Interview with the Agency’s ...

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The official news release has gone out the door about Gerard joining the Agency in the newly created, role of chief digital officer.

For the story behind the story, we peppered Gerard with a range of “hard-hitting” questions.

Here goes …

 

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Lou:
First things first, how did the water polo team do this year? 

Gerard:
Thanks for asking! Each year, our goal is to win the New England Conference championship, and we came up short finishing in third place this year. Over the years, the Boston University Men’s Club Water Polo team has been very competitive. We usually find ourselves in the championship match. This year we ended up in the third-place match against a strong Yale team that we beat. Winning your last game of the year is always fun, and after missing out on the 2020 season due to Covid, not having a proper off-season to train, and travel/training restrictions due to Covid in 2021, I’m really proud of the results and how the team came together.

Boston University Men's Club Water Polo team
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Lou:
water poloI would think your time with college athletes is good grounding for understanding Gen Z. Or maybe it’s more of a humbling experience as in “don’t even try.”

Gerard:
It’s a mix of both. Coaching college students requires we spend a lot of time together, both during practice as well as on the road. Spending hours and hours in a van driving all over New England to play in water polo tournaments is definitely an experience!water polo coach with team

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Lou:
Sounds a little like minor leaguers in baseball traveling in buses to small towns?

Gerard:
Exactly. All this time together offers tons of insights on how Gen Z thinks and also how they consume media. I see and hear what apps they use — TikTok and Instagram and occasionally Tinder this season — and I also learn about them as individuals. I really enjoy seeing these young men grow as players and as people. In some ways, my team becomes a laboratory allowing me to observe their media habits, cultural interests and preferred channels. They keep me young and relevant and have helped me connect to the next generation of talent in my day job. I wish I could say I planned all this when I got into coaching, but it’s actually been a happy surprise..

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Lou:
OK. I know you love sports, but when did you start paying attention to technology? High school?

Gerard:
It was probably before HS. My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000, and I bought it in middle school. It had 2K of RAM; you needed a tape player to save your work, and it connected to a B&W TV. I learned a little BASIC and got hooked.

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Lou:
I had no idea you were a coder at heart.

Gerard:
Absolutely! Just don’t expect me to code in Python?

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Lou:
What was it about coding that landed?

Gerard:
It was more about the gaming made possible by coding. How video games worked captivated me. Here you have little adventures or stories created by computer code. As a kid, this was magical. I was and still am enamored by video games; I play them. If you ever want to unwind with a game of Halo let me know.

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Lou:
Sorry, I’m not much of gamer though my nephew played professionally for the Atlanta Rein in the Overwatch league. It took all my mental capacity to gain a basic understanding of how to simply watch the game.

Gerard:
No question, today’s video games are layered and intricate. This is what gave me my grounding in technology that led to web design and now digital first content and social media. As you know, I’m now focused on digital storytelling, often about technology’s impact on business and society, through digital channels.

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Lou:
How does a BA in philosophy and a Masters in organizational management fit into this picture and point you to launching ticketmaster.com?

Gerard:
Let me think deeply about this answer … Really, the work I did at Ticketmaster Online Citysearch (our original stock ticker was TMCS) was solving a business problem through technology. I was a small part of a big, smart team that did just that. If you can think back far enough, and if like me you are a fan of live music, you likely had trouble getting tickets to your favorite band unless you were willing to stand in line, IRL, sometimes all night. When we built the capability to sell tickets online, we basically took that barrier or friction away, and it literally changed the industry overnight.

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Lou:
It must have been quite an experience to be part of this. When did you get your first taste of consultancy life?

Gerard:
My first agency experience was with a digital shop focused on the entertainment industry. I loved the work. We were able to try so many new things. It was fun to be around the people and talent that created and marketed movies, TV shows and music artists

 

“In some ways, my BU water polo team becomes a laboratory allowing me to observe their media habits, cultural interests and preferred channels. They keep me young and relevant and have helped me connect to the next generation of talent in my day job.”

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Lou:
Have you read any of the John Grisham novels?

Gerard:
No, but I have seen some of his movies!

