Director of Results

I’ve been “The Idea Guy” for quite a long time.
It’s been my official (and unofficial) title at any number of jobs I’ve had through the years. The cool thing about the designation was that it was created and bestowed upon me by my clients. If the Queen of England knighted me tomorrow, I don’t think I’d feel quite as honored as the first time a customer of mine called me The Idea Guy (though it would be waaay cool to be “SIR Idea Guy!”)

Recently I have embraced a new title that I will wear just as proudly:

This new title (while not replacing my beloved DTIG mantle) certainly sums up my focus over the past four years working in Radio — to use Radio (traditional media) with the Internet (new media) in order to create integrated marketing campaigns that create (you guessed it!) RESULTS.

With shrinking marketing budgets and emerging technologies that seem to change the game every other day of the week (and twice on Sundays) advertisers are finally focusing on the results they receive from the money they formerly shoveled into advertising that provided promises (if very little proof) of building their business. The cliche says “Half of my advertising works — the problem is, I don’t know which half” is no longer acceptable. Campaigns blithely labeled as “branding” or “awareness” are being abandoned in exchange for campaigns that can show measured increases in consumer action.

Thus, I launch a new DTIG brand — Don Snyder, Director of Results.

Before the marketers among you scream “brand extension” or proclaim the weakening of The Idea Guy brand with this new upstart name, consider that “ideas” are simply that — raw concepts that people and companies can either choose to enact or ignore. It’s pure creativity without a plan of action. “Results” are what happen on the other side of the equation. Once you begin to evaluate which ideas to activate, you start to understand that different ideas will take you to different destinations. Knowing where you want to end-up (the results you want to achieve) will help you decide which ideas to act upon and which ideas to ignore.

As Stephen Covey wrote in his 7-Habits “Begin with the end in mind.” As Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” The Director of Results assists clients in defining a reasonable outcome (desired destination) from their marketing efforts, and plotting a course on how to reach their goal as efficiently (and with as much measured success) as possible.

One of the ways I’ll be providing assistance as the DoR is through a new blog at www.DirectorOfResults.com and a companion Twitter account (@resultsdirector.) We’ve already had our first DoR seminar for Radio station clients on the topic of social media, and we’ll be planning more events and the release of additional ideas and information as time goes on. You can check out the slide deck from the social media seminar at the new website.

I am really excited about this new project and I invite you along for the ride!