirements I moved out here to San Diego from the east coast to live with my girlfriend, and started to look for a job. I knew I wanted to continue working in digital marketing, and began looking for the company in San Diego that had the most innovative and driven people working at it (and a foosball table). I found Digital Operative and think the team here are so smart and motivated.
What experience do you have working with marketing?
From 2004-2009 I was the Marketing Director/Morning Show Host at KJEE-FM in Santa Barbara . While there I was in charge of all things digital and had great successes including youtube videos with over 300,000 hits and large twitter and facebook followings.  By combing digital media with traditional media the station was able to achieve great success on a limited budge. We were voted “Best Morning Show” in 2008 in the Santa Barbara Independent. and  the station was consistently ranked number one in our key demographics. Additionally using my contact and press releases the station was  featured on: Mtv, Vh1, Sports Illustrated, Best Damn Sports Show, ABC, WBCN, KALC, KVYB, KBBY.
Additionally I write alot and have been published in The Santa Barbara Daily Sound, 805 Living, Ventura County Reporter, and Radio and Records.
As  the Digital Director for all of central California for Cumulus Media I ran successful Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and audio campaigns. I was also an early proponent of mixing digital and traditional media, and increased audience engagement. These programs reached a wide variety of audiences and by connecting to them digitally we were able to build a sense of communtiy.
Great! So outside of the office and digital world, what do you do for fun?
I like to go for runs. I enjoy reading, especially Malcolm Gladwell. Watching TV, especially “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “Man vs. Food” and any Red Sox or Celtics game.
Okay and now that you’re on the team, what exactly do you do here at DO?
My title is Director of Digital Marketing - It is my job to make sure that our clients messages reach their intended audience in dynamic and interesting ways. We are building a team that makes Digital Operative a one stop shop for digital marketing. We provide the strategy, knowledge, and technical expertise to execute dynamic marketing solutions.
Awesome, so where do you go to keep up with digital strategies?
I read Wired, Fast Company, eWeek (shout out to my Dad Eric on that one), and Mashable to stay up-to-date.
Great sources. Last question, what trends do you see coming for digital marketing?
Digital marketing will continue to grow as more people become comfortable in the digital space. I expect that digital marketing will continue to become more mobile based, especially with the popularity of smart phones increasing. I expect Digital Operative to be at the forefront of it all.
Thanks Adam! Glad to have you on board. Can't wait to see what you bring to DO!

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