Pioneers of Digital: Success Stories from Leaders in Advertising, Marketing, Search and Social Media

by Mel Carson, Paul Springer

Pioneers of Digital showcases the stories behind key people who have fundamentally influenced the way advertising, marketing, search and social media have evolved during the internet era.

Springer and Carson have tracked down and documented behind-the-scenes insight, decisions and opinions that inspired digital phenomena such as Virtual Reality, Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, celebrity take-up of Twitter and Artists Without a Label, a free digital music distribution service for independent artists.

The 20 digital entrepreneurs profiled span the globe; some performed their ground-breaking work in environments like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Victors & Spoils, OgilvyOne, R/GA, AKQA, Sapient Nitro and Apple, while others performed digital miracles all on their own. Together these stories expose the secrets of success from pioneers that everyone can learn from. Packed full of unique insight, Pioneers of Digital provides advice and inspiration for readers interested in twenty-first century commercial online thinking. More at www.PioneersOfDigital.com

The
Thomas Gensemer MyBO and Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign
June Cohen Hotwired and TED.com
Denzyl Feigelson iTunes Advisor and Artists Without A Label
Vanessa Fox Google and Nine By Blue
Gurbaksh Chahal ClickAgents and BlueLithium
Jaron Lanier Virtual reality and Microsoft Research
Angel Chen OgilvyOne China
John Winsor Victors & Spoils
Danny Sullivan Search Engine Land
Alex Bogusky, Bob Cianfrone Burger King's Subservient Chicken
Avinash Kaushik Digital marketing evangelist, Google
Carolyn Everson MTV Networks and Facebook
Malcolm Poynton Dove Campaign for Real Beauty
Qi Lu Yahoo!, Microsoft and Bing
Ajaz Ahmed AKQA
Martha Lane Fox Lastminute.com and the UK government's digital champion
Kyle MacDonald One Red Paperclip
Jess Greenwood Contagious Magazine and R/GA
Zhang Minhui Sohu.com.cn
Stephen Fry

Genres: Business

232 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2012

Reviews

[Aisyah Samuin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took the longest time for me to finish. I think I first opened its front page some time in 2017 and finally turned the last page in 2019, in between many other finished books. Not saying this book is bland and boring, in fact, quite the opposite. It is full of informations about digital pioneers and detailed descriptions of their works, contributions, success and tips. I think it took me forever to finish this book because the format is rather textbook style; pages with too many words and breaks for paragraphs and subheads. Overall, it is a good book.

[Bianca Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where was this book when I was in grad school?

Pioneers of Digital (Paul Springer and Mel Carson) is a collection of 20 interviews and case studies looking at the founders of digital marketing, the ones who did it by design and those by accident.

In grad school one of my assignments required analyzing a case study from a book. Unfortunately the RMIT library's marketing and PR section hadn't been added to since 1990. Small exaggeration. Pioneers of Digital would have been my go-to.

Most of the interviews are essentially case studies of their careers. I loved reading what lead June Cohen to put Ted Talks online, discovering how many people started their careers in totally unrelated areas and fell into marketing and technology, and how success comes from making a difference, not by trying to make money. Two case studies told the story of hugely popular campaigns. I remember wasting a lot of time with Subservient Chicken without knowing it was a Burger King promotion. Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty has continued to inspire women 10 years after its launch.

My favorite's were Kyle MacDonald's One Red Paperclip and, the surprising inclusion, Stephen Fry. Both chapters had more storytelling and feeling than the others, and that's taking my bias aside. I'm a sucker for great marketing from outside the industry.

Pioneers of Digital closes with a statistics-filled summary of the up-and-coming digital marketing cities, and lessons from the pioneers interviewed. If the initial chapters are a bit hard to get through, the book is worth it for these two chapters.

Originally published on Tap Dancing Spiders

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when you take the 20 most exciting “success stories from leaders in advertising, marketing, search & social media” and put them all in the same place? A really good book. Pioneers of Digital, by Paul Springer and Mel Carson, brings these stories together as a sort of history of digital thus far. All in all, there are 20 success stories that would get even the most seasoned professionals fired up to do something more.

There are many great takeaways from each digital pioneer in this book. Thomas Gensemer, one of the masterminds behind President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, reminds us not to “let the head of IT dictate policy; remember what the function of IT is for.” June Cohen, who brought TEDTalks to the web, reminds us to “Stay curious and adopt early,” as well as "Don’t assume you know what your audience wants.” Let us not forget Kyle MacDonald who with one red paperclip started a digital storytelling journey like no other. MacDonald traded a paperclip and 14 trades later walked away with a two-story farmhouse in Canada, reminding us to “Consider how you’d manage the ‘story’ of your project in real time.”

[Richard Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

The articles on the ad / marketing folks, aren't my cup of tea. Main highlights for me, were of course Stephen Fry, but also Thomas Gensemer, Martha Lane Fox, Kyle MacDonald and Qi Lu.

[Mills College Library]

658.872 S7696 2012