Mediacurrent
Communications is critical in the role of the Project Manager.
A project manager must communicate effectively with the client, internal team members, the account manager, and senior management. Often there may be another vendor engaged and these communications are very important to the success of the project as a failure often leads to finger pointing between the parties.
Some of the standard communications Ross conducted were a weekly update on Monday's highlighting the current budget status, work completed the prior week, work to be completed the upcoming week, any blockers that need to be addressed, and if there was a planned deployment. Weekly or every other week status calls were also important to reinforce what was emailed on Monday. Often an internal team call for 15 minutes to get everyone on the same page was beneficial and for larger clients a daily stand-up simply comprised of "what did you do yesterday, what are you doing today, and do you have any blockers?" is a good way to move work forward.
In addition to written and oral communications, online communications such as Slack and the ticketing systems are very important tools. Ross regularly used Slack for reminders of critical tasks, priorities for the day/week, and to provide positive feedback to members of the team when they solved problems.
While managing the ticketing board may not initially seem to be communication, it is. Team members may be in different time zones or working different hours and by having the board well organized and tickets well groomed a team member can pick up work trusting the board to be accurate.
A project manager must communicate effectively with the client, internal team members, the account manager, and senior management. Often there may be another vendor engaged and these communications are very important to the success of the project as a failure often leads to finger pointing between the parties.
Some of the standard communications Ross conducted were a weekly update on Monday's highlighting the current budget status, work completed the prior week, work to be completed the upcoming week, any blockers that need to be addressed, and if there was a planned deployment. Weekly or every other week status calls were also important to reinforce what was emailed on Monday. Often an internal team call for 15 minutes to get everyone on the same page was beneficial and for larger clients a daily stand-up simply comprised of "what did you do yesterday, what are you doing today, and do you have any blockers?" is a good way to move work forward.
In addition to written and oral communications, online communications such as Slack and the ticketing systems are very important tools. Ross regularly used Slack for reminders of critical tasks, priorities for the day/week, and to provide positive feedback to members of the team when they solved problems.
While managing the ticketing board may not initially seem to be communication, it is. Team members may be in different time zones or working different hours and by having the board well organized and tickets well groomed a team member can pick up work trusting the board to be accurate.
Olympus Corporation of the Americas
Medical Systems Group
Ross was hired into the newly created position of Manager, eMarketing Strategy & Analytics for the Medical Systems Group of Olympus. Up until that point in time, the website had been launched the same year Google came out in Beta, emails were mostly limited to sending an alert about an upcoming tradeshow, and there was no paid advertising. Banner advertising was limited to those that came with a print journal purchase. There was also no UTM tracking code. The analytics were handled by Adobe, but no modules were purchased which meant segmentation wasn't possible.
Due to cost cutting, Adobe was removed and Google Analytics was adopted. Ross devised a framework to measure activity through the marketing funnel and created segments to get the needed data to populate the framework, including distinguishing pre-sale visits from post-sale visits. He also established benchmarks based on utilizing past data to identify performance as low, medium, and high by identifying cut-offs at lowest 30%, middle 40%, and top 30%.
This benchmarking was then extended across all marketing channels. With that Ross created a standardized reporting structure for online marketing efforts to be presented alongside customized Key Performance Indicators on a per medical specialty area (9 total).
Approval was gained for a new website and Ross recommended Drupal as the platform. After project managing the new site to launch, he worked with teams to leverage analytics to improve content. He also added custom 800 phone numbers to track calls that originated from a visit to the website. By comparing phone volume with contact page visits he found that 94% of those visiting the contact page placed a call to the company.
The new site coupled with improved marketing efforts in the areas of email and AdWords led to a 266% increase in marketing leads from the website.
Two business units were well suited to AdWords campaigns and the approach Ross implemented yielded a 6% click through rate compared to a then industry average of 2%.
The next step was to develop a dashboard that could be used by everyone from Product teams to Senior Management. Due to the data being located in many different sources, a fully automated, real-time dashboard was not achieved, but a prototype was created.
Due to cost cutting, Adobe was removed and Google Analytics was adopted. Ross devised a framework to measure activity through the marketing funnel and created segments to get the needed data to populate the framework, including distinguishing pre-sale visits from post-sale visits. He also established benchmarks based on utilizing past data to identify performance as low, medium, and high by identifying cut-offs at lowest 30%, middle 40%, and top 30%.
