the new gig: EVP, Marketing at Machinima

by Kevin Doohan

I left Red Bull about 3.5 months ago.  I detailed how I was feeling at the time in my "on to the next one" post.  I was really excited about focusing 100% of my energy on finding what's next.  Searching for a job without a job was an excellent experience and I highly recommend it.  My search gained incredible traction once I made it my highest priority.

As part of my search, I reconnected individually with hundreds of friends.  I shared my experience and ambition with over a dozen recruiters and I talked with many companies about their needs and how I might fit in.  Each of these conversations provided valuable data points and informed my perspective and helped me define the perfect next step for my career.  I am SO THANKFUL to everyone who contributed to the experience.  I truly appreciate it.  

In August, I found the right choice for me.  It leverages my past experience and provides exciting new opportunities.  I found a team who is inspired and who is defining the future of media.  I found a marketing leadership position in a company that truly understands the value I can deliver.  I'm proud to share that I have accepted the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Marketing at Machinima.  In my role at Machinima, I oversee all marketing for the company: PR/communications, trade marketing, research, brand marketing, internal promotions, social media, external promotions, partnerships, licensing, etc...

On August 22, when I was in the interview process with Machinima, I tweeted "do you know machinima?  you should."  I was impressed by Machinima's performance as I researched the company.

I'm so excited about this new role.  Machinima has already established immense scale.  The Machinima network drove over 2.1 billion video views to 191 million visitors in July 2012.  The audience and content delivered is huge and it keeps getting bigger.  What's most compelling in my opinion though is the engagement of the Machinima audience.  Comscore says that Machinima drove over 83 minutes of video/viewer on YouTube in July.  None of the competition was even close.  IMAGINE what Machinima can accomplish with a dedicated focus on marketing led by an experienced, passionate brand marketer.

I realized last week that I was watching Machinima before I had any idea that I'd end up joining the team.  In April, my friend David Teicher (@aerocles) tweeted an awesome PAC-MAN fan video.  I watched it, I also thought it was great, and I retweeted David.  The tweet and the video are embedded below.  

The embed below is the trailer for Season 1 of RCVR, a fantastic web series produced by Machinima.  RCVR premiered on September 21, 2011 and the first season was sponsored by Motorola Mobility.  The web series was well received by consumers and the press.  The industry responded as well.  RCVR was nominated for 12 2012 International Academy of Web Television Awards and won three: Best Dramatic Series, Best Male Lead, and Best Cinematographer.

Want to know what's next at Machinima?  The Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn web series is what I'm most excited about.  I play HALO Reach so that's part of it.  But even more, I believe that distributed on the Machinima network and using all the promotional tools at our disposal, this can be the biggest series ever regardless of medium.  We can beat TV numbers for this one.  The story and production quality are tremendous.  Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is kind of a big deal.

I've been at Machinima for exactly a week.  I'm inspired by the many opportunities we have and I am committed to evolving Machinima into a "super brand".  Stay tuned.  It's gonna be awesome.

My Favorite Sports Moment - Dave Roberts steal in 2004 ALCS

by Kevin Doohan in

I'm speaking at thinkLA's "Think Tuesday" panel on sports marketing tomorrow night.  It should be a fun event and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and learning from the panelists and attendees.  The panel's moderator, Justin Manfredi (@jwmanfredi), sent some ideas to the panelists to help us prepare.  One of Justin's suggestions was that we share our favorite sports moment as an introduction.  What's mine?  There is no question....It's when Dave Roberts stole second in the bottom of the ninth during game four of the 2004 ALCS.  

I thought the Red Sox were letting us down once again.  I thought the season was over (probably most Sox fans thought it was over) when Kevin Millar came to the plate as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 9th with the Yankees leading 4-3.  But the game wasn't over...Millar drew the walk off Rivera.  Then Dave Roberts came in to pinch run for Millar.  Rivera tried to pick off Roberts several times but failed.  Everyone knew it was coming but the Yankees simply could not stop it.  On the first pitch Rivera sent to Billy Mueller... ROBERTS TOOK OFF AND GOT IT.  HE STOLE SECOND!!!  This was a massively important moment for Boston.  It was the moment when hope returned to the team and to the fans.  Mueller singled to bring Roberts home and the game was forced to extra innings.  Both teams were scoreless until the bottom of the 12th when Manny Ramirez led off with a single off Paul Quantrill and Big Papi followed with a walk off Home Run to score two and keep Boston alive for another game.  The rest is history.  Boston became the only team ever to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS and went on to win the 2004 World Series by sweeping the Cardinals 4-0.  In my mind, the ALCS was almost better than the World Series because of the way Boston beat the Yankees in the most unbelievable and demoralizing way possible.  Millar's single plus Roberts' steal is what started the comeback.

I can't single out Dave Roberts' Red Sox Hall of Fame worthy play in Game 4 without referencing another iconic play from the 2004 ALCS.  In Game 6, Alex Rodriguez hit to Arroyo in the 8th.  Bronson ran to first and went for the tag.  A-Rod slapped the ball out of Arroyo's glove.  A-Rod advanced to 2nd and Jeter scored.  The umpires discussed the play at length, called interference on A-Rod wiping out Jeter's score.  The photo of this play is an iconic image for me.  I have a framed photo of the moment signed by Bronson Arroyo in my Red Sox collection.  Sports Illustrated included the play as the cover image for "A-Rod's most embarassing moments" feature.  I love it...

