In this episode, Bart Decrem, Founder and CEO of Tapulous, shares how brand marketers should utilize Apple’s new iAd network and IOS platform.  The iAd gives an exclusive interactive opportunity for marketers to harness the emotional power of the 30-sec spot.  You simply have to hear this podcast!

 Bart Decrem is founder and CEO of Tapulous, a Palo Alto-based startup building social apps for the iPhone, including the wildly successful rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge. Bart has been featured as one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business (May 2009), in Advertising Age’s “2010 Creativity 50” (March 2010) and Newsweek’s Silicon “Valley Future Superstars” (April 2010).  In May 2010, Fast Company featured him again, as a “Blast from the Past”.  Tap Tap Revenge, the Guitar Hero of the iPhone, launched in July of 2008. Twenty days later, the game nearly reached 1 million downloads. Tap Tap is now the most popular app on the iPhone and iPod Touch, with one study claiming that 1 in every 3 U.S. iPhone users has downloaded the game. Bart Decrem has launched two sequels and brought the success to record labels, which created artist-branded versions from the Black Eyed Peas and Justin Bieber. With over 15 million combined downloads, Decrem is turning his attention next to the iPad and Android.  Before founding Tapulous, Bart was the founding CEO of Flock, the social web browser company, and a co-founder of Eazel, a company working to make Linux easier to use. Bart also headed marketing and business affairs for the Firefox 1.0 launch. In between, Bart has been an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Doll Capital Management and worked on a number of community projects, including founding Plugged In, one of the nation’s first digital divide programs. Bart speaks 8 languages and was born and raised in Belgium.

In this episode, Jim shares invaluable advice for brand managers, marketers and the agencies who support them. Really, a not to be missed episode!

Jim is the President/CEO, The Jim Stengel Company, LLC, an author and Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Jim’s company is both think tank and consultancy and conducts proprietary research, generates thought leadership and applies a new ideals-driven framework to drive business growth in today’s global economy. He is the former GMO of $83B Procter & Gamble, where he oversaw an $8B advertising budget and had organizational responsibility for nearly 7,000 people. He was recognized in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 by Advertising Age as the number one “Power Player” in marketing. In 2005, he was recognized as Grand Marketer of the Year by Brandweek magazine, the same year P&G was named Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age magazine. Highly regarded, his leadership was also recognized in 2008 when P&G was honored as the 2008 Cannes International Advertising Festival Advertiser of the Year for the first time in company history. In his seven years as GMO, he personally led the transformation that has firmly established P&G as one of the most admired brand-building companies in the world. He joined the company in 1983, and before that spent four years at Time Incorporated in the Time-Life Books division. He grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in a family of six children. He holds a BA from Franklin & Marshall College, and an MBA from The Pennsylvania State University (Smeal School of Business). Jim is on the Board of Directors for AOL and the Motorola Corporation. He serves as an Advisor for MarketShare Partners, an industry-leading marketing analytics firm, and for Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations, LLC. Jim and his wife Kathleen have two children, and split their time between Cincinnati, Ohio and Coronado, California.

In this episode, Steve talks about how PR agencies are embracing and owning social media by developing in-house solutions and strategies for their clients, how social media enables brands to speak with consumers on a person-to-person basis and why knowing what your brand wants to accomplish with social media is your first task when developing your social strategy.

Steve Rubel is the SVP and Director of Insights for Edelman Digital. He studies global technology, media and online trends and shapes them into actionable insights and marketing communications strategies. In his role, Rubel has served as senior strategic advisor to Edelman clients such as Dannon, HP, PepsiCo, Zagat, Unilever, Microsoft and many others. Rubel supports the account planning processes, intellectual property development and the firm’s innovation and business development efforts. He is a member of the Edelman Digital senior leadership committee. Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel worked for 15 years in a variety of marketing communications positions in corporate, non-profit and small/mid-sized PR firms. Most recently, he spent five years at CooperKatz & Company where he pioneered the use of blogs as a marketing vehicle for clients such as the Association of National Advertisers, simplehuman, and Vespa. Steve’s writings on emerging technology have been called must-read by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine and Forrester Research. In addition, he is actively followed by more than 34,000 on Twitter, writes a bi-weekly column for Advertising Age and is often sought by the press and as a keynote speaker. Rubel has been named to several prestigious lists, including: PR Week’s 40 Under 40, The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25, PC Magazine’s 100 Favorite Blogs, Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100.

In this episode, Gayle tells us about the challenges of marketing digital and social media and why being agile, rapid and responsive is essential to success. She also shares the philosophy behind Microsoft’s decision-engine, Bing, what differentiates it from its competitors, and how she is achieving consistency across brands in her newly created position.

Gayle Troberman has been driving marketing innovations at Microsoft for more than 13 years. She founded the industry’s first digital branded entertainment team (BEET) at MSN. She purchased some of the first offline advertising for a dot.com brand while heading up marketing for Microsoft’s Sidewalk and internet start-up businesses back in 1997. Gayle’s team is responsible for global advertising, relationship marketing and digital strategy for Microsoft’s consumer, business to business and developer focused products and services including: Windows, Office, Windows Live, SQL Server and more. Prior to Microsoft, Gayle spent ten years in the NYC agency world managing consumer marketing and business development programs at Manning, Selvage & Lee and NW Ayer for a range of clients making everything from software to footwear. She has a Bachelor of Science from Ithaca College and was born and raised in Rhode Island.

In this episode, Lisa offers great insight how she markets a product that you can’t touch, smell, feel or see. Marketing the intangible, insurance in this case, takes intelligence and intuition. Lisa has also smartly shifted AmFam’s traditional marketing investment in new directions to incredible success.