Eric Townley

I’ve spent my entire career in Marketing/Advertising. As soon as I found out Advertising was a major, I have been hooked ever since. For me, it’s the mix of business principles, organizational discipline, and creativity that drew me to love this career path. And whether it’s the comparison of being on the agency-side vs. client-side or the comparison of the biggest company in the world vs. local small businesses in Madison, I’ve been fortunate to experience the full gamut of career options. So I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my experiences with you all, answer some questions, and hopefully be a useful resource as you get ready to put your own fingerprint on this amazing and unique career path.

I got my feet wet with an internship at Arnold Worldwide in Boston working on the McDonalds account. There we did all the east-coast ad campaigns for the fast-food giant and our #1 goal was taking down Dunkin’ Donuts’ stranglehold on the QSR breakfast market.

The experience I gained at Arnold translated well into my next role as an Account Executive at McCann Minneapolis on the General Mills account. There was no better crash course in how to drop your personal bias and try to understand the mindset of a target market than working as a young adult with zero cooking experience on Betty Crocker baking accounts. Joking aside though, the strategy work and groundbreaking digital approaches helped me secure the next move which turned out to be on an account I could personally identify with a bit more.

My next role brought me to San Francisco to work at FCB Global on the Electronic Arts account (yes, the video game company). We were responsible for worldwide ad campaigns to drive sales of new video game titles. From the Battlefield franchise to The Sims, to Mass Effect, and other iconic video game IP’s we developed loads of incredible campaigns that took us to lots of interesting locations around the globe for shoots.

My last corporate role was a client-side marketing role at Apple. I moved down to Silicon Valley to be closer to the headquarters to produce marketing campaigns for iPhone and Apple Watch. We worked with Apple marketing teams all over the globe and I was in charge of producing all the campaign imagery assets. The original Apple Watch launch was one of the most closely guarded and secretive marketing campaigns I’ve ever been a part of.  And nothing makes you hold your breath more than seeing the fruits of your labor go live simultaneously around the world and knowing it will get scrutinized intensely.

Lastly, my most recent endeavor has been starting my own digital marketing agency back in Madison called Flamingo Theory Marketing. It’s been a great chance to pick and choose the best parts of each company over the years to build my own customized approach to marketing and the agency model. But more importantly, my number one goal is to be a resource and a tool for Madison business owners to take the stress out of marketing and focus on their business passion.

Thanks for your time (if you made it this far) and I look forward to the Q&A on November 9th at 4:00 PM in 5055 Vilas Hall!