This benchmarking was then extended across all marketing channels. With that Ross created a standardized reporting structure for online marketing efforts to be presented alongside customized Key Performance Indicators on a per medical specialty area (9 total).
Approval was gained for a new website and Ross recommended Drupal as the platform. After project managing the new site to launch, he worked with teams to leverage analytics to improve content. He also added custom 800 phone numbers to track calls that originated from a visit to the website. By comparing phone volume with contact page visits he found that 94% of those visiting the contact page placed a call to the company.
The new site coupled with improved marketing efforts in the areas of email and AdWords led to a 266% increase in marketing leads from the website.
Two business units were well suited to AdWords campaigns and the approach Ross implemented yielded a 6% click through rate compared to a then industry average of 2%.
The next step was to develop a dashboard that could be used by everyone from Product teams to Senior Management. Due to the data being located in many different sources, a fully automated, real-time dashboard was not achieved, but a prototype was created.
Healthcare Marketing & Communications Council (HMC Council)
Ross joined the HMC Council in the spring of 2000. At the time, the organization was using spreadsheets to manage event registration and email lists. His first task was to build an MS Access database that would serve as the association management tool to manage prospects, members, event registrations, and board member attendance.
Once the database was completed, Ross introduced segmentation to email communications in order to message events specific to an individuals business (manufacturer, agency, publisher, all others) and location for regional meetings.
Ross was then hired into a newly created position of Communications Manager. In this role he reviewed all out-going communications, the printed newsletter, the membership directory, all press releases, and to establish relationships with the industry journals to place articles about events and barter for advertising for Executive Education and training (as opposed to the smaller seminars), plus the two major fundraisers.
He over-hauled the newsletter format and converted an annual loss into revenue by changing the vendor, production process, content, and distribution cycle while enhancing the overall look and feel (stock paper to glossy pages). Over five years these changes represented a swing of 6% of overall operating budget from a loss to a gain.
Ross was then moved into a new role of dedicated Membership Manager. Again, he took a look at everything and developed a new membership marketing campaign, a re-branding, and improved member benefits yielding a 24% increase in membership following a previous three year decline.
The most challenging event Ross faced in any position he has held came in 2001. HMC Council's largest fundraiser of the year was a holiday party at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City the first Friday of December. It was a black-tie event for 1600 pharmaceutical marketing executives. A member agency provided pro-bono creative services for everything from the invitation to the menu based on a theme they created. Decorations and center pieces held to the theme.
In 2001, the theme was to be "Hit the Hot Spot", a Latin themed celebration. Then 9/11 happened. Everything was in production, but not yet printed. Ross, along with his Executive Director worked with the agency to determine how to minimize changes to the materials, which featured a male and female dancer on the invitation with flames essentially coming out of their feet/dance floor. It was resolved to replace the flames with palm fronds. This was the easy one.
The hard part was what to do about the event altogether?
The Executive Director, Ross, and members of the Board spoke with staff at the Waldorf-Astoria, as well as non-profit and government entities in New York City. The main concern is how would it be perceived if pharmaceutical executives were in New York partying following this horrific tragedy?
Every group we spoke with in New York encouraged us to hold the event, because such a large portion of revenue came from hospitality and entertainment and they needed others to come into the city. We decided to hold the event.
Concerns remained internally about the perception. Many options were discussed and finally it was decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to a 9/11 fund and to hold a toy drive for the NYC United Way. The toy drive was an over-whelming success. The woman from the United Way and her husband were there to accept the toys and thank people. They brought a van. There were so many toys they filled the van that night and returned the next day with a rental truck. The toy drive became a tradition at the event.
Once the database was completed, Ross introduced segmentation to email communications in order to message events specific to an individuals business (manufacturer, agency, publisher, all others) and location for regional meetings.
Ross was then hired into a newly created position of Communications Manager. In this role he reviewed all out-going communications, the printed newsletter, the membership directory, all press releases, and to establish relationships with the industry journals to place articles about events and barter for advertising for Executive Education and training (as opposed to the smaller seminars), plus the two major fundraisers.
He over-hauled the newsletter format and converted an annual loss into revenue by changing the vendor, production process, content, and distribution cycle while enhancing the overall look and feel (stock paper to glossy pages). Over five years these changes represented a swing of 6% of overall operating budget from a loss to a gain.
Ross was then moved into a new role of dedicated Membership Manager. Again, he took a look at everything and developed a new membership marketing campaign, a re-branding, and improved member benefits yielding a 24% increase in membership following a previous three year decline.
