Today on Fjorgecast Tim Barsness will be talking with Humphrey Ho about the largest digital agency in China, Hylink. Hylink Digital is China’s largest, independent digital full service agency. Hylink has been around in Bejing and most of the rest of China since 1994. Ranked #1 Digital Agency by China Internet (CI) Weekly Magazine for nine consecutive years in a row, 2009-2016; and named a multi-year Effie Greater China Most Effective Independent Agency Network of the Year. Hylink Digital is comprised of industry leading units in the following disciplines: digital media, interactive creative, programmatic, SEM, content marketing and investment, EPR/social, research and insights. With headquarters in Beijing, the agency has a total of 16 offices worldwide. Hylink Digital services Fortune Global 500 companies, both headquartered in the U.S. and abroad. Humphrey ended up dropping out of med school to take an MBA that landed me at a startup that then hit the recession not too long after. Managed to sell it at a discount and decided to retire to a tire manufacturer that was then bought by a very large tire conglomerate in China. 

Today on Fjorgecast Tim is joined by Jill Draper about his Integrated Marketing agency, Marketsmith, Inc. Marketsmith, Inc. is a fast-growing, woman-owned integrated marketing agency born out of direct-to-consumer response marketing. We use data to optimize brand communication and deliver greater ROI across all channels using patented algorithms and unique data products such as Jules, which predicts sales with an accuracy of 93%; and Ada, which supplements IT to build marketing technology in weeks instead of months. We believe in doing great work for our clients, in continuing education for our diversified staff, and doing good things for the world around us.

Today on Fjorgecast we are joined by Scott Lewis CEO of Kick Factory. KickFactory is a marketing platform built on top of powerful identification and engagement algorithms to connect brands with new customers. We provide managed services that give our clients opportunities to engage these potential customers about products or services they sell at scale.

Tim Barsness speaks with Roy Firestone, VP of Product at native ad network MGID. Roy is a seasoned digital media professional with more than 20 years of product development experience, with particular expertise in developing new ad offerings – especially video. With video consumption continuing to rise across the globe, Roy talks about how advertisers can use video to engage consumers in their preferred format. Plus, get an understanding on the technical challenges of scaling a video campaign

Today on Fjorge Cast Tim is joined by Digital Media expert Aalap Shah. Co-founder of Chicago-based SoMe Digital Media, Aalap Shah created an easy and effective way for businesses to establish and maintain an online brand. He is able to take his clients ideas and turn them into engaging, interactive experiences that resonate with their target market and brings visibility to their business. From his experience, Shah knows that developing innovative and strategic digital campaigns are a road map to success, and he brings this methodology to clients like Potbelly, CMK Realty, Medcor, and TransUnion, amongst others.

Tim Barsness welcomes Christine Kuecherer, General Manager of Platform Growth at FastPay, who is focused on growing the company's payments and SMB credit businesses. 
FastPay is a leading financial technology company that has provided lending services to digital businesses since 2009, that recently announced the launch of COMPLETE, a single, unified platform that pairs credit facilities with robust vendor payout capabilities.

Impact of Big Data on Marketing By The Worlds Largest Independent Digital Marketing Agency as Tim speaks with Simon Poulton, the Director of Digital Intelligence and Analytics at Wpromote. Simon discusses getting the edge when applying for a job as well as big data's impact on marketing.

Today on Fjorgecast Tim is joined by David Krupp, the CEO at Kinetic Worldwide. David is a creative leader with traditional and digital media experience who understands how to deliver a profitable specialist agency. Charts a meaningful strategic course for clients which puts audiences out-of-home at the center to capture consumers during the 70% of their day they are on the move. Keenly aware the importance of data and uses it to connect and align audiences to content and media. Optimizes company resource to support increased billing and revenue. They talk about his business kinetic worldwide. Kinetic is the global leader in contextually connecting and activating audiences on the move. With operations in 250 countries worldwide, Kinetic has the scale, partnerships, and contextual expertise to deliver the most efficient and accountable marketing solutions. What makes us different is that we use insights, powered by data and technology, to understand the entire customer journey, from the physical and digital to the emotional. And we infuse these insights into everything we do to create innovative, relevant experiences that drive people to take action.

Tim Barsness speaks with Jordan French ‎Founding CMO at BeeHex, Inc. 3D Food Printing, Contributor at Techcrunch | Huffington Post | Tech.co. Jordan French a serial entrepreneur with five different companies ranging from real estate to robotics. He is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur, tech.co, TechCrunch, Influencive, business.com, Thrive magazine and Huffington Post.

