IW:
We’ll start with the easy questions.
Tell me a little about yourselves.
EL:
Well, I’ve always been a creative
person. In fact, when I was younger, I
wanted to be a comic book artist. Having
traditional Korean parents though, that
idea didn’t last very long. Instead, I went to
the University of Western Ontario to study
economics. I graduated, found a job, and
paid my dues. From there, a coworker of
mine recommended a book, “Hey Whipple,
Squeeze This” [by Luke Sullivan]. After
reading it I was inspired – I knew then
I wanted to go back to school and study
advertising. So that’s what I did.
I went to Seneca College and studied
creative advertising. After a year of studying
harder than I ever had in university, I found
myself freelancing and making a decent
income helping people with their branding
strategies. I discovered I had a knack for
helping small companies get noticed and
devoted my attention to it. The
money was good, the work was
gratifying, but I needed more. I
don’t know if what I was looking
for was more experience, or more
education, but I think I found it while
working at an events place, which is
where I met Colum. He’ll tell you, within
minutes of meeting each other, we were
already brainstorming ideas for a better
future!
CD:
[
Chuckles] Aye. I met Gino at work
and yes, we started hatching plans to take
over the world only minutes after being
introduced. Within days we had developed
plans
on how we
could streamline some
marketing
processes
and six months later we
decided on a name for
our new venture.
Every day we come up with
new marketing ideas and one
of these days you might just
see one of these ideas brought
to life… Stay tuned.
But, back to your original
question, as a kid I wanted to be
a professional soccer player, but
when it became brutally evident
that that was never going to happen,
I thought about becoming a bank
robber [whisper] too dangerous, or
possibly joining the Irish army [sigh]
but my ma wouldn’t allow me, so I
reluctantly went to college to drink and
party!
EL:
[
To Colum] You should mention how
university is free over there. It’s really not
fair.
CD:
Okay, university was free [Laughs]. I
actually got a government grant also. In
essence, I was paid by the government
to drink, have fun and get ‘educated’. I
struggled through college with hangovers,
eventually scraping a degree together and
then did a post-graduate degree in Business
with a focus in Marketing. My Interest
in eMetrics and particularly with Google
AdWords, SEO, and Analytics came when I
was turned down for a job I really wanted.
Apparently it came down to me and two