On To The Next One - Left Red Bull

by Kevin Doohan

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable. -Helen Keller

"What would you do if you were not afraid?"  This is kind of a commonly used quote now I think.  I'm not sure where it started...maybe in Who Moved My Cheese? I saw it most recently on a poster from the "facebook analog research labratory" during a visit to facebook HQ last fall.   I've decided to be fearless and take the next step in my daring adventure.  June 1 was my last day at Red Bull.   This is the first time I've left a gig without one to transition to.   I'm actively searching for what's next and I'm thrilled to be spending 100% of my time planning a limitless future.

It was fun Red Bull.  Thanks for the memories.  Thanks for providing difficult challenges and amazing opportunities over the last three years and eight months.   We envisioned making Red Bull a global digital marketing leader when I started.  We achieved it as a team.  I'm proud of the strategic marketing impact I made in North America and worldwide.   I'm proud of the results the digital marketing team delivered, the relationships we developed, and the countless collaborations we led.   I'm proud of how we evolved digital marketing to become a central part of Red Bull's strategy vs. an afterthought to be "bolted on" late in the planning process.

Thanks specifically to the loyal and talented members of the digital marketing team I leave behind at Red Bull.  You redefined what's possible and created digital experiences and consumer engagement that are the envy of brands worldwide.   I'll be watching closely as you all continue to deliver the awesome in the future at Red Bull and beyond.   Sam (@), Nils (@), Andrew (@), Caskey (@), Beth (@), Mina (@), Micha, Roel (@), Scott (@), and Josh (@) you all ROCK.  You can always count on my support in the future wherever and whenever you need it.

For me...... As Jay-Z would say: "I'm on to the next one".

nice campaign & social integration for L'Odyssée de Cartier

by Kevin Doohan in ,

I was watching The Good Wife on CBS tonight and saw a mindblowingly long and beautiful ad from Cartier.  @jdoohan and I were transfixed as a snow leopard and golden dragon entertained us in a gem filled fantasy world created by Cartier.  Check out the embedded spot from YouTube below.  The video shows 72,160 views as of me writing this blog post. It's going to get A LOT bigger.

I posted a link to the video on facebook praising Cartier for having the courage and vision to buy such a long spot during primetime and for producing a beautiful piece of content.  In a comment on my post, one of my teammates from Red Bull told me he thinks Cartier roadblocked the spot across broadcast networks.  This is even more impressive... Joan Chow, our CMO (and my boss) when I was at ConAgra Foods, used to talk about "breaking through the fog of familiarity".  This ad "broke through the fog of familiarity" at my house for sure.

I went back to the YouTube homepage to search for the video to get the total views so far and noticed a homepage takeover. Another opportunity to high-five the Cartier team.  They're making sure as many people as possible can discover and see this spot with the YouTube takeover.  I know from experience that the YouTube homepage isn't the most efficient buy ever but it absolutely belongs in a digital media takeover for a piece of content like this.

screencap of YouTube takeover for L'Odyssée de Cartier campaign 

I went back to facebook to add to the comments on my wall and suggest that my teammates check the Cartier campaign website because it also makes a great impression.  

Upon my return to facebook...BOOM - I saw a Sponsored Story (pictured left) including a reference one of my friends who likes Cartier. Sorry for exposing you're my friend Corey... I know it might be embarassing. ;)

The Sponsored Story linked to Cartier's facebook campaign page which has 445,529 likes as of me writing this blog post.   It will be interesting to watch the likes increase as the campaign continues.

I'm impressed. Cartier bought a broadcast television roadblock for a beautiful and innovative 3:30 spot.  They made sure it was available online at their website, on YouTube, and on facebook.  They then invested in a YouTube takeover and facebook Sponsored Stories to make sure consumers can DISCOVER the video and the supplemental content.

The major social media channel missing from the campaign in my view was twitter. I didn't see any Promoted Trends, Promoted Accounts, or Promoted Tweets. This feels like a missed opportunity.  Others were reacting to the spot like I was.  I easily found them via a twitter search.  That's the problem...I had to search.  I wonder if Cartier considered including twitter in the campaign.  In my experience, twitter might have performed the best of any social media choice for driving traffic to the video.  twitter's platform is made to capitalize on real-time experiences like this synchronized takeover and can route traffic quickly to where the action is.  Alternatively, Cartier could have driven views of the YouTube hosted video via inline plays on twitter web.  It just depends on what the brand's activity goals are for the campaign.

I've embedded three tweets below (thanks to twitter's excellent & newish tweet embed capability).  They're great and show that consumers were mostly getting it.  These tweets could have been even more powerful if they were connected to a promoted campaign hashtag or were RTs of something Cartier created in advance with perfect messaging and pinned at the top of the twitter feed.

I really love this campaign and will watch as it continues. It's nice work from Cartier.  I love to see them raising the bar for creative and standing out on broadcast.  Once they did, they had most of their social media bases covered including paid options.  My only question/comment is why twitter wasn't included.  twitter would have been a must for me.

kicks choices for sxsw and Red Bull LAN

by Kevin Doohan in

One of the things I dislike about travelling is having to wear the same kicks during the trip. For sxsw & Red Bull LAN, I'll be on the road for a over 10 days...so I'm bringing three pairs.

Some thought went into these choices. There's lots of walking at sxsw so they all have to be comfortable. I'll be inside and outside at clubs where people might step (gasp!) on my kicks or spill drinks so dark colors are better. It looks like rain the first few days so suede should probably be avoided but I added the P-Rod V NIKEiD "Ireland" because I'll be in Florida on St. Patricks Day and I need the Irish spirit. Have I put too much thought into it?  Absolutely. But that's part of the fun.  Check out my choices below. What do you think?

Nike Zoom Kobe VII - 2012 All-Star QS "Galaxy"

Nike SB Paul Rodriguez V - NIKEiD "Ireland"

Nike Air Max 90 VT Medium Grey/Anthracite-Black