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Lou:
I ask because years ago I interviewed John Pitts who marketed Grisham’s novels. Interesting stuff. I remember Pitts talking about the shift to digital and taking advantage of platforms like YouTube.

Gerard:
Right. When I worked in the entertainment industry it was early days for the internet. We were innovating at the speed of digital change. Early lessons from this era stick with me today, like test before you invest, track everything, make content shareable, reduce friction through design, and recognize it’s all going to change tomorrow.

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Lou:
Eventually, you landed at the intersection of digital and communications at Cone. What did you take away from this experience?

Gerard:
This was right after my in-house experience at Pearson, and I was eager to get back to agency work. Cone was a fantastic experience, as I was able to take everything I had learned about social media and eCommerce and apply it to consumer, technology, and purpose-driven brands. Digital, social and eCommerce becoming mainstream fundamentally changed the relationship between customers, stakeholders, and brands.

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Lou:
I know you worked on the Arizona State account at WeberShandwick; I won’t hold this against you (note: I attended U of A). What did the campaign involve?

Gerard:
Well, my wife went to Arizona State, so we’ll all have to tread carefully on this question. That said, it was a fun and rewarding assignment. We were primarily focused on elevating their brand as innovators in higher education, and ultimately that resulted in ASU being ranked No. 1 in Innovation by U.S. News & World Report for the past seven years.

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Lou:
Impressive way to shift the perception of being a commuter school. What about the actual campaign?

Gerard:
We spent time learning about and talking to their key stakeholders getting to know their leadership and comparing our insights to the competitive landscape. We uncovered a number of great stories from their early innovations in online learning to unique approaches to teaching STEM subjects. We then structured a series of activations that followed a cadence of educate, communicate and celebrate. Their President, Michael Crow, and our clients disliked the term disrupter, but that’s what ASU and President Crow are, and I was glad to be a part of helping tell their story.

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Lou:
Of course, you’ve spent the past almost three years building the digital practice and Boston office for LEWIS. How did your approach to digital evolve during this time? And don’t say you started to include a TikTok buy.

Gerard:
The digital practice and specifically the Boston team at LEWIS have evolved a great deal over the last three years. I’ll get to TikTok in a minute, but beyond the evolution of digital, I’m proud to talk about the team we built, and the culture we created in our U.S. digital practice and specifically the Boston office. Over the last three years, we’ve also become much more integrated and focused on performance. We created a Performance Marketing practice better integrating our analytics, data, eCommece, and marketing automation work with our core PR and digital marketing teams. They now have PR, Creative/Content, Paid Media, and SEO experts working hand-in-hand on client engagements. The Performance Marketing team ensures LEWIS gets credit for it or can optimize quickly if campaigns need fine tuning. Culturally, it was a lot of fun, a key ingredient in building a high performing team. It turns out doing great work, taking care of your people, and delivering results is rewarding, even during a pandemic. And,yes, we learned how to use TikTok, god help us.

 

Gerard LaFond tweet

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Lou:
Turning to the future, do you want to share any spoiler alerts?

Gerard:
Ah, the future. Any discussion about digital marketing in the future should include a disclaimer because what works today will be vastly different in a couple of years, if not sooner. That said, I’m excited about the future of digital marketing and integrating digital first content and thinking to The Hoffman Agency’s award-winning work. I’m excited about the idea of the Metaverse, not the actual Metaverse. The idea being an immersive experience that can educate, storytell and communicate better than current channels is a good thing. I’m excited about the end of digital transformation. Can we retire that term now?

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Lou:
Done.

Gerard:
Thanks. All channels, businesses and people are digital, or they should be. It’s not an option anymore. I’m also excited about the future of creativity and how well-chosen words and images can move people in ways we haven’t even dreamt about yet on digital channels. I’m bullish on the role of AI and Machine Learning in automation — from robotics to helping manage online platforms making them safer for all of us.

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Lou:
We can’t wait to get started. One final question. Your LinkedIn wallpaper highlights the words: “DO SOMETHING GREAT.” When was the last time you took this advice?

Gerard:
Today/My first day at The Hoffman Agency!

 

do something great neon sign

 

 

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