Expert Profile:
President and Co-Founder
Jorge: What's your professional background and how did you get into branding and marketing?
Gregory: I was accepted into an art high school in New York City because I demonstrated a lot of creative talent at a young age. By the time I was 22, I was designing websites and winning awards. I was even a guest of the French government and presenter of my design work in Lille, France when I was 23.
As I advanced in my career I became a creative director and worked in advertising. Which meant I didn’t actually do much design anymore. I was managing a team, working on strategy, producing presentations, and doing a lot of writing. All of which I enjoyed and excelled at. So I switched. I went back to school and got a marketing degree.
For the past six years, I have been in high-tech marketing and I am currently the head of content marketing for AdRoll. A performance marketing technology platform based in San Francisco.
Jorge: We used to break out digital or online as a separate component as a part of a much larger strategy. What is the current state of the "marketing" today?
Gregory: The technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Digital has become a much larger part of the marketing mix and for a large segment of marketers, it’s now their primary focus. That’s a big change and it’s only happened in the last five to seven years.
The television advertising space has been the big hold out when it comes to digital. I think that with the popularity of streaming digital television apps like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon that area will finally go digital as well.
Jorge: What are 3 new marketing technologies that you can't live without?
Gregory: The one tool that I couldn’t live without would be Google Docs. It’s amazing. The collaboration features are unmatched by any other software tool out there. I use it every day, all the time, for everything. Rapportive and Grammarly are the other two tools that I can’t imagine my life without. I won’t use a computer that doesn’t have both installed.
Webinars are a format that I am excited about. This generally surprises people. Webinars are not a particularly sexy category, but I have been able to extract a lot of value from them. Perhaps, it’s the lack of interest from other marketers that’s driving my success there. There isn’t a lot of competition in the category.
Jorge: What is the Annual Design Gurus Summit 2015 all about and what can attendees expect to experience?
We’ve got some of the most creative people in Silicon Valley lined up to speak at a half-day summit that’s 100{553246f06ec80658d58877c30169c8b03a4bdeb18f3754ce1a5f305ceb753b48} focused on design, branding, and creativity. Attendees can expect to hear from talented designers from companies like Lyft, Airbnb, Microsoft and more. Readers can use this link to get 20{553246f06ec80658d58877c30169c8b03a4bdeb18f3754ce1a5f305ceb753b48} off tickets if they want to attend.
