Renny Gleeson was recently named the global director of digital strategies at Wieden + Kennedy, based in Portland, Ore. In this newly created position, Gleeson will oversee W+K’s global digital strategy and investments and help guide digital strategy for the W+K client roster, including Nike, Coke, Diet Coke, ESPN, Electronic Arts and Starbucks.
Most recently, Gleeson spent a year as senior VP/managing director of Carat Fusion, a full-service digital agency. He lead the 50-person team, based in New York and Atlanta, responsible for digital media, search, Web development and data strategy for clients including Pfizer, Revlon, Alberto-Culver, Schick, Pernod Ricard, Philips and MTV/VH1. During his tenure, Gleeson’s team increased its clients’ strategic use of digital media, grew overall revenue and diversified the client base.
Prior to Carat Fusion, Gleeson spent four years at the National Basketball Association (NBA) as the senior director of global media and interactive marketing. At the NBA, he drove NBA/WNBA interactive sales and marketing efforts. Growing annual revenues and profitability, he led the interactive marketing staff, licensing/activation efforts and worked with NBA video game licensees to monetize in-game opportunities for league partners such as Gatorade. On the mobile front, he developed syndicated programming and mobile execution (video and SMS) with league partners including Nokia and Verizon Wireless.
Earlier Gleeson headed sales and marketing for Delia’s Interactive Group, a teen and youth catalog retailer based in New York.
Gleeson graduated with a BA from Yale and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.
He recently sat down in SHOOT’s chat room to discuss his new role, industry trends and share his insights into where his sector of the business is heading.
SHOOT
: How would you describe the state of the industry?GLEESON: Digital is disrupting almost every industry, and it’s taking a direct hit on advertising. For brands the question used to be, do they need to do digital; the reality is whether or not they are, their customers are talking about them in the digital space. It’s a question of what role they want to play in the dialogue about their own brand. It is changing the nature of brand relationships. Brands now have an active dialogue with customers.
There is a general consensus that the unbundling of media from creative simply doesn’t make sense in the digital space. [When separated], neither gets done as well as it should be. [Take for instance] Second Life (where users can build their own 3-D virtual world) execution. Is that creative? Who drives that? …The digital strategy has to fit the creative thinking and media execution. It can’t be looked at as an additive, because digital can actually be a true business solution, a new model, a new revenue stream. It needs to be with your best creative minds to come up with solutions that make sense.
[Digital media] is not just a channel. It’s a discipline and it requires the kind of strategic thinking that I see in creatives and high-level strategists.
SHOOT
: What are your predictions about advertising through mobile technologies?GLEESON: It’s a huge opportunity. There are more than 180 million handsets in the United States right now; the penetration of mobile devices is actually broader than home Internet penetration…We are still in an interesting transition phase as the carriers in the United States have to figure out how to open the gates. I think any company not putting mobile in their long-term strategy is missing an opportunity and handing an opportunity to their competition.
SHOOT
: Where are the advertising opportunities in mobile (i.e. mobile Web, video, SMS text messaging)?GLEESON: I think it will be a mix. I think there are 1,001 opportunities. [Looking at] the latest generation of handsets and their capabilities, it is difficult to predict where it is going. That’s our job. To figure out what they are doing and stay in touch with the [mobile technology] leaders.
SHOOT
: What types of opportunities do you envision for games?GLEESON: That’s a broad topic…that could include casual gaming online where women predominate, or console-based games in the home, or mobile video games. This is absolutely an area we should be looking at. I would expand the definition of gaming…up to and including, would you consider Second Life a game? Gaming has to be a part of the consideration set. It may not end up on the final plan, but it should be considered.
SHOOT
: What intrigues you about Second Life?GLEESON: What I find interesting about it is just that they have created an environment where people are comfortable acting, reacting and transacting in a very real way. Second Life has [roughly] 1.3 million users, so there’s a scale question. But people thought the Web would be a fad, and it has made itself indispensable in my life…When you look at Second Life, people are making the decision to actively participate in an alternate reality for an extended period of time. That interests me. That should interest everyone–to understand how it motivates consumers. I think a next generation Second Life will have even more mass-market appeal. I’m interested in it because it represents a paradigm shift, a consumer motivation study and a new way people will receive data going forward.
SHOOT
: Would you reflect on your new position?GLEESON: [In these new digital areas] agencies need be able to deliver on nuts and bolts, but they also need to deliver on the front end the creative thinking and the connection to the customers. What is going to get [customers] to respond? Why should they care? If you understand what motivates the people you are trying to reach…that is the secret sauce. Mobile is a one-to-one opportunity, so I’m particularly excited that Wieden + Kennedy has got a seat at the table with clients [including] Nike, ESPN and Starbucks. They are marketers who are out innovating the market….I’m very excited to be working for them on behalf of Wieden.
SHOOT
: Your new role has global responsibilities. What are your thoughts about the opportunities in foreign markets?GLEESON: Each market has adopted particular technologies. [For instance] Japan is very far ahead in mobile but with a closed system. There are different economic and infrastructure concerns about adopting digital technology in each country. I believe in adopting best practices from each of these countries.
My hope is to be able to take work in these offices and share them internally and see what’s working and not working and take us up a notch. … and share it with our clients.
You are global as soon as your Web page is up…The reality is we don’t know what it is going to look like in two years, three years and 10 years. There’s so much happening here; so much change going on. I personally feel like I’m running all the time to stay caught up. …We have a snowball; it’s rolling down the hill. It’s out there. And we as a global community are shaping it daily. We all have a hand it defining what this will be. I would suggest: Do experiment, grow and learn, and get best practices. Understand it and participate in it. That’s how you will prepare yourself for the next phase, and the next phase…