Today on fjorgecast Tim Barsness we will be talking with Sara Bacon about her ecommerce agency, Command C. Since 2004 they have been helping online retailers build and grow their ecommerce stores. Their sweet spot is serving brands that have $1 – $10 million per year in online sales and a group of loyal fans. They talk about everything from creating the company to the complex nature of ecommerce itself. Also a deep dive into Sara's background and some of the exciting things she has accomplished in her career.

Tim Barsness is joined by the CEO of Wallaroo Media Brandon Doyle. Wallaroo Media is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in search engine optimization, social media management, content strategy, and digital PR. They have been in the business of helping local and nationwide companies succeed for over 6 years. Tim and Brandon talk about Wallaroo, what advice he has for others in internet marketing and the tremendous social following. Not to mention how to measure the ROI of your social media accounts in order to create value.

Navigating The Sports Marketing Landscape as Tim Barsness is joined today by Dan Lobring, the managing director of communications for rEvolution. Dan leads the communications team and is responsible for delivering innovative PR, media relations and social media solutions to all rEvolution clients. From placements in the Wall Street Journal and CNN to connecting with niche sports bloggers, Dan’s approach delivers not only mass impressions, but the right impressions. rEvolution is a unique collective of marketing experts, built to move the needle for brands looking to leverage sports as a means to successfully achieve business goals. Navigating the sports marketing landscape requires experienced insiders, like those at rEvolution, who speak the language and make things happen. 

Tim is joined by Matt Stormoen from  Pure Focus. Matt's company creates and executes digital strategies that engage customers with a consistent brand message across multiple devices and platforms through innovative techniques that focus on one goal; maximizing digital ROI. They speak about Matt's first job at a startup in California called people search. They also talk about pointers to execute his job properly, and common misconceptions about work in his field. 

Today on Fjorgecast Tim is joined by Leigh Dow about her boutique marketing  agency, 48 West Agency. Everything they do is about unlocking possibilities for ambitious brands. The leaders of the new school trust 48 West to build their brand and create value. They enjoy a reputation for delivering creative PR and Communications campaigns for some of the world’s most ambitious and innovative companies. Leigh discusses how she started in politics and then transitioned her career into a PR and Marketing career. Tim also asks for pointers on how to do her type of work effectively and some common myths or misconceptions about work in that field.

 Tim talks with Dan Golden about his Chicago based international digital marketing agency, BFO (Be Found Online). BFO incorporates skill sets acquired from years of experience in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Local Search and Web Analytics, to be the one-stop shop for your digital marketing needs. Dan gives some valuable tips for the listeners and shares the coolest thing he has ever done in his career.

Today on the show we Tim is talking with Cyril Lemaire about his full service marketing agency, Traktek Partners. Since starting Traktek Partners 9 years ago, they have been helping companies in the travel hospitality, medical, technology, and higher education sectors with mobile and SEO friendly website design, digital, search engine marketing and lead generation campaigns with tangible ROI. Tim and Cyril speak about how he got into the marketing field and what sets TrakTrek apart from its competition. 

Tim Barsness discusses Brand Love and Creating Holistic Customer Experiences with Kirk Drummond, Co-Founder and CEO at Drumroll. Kirk defines what is the meaning behind Brand Love and how he defines it as another way of explaining extreme brand affinity and how it serves as a high brand watermark.

Tim speaks with Larry Harris, CSO of Sightly. Sightly allows you to deliver your most relevant video ads to the most receptive viewers on every device. We learned how he started as a copywriter for the novelist James Patterson and joined Sightly as an adviser who would become president of the company. They talk about Sightly's partnership with YouTube and works exclusively through Google's Adwords.

Tim discusses Multi-Media Management and New Media Integration with Charlie Fusco, the CEO and Creative Director of Synergixx, LLC. Synergixx, LLC is a multimedia marketing agency that produces campaigns and celebrity endorsements for clients. They also specialize in integrating TV and radio with new media by harnessing the power of their built-in community of avid listeners and merge it with social media channels and existing online programs.

Tim Barsness speaks with Mark Nadolski founder of  VES Creative. They are a branding agency that specifically works with video to create passionate projects that work to tell a story. They work exclusively with clients that seek to grow exponentially through a low number of very high value leads and prospects. Unfortunately, branding isn't easy to quantify. Branding fundamentally is the personification of a product or service. It is character. It is relatable, emotional- human. It is easy to discover the human connection in a Business to Consumer brand. But B2B branding doesn't often feel "human", which doesn't make logical sense because any transaction even in the business world is still done between people.Tim and Mark talk about how content is so important to display a brands passion and perception. Focusing on being more authentic as a brand.