DIGITAL PEOPLE - DOUG WEAVER

My friend and colleague Patty Keegan, put me onto Doug Weaver - one of her compatriots from the USA.  Doug has had a much (much!) more magnified version of my career - he was a long term traditional advertising sales person who transferred to online in the early days, rode the early boom, lived the dotcom crash, welcomed the resurrection and now consults and trains in online media and sales through his business, based in Vermont - The Uptream Group.  I was thrilled when he agreed to be our special guest for Digital People.  He was also good enough to answer a few additional questions, including some information on that 'first online ad' - guess who the client was? - see Q11.  Please enjoy Doug's insights. 

Next fortnight, to coincide with the US elections, we'll profile another American - though he's based closer to us in OZ!

Know anyone you would like to see profiled on Digital People (or have any other comments)?  Please email me at denise@consultds.com.au

Till then!

Name: Doug Weaver               

Works:   Upstream Group, Inc.  Based in the mountains of Vermont.  And yes, I’ve met both Ben AND Jerry.

Job Title:  Founder & CEO

1. How, where and when did the digital industry find you?   In 1994, following many years in magazine ad sales, I became advertising director for Wired Magazine.  Selling ads on “Hot Wired” – the company website – was part of the deal.  I didn’t know we’d be the first ones to sell any ads on the web, but there you go.  This was about 2 years after the web was invented and prior to the release of the first commercial browser.  Fate found me.
2. What is your current role and what do you actually do?   Along with my partner Scot McLernon, I own and run Upstream Group.  We consult and teach internet sales teams to be better, more strategic, more visionary.  The best mission statement I can offer is that we’re out to elevate the practice of online ad sales to a profession, and to change lives along the way.  Speaking, teaching, writing, training...all part of the deal.
3. If you could have any job, (preferably in the digital arena, but can be anything) what would it be?    I really think I’ve got the best job in our industry.  Really. 
4. Take a punt on the 'next big thing(s)' in digital?    Scale and distribution strategies.  We’ve been whining for 15 years that we weren’t getting our share of media spending.  Watch out what you wish for, because advertisers are now saying “OK, here it is. Now spend it for us.”   Our current architecture will very quickly break down.  We need people and technology to make the commodity stuff simple and easy to buy.
5. Where do you see the digital industry in the next 5 years (any forecasts and challenges)  I hope we break out of the echo chamber.  There are so many people in our business who have no other frame of reference than sitting in front of their screen every day looking at websites.  It’s like the writers of television:  so much of it sucks because it’s so self referential.   We need people who are going to be visionary and not just make incremental changes and improvements.  Most of the other themes – consumer control, greater mobile distribution – have all been well covered. 
6. How do you see other media evolving in the next 5 years?   I think only the biggest and smallest magazines will survive and that they’ll come up with a whole different model for pricing their advertising and their physical product.   While there will still be big magazines that last decades, many will have decidedly shorter life spans – on purpose.  Newspapers will need to find better ways to nationalize themselves by forming coalitions and networks, and to take back ownership of the local online markets where they live.  The current model for buying and selling television will go on for several more years because it’s so profitable for those involved.  But there will be an end date.
7. Where do you see mobile marketing going in the next 12 months?  I get into trouble on this because I often come across as dismissive of where mobile has gone to date.  In the U.S. we have no legacy of state telephone ownership so we’ve had five or six major carriers with no real interoperability.  This has thwarted development tremendously and lots of smart companies have gone out of business because they’ve been forced to choose one carrier over another.  I do think that we’ve got a great deal of it wrong, in any case.  I really think we need to start thinking less of the phone as a display medium and more as the world’s remote control.  I just believe sending somebody an offer or showing them an ad on such a personal device is problematic.
8. Did you ever have a big digital idea you wish you pursued (or someone else's idea you wish was yours)?   I remember being in a business meeting at Wired back in early 1995 where we were trying to fix the financial model for our website, which was all about fixed sponsorships on different sections (no way to scale it up.)  There was a feature on the site called “Net Surf” which was a collection of five or six websites the editors thought were really cool.  I suggested that instead of just five or six we should list hundreds of them and make it a place people would come back to every time they went on the web.  I was describing Yahoo without knowing it.  The editors laughed me out of the room, telling me what a stupid idea THAT was!
9. Where do you get your industry information from?   I talk to three people every week who can’t buy anything from me or sell anything to me.  I’m very patient in these conversations, and it’s amazing how much you can learn.  I also learn a lot from the sales people who I teach.  These are the people who are on the front lines and there’s no bullshit or spin happening.  They know what’s selling or not selling, what’s working or not working.
10. What industry groups or networks are you a part of?   I was one of the early board members for the Interactive (then Internet) Ad Bureau.  I’m also at the center of a group called “The Seller Forum” which is a regular meeting of 50-75 of the top digital sales leaders in America.    And I’m really proud to be on the board of directors for the Tom Deierlein Foundation, run by a friend who was seriously wounded in Iraq.  We evacuate wounded Iraqi kids to waiting medical treatment and also send school supplies, vitamins, soccer balls, stuff that will help the quality of life.  That a guy would have his life changed over there and still want to give back to the people is inspiring. 

11.  Tell us about the first online ad you sold (any results)?  The first ad I sold was a 428 x 20 banner.  The advertiser was IBM.  At that time there was no such thing as an ad server, no analytics and no real way of even tracking clicks.  Call it the Studio 54 days of web advertising:  no accountability.  But the client was thrilled, as it sent a real message about who IBM wanted to be.

12.  Do you have a favourite online (and/or integrated) campaign you can highlight?   There was an ad a few years ago for Loctite Glue, one of those instant glues that bonded on the spot.  The banner just had a tiny translucent spot on it and the words “Wet Glue: Do Not Touch.”  So naturally your mouse goes right there.  The banner then sticks to your mouse what remains behind is the Loctite Glue message.  Brilliant!  First creative I ever saw that emerged from a real understanding of the tactile quality of the web.

13.  How do you see online measurement, and the question regarding standardisation, evolving?   There’s a lot of work being done here, but I think there’s an essential truth that eludes many people.  One can only standardize around that which is common and, well, standard.  The commodity stuff.  I believe that the web is infinite in its permutations and models, so we need to accept that we’re always going to be working around new stuff.  This is permanently dynamic.

14.  What should a good online sales person be doing in a market downturn?  I just wrote a column about this very thing.  www.getthedrift.com.  First of all, they shouldn’t be freaking out.  All the big, hard trends are in our favour.  This is a cycle, not a fundamental change.   That said, it’s a great time to really elevate ones game and learn to be a little generous and creative.  And Zen.  Zen is good.