News & Press
US - Nurun's President on Video's Rocketing ROI
2008-06-05
Published on Adotas.com
by Kathleen Wilcox
ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE - Nurun is an independent global interactive agency founded in 1995 - practically the Paleolithic Era in the online ad world. ADOTAS sat down with Nurun's president of North America, Steve Carbone, to see how Nurun has managed to stayed spry, what it still needs to work on - and what Carbone predicts will happen next for Nurun and the industry at large.
ADOTAS: Can you give me a brief outline of what Nurun does and how its mission has changed since it launched?
STEVE CARBONE: Nurun launched in Canada (Montreal) in 1995 as an information technology solutions provider. Through several acquisitions, including Ant Farm Interactive in the United States; Crazy Labs in Madrid, Spain; and China Interactive in China; Nurun has evolved into a global interactive marketing agency with more than 800 employees world-wide, specializing in digital strategies, account service, creativity, online media buying and planning, and search engine marketing. It continues to provide the backend technology solutions, while at the same time, providing strategic recommendations, and the front-end creative solutions for some of the top marketers around the world.
ADOTAS: Steve, can you tell me a little bit about your background and how it's prepared you to lead the North American office and execute its vision and mission?
STEVE CARBONE: I'm an entrepreneur at heart; I built my first business in college, electronic typesetting for local print shops, taking advantage of new technologies replacing traditional typesetting techniques. Although I spent the majority of my career to date working for a large global ad agency, I never strayed far from my entrepreneurial roots. In the early 1990s, I found the Internet, and with some friends created an online Bulletin Board service. I was fascinated with the behavioral usage online, how communities formed around topics of interest, how there was a propensity to transact, and invite action oriented activity, and especially how the users actions on the board was measured and tracked. Being a direct marketer at heart, this inspired me to write my next business plan around online direct marketing.
In 1994, while working for Grey, my business plan turned into a company called Grey E Marketing, an online transactional-focused digital agency. We built the first lead generation site for both Quick & Reilly Investments, and the Direct Marketing Association. We also had the first online Web application to apply for a credit card through Chase Manhattan Bank. With a great team behind me, we successfully navigated the E Marketing agency through the highs and lows of the Dot Com era, and while the bubble was bursting in early-2000's, we transformed E Marketing into a fully integrated online/offline agency, whereas traditional marketing channels would drive to a Web-based response mechanism, and online sales. Many traditional catalogers came to us to build their online store and to be their agency of record to drive marketing online via display advertising, and acquisition/CRM email programs. Over the past 10 years, I refined our vision, lead our innovation, pitched and won large client business, and built offices around the United States, managing through local and regional challenges. I also always remained hands on leading my teams in support of our largest clients' business challenges, driving strategies, and delivering top-notch client service.
With that, I believe my prior experience in founding, and
running a large national digital agency, as well as my ability
to see new opportunities in the marketplace, and to understand
how to capitalize on them has prepared me for this challenge.