The most challenging event Ross faced in any position he has held came in 2001. HMC Council's largest fundraiser of the year was a holiday party at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City the first Friday of December. It was a black-tie event for 1600 pharmaceutical marketing executives. A member agency provided pro-bono creative services for everything from the invitation to the menu based on a theme they created. Decorations and center pieces held to the theme.
In 2001, the theme was to be "Hit the Hot Spot", a Latin themed celebration. Then 9/11 happened. Everything was in production, but not yet printed. Ross, along with his Executive Director worked with the agency to determine how to minimize changes to the materials, which featured a male and female dancer on the invitation with flames essentially coming out of their feet/dance floor. It was resolved to replace the flames with palm fronds. This was the easy one.
The hard part was what to do about the event altogether?
The Executive Director, Ross, and members of the Board spoke with staff at the Waldorf-Astoria, as well as non-profit and government entities in New York City. The main concern is how would it be perceived if pharmaceutical executives were in New York partying following this horrific tragedy?
Every group we spoke with in New York encouraged us to hold the event, because such a large portion of revenue came from hospitality and entertainment and they needed others to come into the city. We decided to hold the event.
Concerns remained internally about the perception. Many options were discussed and finally it was decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to a 9/11 fund and to hold a toy drive for the NYC United Way. The toy drive was an over-whelming success. The woman from the United Way and her husband were there to accept the toys and thank people. They brought a van. There were so many toys they filled the van that night and returned the next day with a rental truck. The toy drive became a tradition at the event.
Consultant, NDA
In 2017, Ross was contracted by a leading pharmaceutical samples management service provider to develop a strategy to grow the business of four of its 'growth' area units. Ross met with the head of each unit and based on their goals, he developed an online strategy and tactics for each unit. One of the objectives was not only to grow audience and conversions, but also to be able to implement the tactics as efficiently as possible.
Ross accomplished this by writing copy for 2-3 primary messages per unit and several secondary messages. He then created a timeline for email communications, which identified the audience and which primary and secondary messages should be included for each email. As a result, the copy was generated for all the combinations of emails to be sent making it 'drag and drop' for the next six months.
Ross accomplished this by writing copy for 2-3 primary messages per unit and several secondary messages. He then created a timeline for email communications, which identified the audience and which primary and secondary messages should be included for each email. As a result, the copy was generated for all the combinations of emails to be sent making it 'drag and drop' for the next six months.
Brown-Daub Chevrolet of Nazareth
In 2010, Ross was contracted by a local auto dealership to audit and optimize a recently implemented CRM and make recommendations related to the website.
He revised the web site to the extent allowed (proprietary solution) to clarify and simplify site navigation while optimizing the SEO. This resulted in increased leads, prospects and site visitors for four consecutive months (further reporting was not available after Ross' contract period ended).
Revisions to the CRM led to the dealership scoring 186 out of 200 compared to a national average of 70.
He revised the web site to the extent allowed (proprietary solution) to clarify and simplify site navigation while optimizing the SEO. This resulted in increased leads, prospects and site visitors for four consecutive months (further reporting was not available after Ross' contract period ended).
Revisions to the CRM led to the dealership scoring 186 out of 200 compared to a national average of 70.
The Nazareth Center for the Arts
The Center brought Ross on board in December of 2009. At the time there was no plan and no budget. He developed a plan that included regular music performances, two per week, from Thursday through Saturday. Attendees were given schedules of upcoming events and asked to join the email list.
Using a free version of Mail Chimp, Ross wrote and distributed a weekly announcement of the weeks' performances and upcoming ones as well.
He also got agreement from the board to do a mix of free shows that would request a donation, coupled with ticketed shows with a $10 maximum. The venue was BYOB and by making arrangements with three area banks, each within a one block walk to the Center, free, off-street parking was available for attendees.
In order to leverage the performers existing fan-base, it was agreed that both parties would promote the event and all proceeds for the night would be split 50-50.
In the first year of operation there were over 100 events including music performances, open mic, poetry readings, poetry open mic, gallery shows, art classes, a joint program with the community YMCA, and four fundraising events - a Garden Tour, a Holiday House Tour, and stages at Martin on Main (a community festival) and the Block Party.
The organization grew in awareness, reputation due to its offerings, and it was able to pay all its bills and began to build a reserve. Ten years later the Center remains in operation serving the community.
