Dr. Madsen recently joined “Yahoo! Canada”:http://www.yahoo.ca/ as head of marketing programs, to accelerate Yahoo!’s growing momentum in the Canadian market. He previously headed product marketing for Yahoo! Marketing Services, as well as product management for the company’s industry-leading advertising delivery system. In his previous position, Madsen drove Yahoo!’s innovations in advanced ad targeting, analytics, rich media ad formats, and promotions services for advertisers.
Originally a social scientist, Madsen received his doctorate from Harvard University and subsequently lectured there before beginning his marketing career with J. Walter Thompson, the advertising agency.
*One Degree: Yahoo! Canada has gone through several different phases since it was launched. Is there a renewed emphasis on serving the Canadian market at Yahoo?*
According to ComScore, three out of four Canadians online each month use Yahoo!, so Canada has long been a big and important market for us. But over the years, we have taken varying approaches to how we manage and develop our business. The approach we’ve been taking in recent years puts a strong team in charge here and keeps it well integrated with functional teams back at our headquarters.
*One Degree: You’ve just recently moved to Toronto from Yahoo’s head office in Sunnyvale California. What are your early impressions of the differences between the Internet industry here and in the valley?*
Category: Five Questions
Mike Burns co-founded “Fuel Industries”:http://www.fuelindustries.com/ in 1999 and has since led its evolution into one of North America’s most advanced online branded entertainment agencies. Fuel has created console-quality online games, worlds, viral campaigns and digital toys for major brands throughout Canada and the U.S., and has partnered with some of the world’s largest advertising agencies to help them navigate the branded entertainment landscape.
Burns has been recognized numerous times for his creative approach to game development, and has been the recipient of several industry awards, including being named one of the Top 40 Entrepreneurs under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal. Over the past year, Fuel has doubled in size to over 85 employees, and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
*One Degree: Fuel Industries has managed to build quite a reputation for high impact web sites and viral campaigns – Can you tell us a little about how you got to where you are now?*
When we started Fuel seven years ago, we wanted to deliver the web applications and interactive sites that most other Canadian firms weren’t able to. We knew that web-based gaming was going to be huge in the future, and we started developing that side of our practice about five years ago. In the past few years when technology had caught up with consumer demand, we were ready to capitalize on it while other agencies were playing catch-up. Advergaming is only a part of what we do, but it’s been a major part of what has driven our reputation over the past few years.
*One Degree: What comes first – the technology or the insight?*
Justin Creally is a partner at “High Road Communications”:http://www.highroad.com/, Canada’s largest PR agency serving technology and digital lifestyle companies. Justin works with clients such as Microsoft, Buena Vista Games and ATI Technologies to help guide their online communications strategies.
*One Degree: What’s Vox?*
As a PR agency, clients turn to us because they want strong communications programs. Our social media and digital marketing services enable our clients to reach customers and other key stakeholders by using next-generation PR. Obviously, traditional media relations continues to be a core component of what we do. But for several clients, especially those reaching out to college-aged consumers or other niche markets, traditional mainstream media is limited in its effectiveness. We’ve turned up the volume on our social media and digital marketing services in the past year, as more clients turn to us for help in reaching audiences online.
*One Degree: Does this mark a new approach to interactive for the agency?*