Using a free version of Mail Chimp, Ross wrote and distributed a weekly announcement of the weeks' performances and upcoming ones as well.
He also got agreement from the board to do a mix of free shows that would request a donation, coupled with ticketed shows with a $10 maximum. The venue was BYOB and by making arrangements with three area banks, each within a one block walk to the Center, free, off-street parking was available for attendees.
In order to leverage the performers existing fan-base, it was agreed that both parties would promote the event and all proceeds for the night would be split 50-50.
In the first year of operation there were over 100 events including music performances, open mic, poetry readings, poetry open mic, gallery shows, art classes, a joint program with the community YMCA, and four fundraising events - a Garden Tour, a Holiday House Tour, and stages at Martin on Main (a community festival) and the Block Party.
The organization grew in awareness, reputation due to its offerings, and it was able to pay all its bills and began to build a reserve. Ten years later the Center remains in operation serving the community.
corey lewis racing
In 2009, Ross began working with Corey Lewis, who was in the process of transitioning from go-karts to cars. He created a website outlining his accomplishments to date, and then developed a brochure highlighting Corey, his accomplishments, and what a company would gain by sponsoring him. These were sent with a cover letter to targeted companies.
Ross negotiated with teams and solicited sponsors securing Corey a spot in the Star Mazda Winter Series race in Sonoma, CA with Team GDT based out of Texas. Having never raced a car of that type on a brand new track, Corey won the race. Ross was able to get him local media attention including an article in the daily newspaper.
While they no longer have a business relationship, they remain close friends. Corey most recently won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class and previously won the 12 Hours of Sebring. He is a Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Series Champion and a two time North American Super Trofeo Champion. He also has a victory in the Continental Tire Series event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road-course.
Ross negotiated with teams and solicited sponsors securing Corey a spot in the Star Mazda Winter Series race in Sonoma, CA with Team GDT based out of Texas. Having never raced a car of that type on a brand new track, Corey won the race. Ross was able to get him local media attention including an article in the daily newspaper.
While they no longer have a business relationship, they remain close friends. Corey most recently won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class and previously won the 12 Hours of Sebring. He is a Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Series Champion and a two time North American Super Trofeo Champion. He also has a victory in the Continental Tire Series event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road-course.
Political Campaigns
Ross was introduced to database marketing, segmentation, and early stage personalization in 1993 when he became the Campaign Manager for a candidate in the Northampton County, County Executive campaign.
In order to maximize the efficiency of the spend on mailings, the campaign would purchase voting lists from political consultants who took the publicly available voting lists and paired data such as mailing address, phone number, and prior voting histories and results for the voting district.
Taken together this information was used to identify which voters were most likely to vote during the specific voting cycle, which party affiliation they belonged to, and how the voting district in which they lived had voted overall in the past. By doing this targets would be identified to secure the base with one message and to focus on likely 'swing' voters.
Following this campaign, Ross worked on State House, State Senate, Auditor General and Gubernatorial campaigns through 2005. He has not been engaged in campaigns since then.
In order to maximize the efficiency of the spend on mailings, the campaign would purchase voting lists from political consultants who took the publicly available voting lists and paired data such as mailing address, phone number, and prior voting histories and results for the voting district.
Taken together this information was used to identify which voters were most likely to vote during the specific voting cycle, which party affiliation they belonged to, and how the voting district in which they lived had voted overall in the past. By doing this targets would be identified to secure the base with one message and to focus on likely 'swing' voters.
Following this campaign, Ross worked on State House, State Senate, Auditor General and Gubernatorial campaigns through 2005. He has not been engaged in campaigns since then.
United States Information Agency (USIA)
While in college, Ross earned an internship at the United States Information Agency (USIA) in Washington, DC. He worked as an Editorial Assistant for the agency's Al Majal magazine, an Arabic text publication that was distributed by US Embassies to Arabic speaking countries around the world.
During that time he learned the fundamentals of journal publishing including layout and design. More important, given the nature of the publication was the awareness of the sensitivities of content.
The agency was eliminated in a government reduction program with its work being relocated to the State Department and the Agency for International Development (AID).
There is a blog post written in 2005 on the value of Al-Majal.
During that time he learned the fundamentals of journal publishing including layout and design. More important, given the nature of the publication was the awareness of the sensitivities of content.
The agency was eliminated in a government reduction program with its work being relocated to the State Department and the Agency for International Development (AID).
There is a blog post written in 2005 on the value of Al-Majal.
